We’ve all been a part of the “digital revolution” –interestingly – the fourth part of the Industrial Revolution which began in 1784.

To recap, for history buffs:

1. The Steam Revolution – Railways, Private Vehicles, Steamships, Iron Industries, Textiles and Manufacturing Machines in 1784
2. The Electricity revolution – the use of electricity for mass production, the invention of the telephone and light bulbs, the internal combustion engine and more in 1870
3. PC Revolution – Including Internet. (Such computers were only owned by large organizations such as banks, universities, research institutes) in 1969
4. Digital revolution – includes – BIG DATA, AI – caused a change in the way many organizations work. A change in interpersonal communication (WhatsApp for example) and of course opened up many business opportunities – today and years ahead.

Digital transformation – Creating a digital revolution within your organization

You probably are already a part of the digital revolution (or you wouldn’t be able to read this on your screen/device) but as a leader, you need to dig deeper and ensure you’re ready “digital transformation” and use technology to deliver better value to your customers. This brings together how you use technology, people and processes to fundamentally change business performance for the better.

It often requires cross-departmental collaboration between behavior changes, new philosophies with rapid application development models. Such sweeping changes are typically undertaken in pursuit of new business models and new revenue streams, driven by changes in customer expectations around products and services.

Digital Transformation is a Journey, Not a Destination

Recognizing digital transformation as an evolutionary tactic isn’t enough, though. In fact, digital transformation goes far beyond just technology and tactics, but really it is about so much more. It goes beyond rapid technology shifts. People, culture, leadership, and customer experience are also core to achieving a complete and successful digital transformation.

With this multi-faceted shift towards a more digital organization, it creates many challenges. Perhaps more than anything else it creates an endless and exhausting cycle of change that can slow down any company not ready to wholeheartedly embrace the potential of technology.

In those with traditional legacies, the resistance to change is almost palpable, making digital transformation difficult to embrace and even more difficult to achieve.

If that sounds like your enterprise—or you haven’t even begun making a digital transformation—you may wonder how you’ll ever go from point A to point B, much less travel further through the alphabet.

The good news is every company has the potential to maximize the digital transformation journey.

How to get started

Digital transformation is pointless if it doesn’t facilitate strong relationships between employees and a company, and consumers and brands. Leadership is key to making this a reality.

Wherever you are in your journey, you’ll need buy-in from the C-suite. The key is to earn executive management approvals for technological innovation over the long-term before you pitch individual solutions.

Present realistic goals to ensure management understands the importance of maintaining momentum over time.

Designing the business of the future

There are four elements that will guide you thinking when assessing strategies for business transformation.

The right business model — Becoming digital is not simply about taking existing products or customer interactions and experiences and putting them online. Enduring success in the digital economy means fundamentally rethinking how business is conducted today. The way in which organizations get products to market through centralised catalogues and move to deliver entirely new consumption models (such as pervasive digital services and subscriptions rather than one off purchases) in addition to how consumers now purchase and use offerings is fundamental.

The right partners — Businesses that work together with digital partners across industry borders achieve far beyond what any individual business could do on its own in the ever-changing digital world.  To achieve this, businesses must now integrate with a myriad of existing and 3rd party systems, streamline and simplify business processes, and develop efficient improvements that decrease operational risk and expense.  The sharing of knowledge and unique experiences to develop new applications, products and services will become essential.

The right technology — Not all platforms are created equal, and that will become painfully evident to those that don’t choose wisely and bravely.  The cost of legacy system infrastructure maintenance, integration and operations will become prohibitive when digital native competitors operate at a fraction of the cost.  Getting there will be a challenge and enhancing legacy systems is not enough. A complete re-architecture that takes advantage of cloud first capabilities and micro services –– is now essential.  To remain competitive, solutions must be SaaS, must run in the cloud, and must be a platform with the ability to unify and streamline increasingly complex operations.

The right mindset — Providing evolved customer experiences regardless of who those customers are—from consumers, to vendors, to partners – is vital to digital success, but it’s only half the equation.  History has already shown the lesson – only 12.2% of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still on the list in 2014.   To survive and, most importantly, flourish a digital culture must be integrated at all levels of the organization to instill the mentality of agility and continuous learning the digital economy demands.

There is no one size fits all approach to digital transformation, each strategy will be unique to each organization. However, a focus of balancing activities across the four pillars provides the compass to guide a successful transformation.

If you need help with this please get in touch, we are very experienced at helping clients make effective change with real measurable results as they move through their own digital revolutions.