Navigating a Digital Transformation Journey

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness!”-Charles Dickens

The famous lines still hold as much relevance as they did two hundred years back. If you compare the present day world with Dickensian era, there is hardly a comparison. Dig deeper & you will see that we are at the same crossroads today that we found ourselves two centuries back.

The process of transformation that started with the industrial revolution in the 18th Century has continued for 300 years. As we move ahead, we find ourselves, once again staring at a new revolution, the digital revolution, aptly being called “The Digital Transformation.”

With the emergence of Internet as the omnipotent reality at the dawn of the century, life has not been the same. What started as a stream, shortly took on epic proportions, penetrating just about every aspect of life and changing it completely. For the millennials, we only have pictures to show & stories to tell of the world that existed before—a World without Internet, a world without mobile phone & a world when Amazon was still only a river!

So what exactly is ‘Digital Transformation’ and what do the businesses stand to gain? It’s an opportunity to re-look at your business, possibly turn it upside down (if that’s required!) by establishing ways to connect better with consumers, engaging them like never before, offering choices across channels, thereby forging a strong emotional bond. The objective being to accelerate business growth and/or achieve operational efficiencies by leveraging the power of digital technologies, but refusing to fall into the technology trap. Digital technologies such as cloud technologies, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data are changing the rules of the game, some going as far as changing the game itself! For enterprises not afraid to change, the changing dynamic presents an ocean of opportunities, to be leveraged to shape the organisation of the future. The canvass is limited only by your imagination!

The journey towards digital transformation comes with its fair share of challenges that must be overcome to capitalise on the opportunity. Outlined below are four key cornerstones of a Digital Transformation journey, from the perspective of a Program Director, who has had the opportunity to shape and be a part of some of these extremely challenging but deeply invigorating journeys undertaken by organisations across the world of consumer retail, B2B & luxury retail over the past few years.

Establishing a clear purpose and a vision

Each organisation must take a hard look at the current state of their business, which includes identifying opportunities for growth & taking stock of immediate and potential threats. It needs to define a growth path/business plan, keeping digital as the foundation and customer experience as the focus. From this overall business plan, draw out a digital transformation roadmap, which will enable the desired outcome.

As you draw out and articulate your transformation purpose, keep a watch on the following:

• The digital transformation journey is much more than digitisation. It needs to involve the entire organisation, as it is likely to entail disrupting the current business processes across functions from marketing to sales, from supply chain to customer service with the objective of optimising them to better serve consumer interests.
• Organisations need to establish & believe in the purpose of transformation. For some, it may be about fighting competition and survival; for others it may be about growth and expansion. Whatever is your purpose, ensure that it is well articulated. Inspirational purposes have the magical ability to cut across all kinds of divisions and go a long way in helping create a successful outcome.
• Most organisations lean on external consultants to take them through this journey. It is not a bad idea to seek help as you draw out your transformation strategy, what is more important is not to be carried away by the recommendations. Evaluate each recommendation on its merit. Every organization has enough talent. Leverage them as you navigate this journey, before looking outside.

Identifying and onboarding the key stakeholders

Transformations are never easy. What makes them tough is the fact that this journey is as much about change in people’s mindset as it is about leveraging digital technologies.

When we talk about transformation in a business, we are not talking about making incremental changes, which change a process here or tweak a role there. We are talking about reinventing the business functions and processes completely, (where needed) to make them ready for a new reality, reality of a digital consumer, cutting across marketing channels, devices, international boundaries, cultures and languages.

Here are some lessons, in the area of stakeholder on boarding, which may be helpful to you as you charter your own course:

• The setting up of a Program Management office (PMO) is the key step in starting on a transformation journey as this function will play a pivotal role in bringing the diverse stakeholders together.
• Transformations at scale cannot be carried out, if the organisation structures continue to stay as-is. There is an urgent need to redraw the organisation structure and break the silos, as the boundaries between functions get blurred and new roles and skills assume the order of the day. Flexibility in roles, attitude of collaboration and agility in response time are the new age skills, which will go a long way in making the transformation matter.

Overcoming resistance to change

Humans by nature are resistant to change, even though there may be several compelling reasons. The uncertainty that comes with any change can cause a great degree of emotional turmoil in people, from ambiguity to distrust to fear.

Here are a few guiding stones, which have proven immensely helpful for organisations who have successfully navigated this journey:

• Organisations need to prepare themselves ahead of the change. The preparation should take into account several factors such as training and re-skilling for affected employees. Business functions may need to hire people with new skills, which takes time and needs to be coordinated across several departments.
• Communicating the changes at the right time has gone a long way in alleviating the change uncertainty. Organisations must put in place a communication strategy, before you roll out change at scale across your organisation.
• Organisations need to realise that they need to support people to embrace the disruptive change. Support mechanisms such as heldesks/change champions have proven to be quite helpful in aiding adoption.

A larger percentage of transformation journeys end abruptly without realising their intended benefits as the organisations are unable to manage this key aspect of the program. You do not want your organisation to be one of those! The pitfalls of a transformation program gone south, is not only a lost opportunity, but also a significant loss to organisation’s image.

Embracing Agile & resisting the temptation to make it perfect

A large number of organisations stumble at the last hurdle and end up delaying their digital initiatives in their endeavour to make it perfect. In the digital age where speed matters, it is important to act fast to be able to capitalise on the opportunities at the right time. Nothing can be far from the truth than seeing digital transformation as one large program with a definite start and finish. It is a continuous journey, an endeavour to prepare for an uncertain future.

While agile methodologies have been around for a few years, digital transformation as a theme has gained immensely when we use agile methodologies to deliver on the promise.

• To minimise disruption to the existing business, leverage agile transformation approach to deliver on different digital initiatives on the road-map, in a phased manner. The approach significantly de-risks the transformation journey by reducing the complexity thereby making it more manageable for the business.
• Organisations can move fast with the most value adding initiatives, with the potential to bring in the maximum impact (better customer experience, optimising cost of operations etc.). Based on the response, the next stage is adapted to continue with the transformation journey.

The ability to take calculated risks and be comfortable with it has to be a key ingredient in the character and culture of today’s organisations. Organisations that are thriving today have realised this need to transform to survive and to flourish and are already on course to securing their place in the digitally connected world. Adobe, Microsoft, McDonalds are great examples of organisations that have successfully chartered a transformation journey and the results are there for the world to see!

Here is your opportunity to be counted. There may not be any, tomorrow! What you make of it will determine, if you live to see another tomorrow!

An abridged version of the article appeared in Forbes India, online edition. you can find the same here.

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