Technology and its impact on both society and business are constantly evolving. This constant evolution, which we can describe as digital Darwinism, is creating changes not only in people and their behaviour, but changes also to the world of business.
In order for your business to survive and thrive in this constantly evolving time, you need to invest in digital transformation to ensure your business remains competitive.
As mentioned above, people are changing – not only as customers but as employees too. Our relationships with technology have without doubt influenced our behaviour, both on an individual scale and on a business scale. As a business you can use these changes to your advantage, giving you the power to increase profitability, constantly invest in new and emerging technology, add immense value and increase the size (and success) of our businesses.
If you want to drive change for your business, you need to keep digital transformation at the forefront of all operations.
Below are 6 progressive steps your business needs to take in order to evolve:
1. Business as usual
The ‘business as usual’ philosophy involves businesses operating with the traditional familiarity of customers, processes, business models, technology and metrics, believing that this will always be the solution to digital relevance.
2. Present and active
At this stage, there are elements of experimentation when it comes to digital creativity and literacy, although these are sporadic and disparate, with no interlinking between departments or individuals. Specific areas of business might be improved upon, but overall there is no equilibrium or order in processes.
3. Formalised
At this stage, businesses take on an intentional experimental approach at a number of promising and capable levels. Businesses are bolder in their action, leading to change at a number of levels, including with technology and resources.
4. Strategic
The ‘strategic’ stage involves individual groups recognising strength in collaboration. This relates to many different areas including research, work and shared insights, all of which contribute to new strategic roadmaps that put the foundations in place for digital transformation efforts, investments and ownership.
5. Converged
This is a critical stage where a dedicated digital transformation team is created in order to drive strategy and operations based on both customer-centric goals and business-centric goals. The entire organisation has shifted with its new infrastructure where roles, knowledge, processes, expertise, models and systems to support transformation are reinforced.
6. Innovative and adaptive
Last but not least we have stage 6: innovative and adaptive. At this stage, digital transformation becomes part and parcel of business as executives understand that change is continuous. New ecosystems are implemented to identify, understand and act upon technology and market trends. Firstly these ecosystems are tested, then when they are determined to be successful, they are implemented at scale.
Technology has empowered consumers in so many ways, enabling them to become more social, mobile and connected than ever before and therefore changing the way they interact with each other, with products, services and businesses. Digital transformation is so powerful, as it opens doors to brand new opportunities for innovation. From design and integration to customer and employee expectations, it has never been more vital to follow a digital transformation model at every level of your business, if you want it to evolve and succeed.
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