Digital Transformation Strategies
Many companies are now opting for digital transformation as the benefits and advantages of such a revolution are very promising. However, some companies may experience difficulties in developing a strong hold on this transition of technology. How can we overcome such difficulties? What are the right ways of implementing digital transformation strategies? These questions will be answered as we explore them in this article.
Here are the top 21 digital transformation strategies (15 to 21) recommended by businessmen and company executives who have successfully overcome the challenges of digital transformation and the pains associated with it. It will help you come up with creative solutions to level up your business in this digital age.
Part 1 of the top 21 digital transformation strategies can be found here
Part 2 of the top 21 digital transformation strategies can be found here
Digital transformation strategies (Part 3):
- Improve the ability to adapt quickly to new digital business technologies
- Develop the ability to diagnose and conceptualize digital transformation strategies
- Maintain 2 separate parallel systems when experimenting on digital transformation
- Be flexible as a leader in order to get support from employees
- Keep communication lines open between IT & other departments
- Accommodate the needs of customers and clients when creating digital strategies
- Choose digital transformation solution vendors wisely
1. Improve the ability to adapt quickly to new digital business technologies
Old technologies may have become routine and habitual. There is certainly comfort in the known. Nevertheless, newer technologies have been released and continually offer improvements. Thus digital transformation has started. With this evolution in business, the advice is always to start with people.
Making sure that the team is on the same page regarding the company’s decision to transform is a must. It is essential to fully understand the technology because if the IT team does not completely comprehend how the system works, the results will not be favorable. Measure user impact metrics, ROI, and other meaningful interactions and transactions and use them to make technology better. Make sure the technology is also user-friendly as this moves people to use it and it will be easily accepted in the workplace.
2. Develop the ability to diagnose and conceptualize digital transformation strategies
Strategy plays a big role in driving a successful and digitally maturing business in the corporate world. The innate ability of an executive or digital leader to conceptualize digital transformation strategy is a priceless talent. What makes a considerably useful and effective digital transformation strategy?
Three things were identified by Ionology.com, and these are: diagnosis, coherent plan of action, and a guiding policy. It was emphasized how these three are crucial to each other and to business processes thus they must co-exist. Without diagnosis for example, strategies may lead to mayhem, uncertainty, and even unrealistic expectation of outcomes. Without a coherent plan of action for business models, the business processes often waste resources such as time, effort and investment. Without a guiding policy, the business may not achieve strategic objectives. You could opt to undergo a digital transformation leadership course to develop the ability to plan out such strategies more effectively.
3. Maintain 2 separate parallel systems when experimenting on digital transformation
A way to further improve digital transformation strategy is through experimentation. The key to effective digital transformation experimentation is transparency. All parties must know what is going on. Always use two separate similar systems during the experiment on digital transformation. This adds to the transparency when communicating errors or glitches in the system for the duration of the experiment.
4. Be flexible as a leader in order to get support from employees
It’s too easy to get caught up in high stress situations and demanding workloads. But you must have a good team and support from each member in order to get the work done and ensure quality in all of your errands. Flexibility as a leader is not easily achieved. But you can start by spending more time with staff-level engineers. If you do, you will get to know more about day-to-day problems within IT systems while also keeping in touch and knowing the employees themselves.
This is also a way of gaining support from team members. You also have to know how to handle relationships with them especially during the most stressful periods. Remember, a good leader is able to lead a team to be good too. That is, leading by influence and not by the organization chart.
Practical Tip
Ask What You Can Offer
Don’t assume that your employees’ needs are big. The best way to find out what they need is to ask them. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of listening to them. Happy employees boost the whole company’s performance. It is possible to maintain a work environment that is kinder to the employees without affecting the company negatively.
5. Keep communication lines open between IT & other departments
Digital transformation involves the entire company. Therefore, communication between all departments must be kept open to easily disseminate information if there are problems within the system. This digital strategy is simple and self-evident but still many executives overlook this strategy in digital transformation. The whole company is a team in itself, thus communicating is both a need and a responsibility.
Practical tips
Tip 1. Go On Video Conferences
Use new platforms to keep employees excited. If employees have some fun while working, they are able to come up with more creative ideas. Don’t hesitate to solicit suggestions from your employees. Encourage employees to do video conferences in different locations than their desks or the conference rooms, trigger them to also think outside the box and extend your conversations from the usual small talk.
Tip 2. Use Slack For Added Synergy And Collaboration
Make sure you company shares a common ground and shares knowledge. Use Slack to ensure this. It can be shared easily and searched conveniently between teams.
6. Accommodate the needs of customers and clients when creating digital strategies
Early-stage digital companies say that their end goals entail the improvement of customer experience through digital transformation. Thus, it is essential to ensure that digital transformation strategies are customer-ready and actively answer their demands. Customer experience must be enhanced. Creating user-friendly applications and websites is a strong foundation to drive in customer or client’s attention, allowing them to accept the technology more easily and interact with your business with loyalty. Taking advantage of GUIs, Artificial Intelligence, cloud and data analytics in accommodating the needs of the market is an essential part of digital strategy. Let these tools be of help to you in times of decision-making and planning of strategies to be implemented.
Practical tip
Recognize The Value
Avoid practising an inverted strategy by giving more importance to the end point (customer), instead of emphasizing the value that the customer has on your business. Approach the customer’s problem more effectively by communicating the right experience across all the mediums that you are utilizing in your business. Align your customer’s value with the insights that you have gathered from your different analytics tools. This is how you can assign value to certain customers.
7. Choose digital transformation solution vendors wisely
Your partners in digital transformation are also playing supporting roles in the success of the company’s digital platform performance. Having quality teams and partners to assist you in accelerating the initiatives of technology through strategy, consultancy, designing, and implementation is invaluable. It is therefore essential for you to look for solution vendors who are trustworthy and balanced in their relationships. This is reasonable since you will work with them in adapting to the new revolution in business operations of the entire company.
Practical tip
Familiarize Yourself With The Technical Capability
Ask around and solicit suggestions from your partners if they know people or a company who specializes in conceptualizing digital solutions. Work with technical specialists who are not only experts in their field, but are also dedicated to innovation and excellence. Set up a conference or an initial meeting to listen to their technology focus. Explore their operation’s scalability, understand their workforce models, and their usual working prototypes. After meeting with a few teams, choose the ones that will fit your needs best.
Digital Transformation Strategies & What It Means For Your Business
Digital transformation might be driven to maturity by digital technology itself. Technology indeed plays a big part in all of the business’s advancements. However, in light of the advantages that the digital revolution has promised businesses, the strongest foundation relies greatly on the human brain and human capability.
The management, the employee’s reaction, and the customer’s response all contribute to the definitions of growth in digital innovation. In the end, it’s not only the technology that works for us, but the strategy itself. And we must take advantage. It is highly recommended to learn more about digital business transformation. You can do this by enrolling in IMD’s digital business transformation course and ensuring you are best placed to guarantee success.