We are living in an era of incredible changes in innovation and economic transformation due to the emergence and convergence of numerous technologies that have rendered traditional business practices obsolete.
Any organization wishing to survive and maintain competitiveness in this new environment must adopt a digital approach. What was once a market trend for the distant future has now become an absolute priority on every business, sectoral, and even governmental agenda.
The businesses of the future will be digital or will not be.
But, are you truly aware of the impact digitization will have on your business? With this article, we aim to start an honest conversation with you and have you consider whether your organization is truly prepared to surf the new digital wave.
The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst, accelerating digital transformation by about 7 years in the economy due to the pressing need to keep supply chains operational with strong restrictions and high levels of security. This has forced many companies to start digitizing out of necessity: opening an online channel when traditional selling became impossible, or adopting software solutions to enable remote work for their employees.
This can lead to major confusion, leading to the belief that digital transformation is simply digitizing a company's operational processes. However, digital transformation is the change in culture and operational model of the company following the implementation of new technologies, processes, and competencies that generate value within it.
In other words, digital transformation is not just an optimization of the business, but a change in the way the organization operates, which will of course translate into tangible results: reduced operational costs, increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, or the creation of new revenue streams through new digital services.
Of course, digital transformation is about technologies. But the key lies not in being a great connoisseur of the technical aspects of technology, but in how the various technologies available in the market (AI, VR, Big Data, among others) can generate value within the business.
If you are not willing to reimagine your business, you will miss a golden opportunity to take advantage of the opportunities that open up in the window of digital transformation. We must actively exercise imagination and creativity, being able to propose new scenarios and possibilities for our business.
Perhaps we have considered expanding our business in some way but never dared to take the leap because we did not find the right time to do so. Now more than ever, we must return to the essence of our business, recognizing what differentiates us from others to position ourselves and compete in this new environment. Only then, by introspectively examining ourselves, can we generate an enhanced vision of the business, a project that is truly exciting and serves as a compass to guide us and mobilize the rest of the organization.
Digitization pushes us forward and to develop new ways of delivering value to our customers in ways we had not imagined before. Technology can break down barriers that did not exist before. In this way, many digital businesses were born from the desire to solve a problem.
For example, take Uber, the startup that revolutionized urban mobility. The idea for the project germinated in 2008 on a winter night in Paris after the founders were unable to hire a taxi service following attendance at a business and technology conference. This led them to the following question: What if I could hire a taxi service from my mobile phone?
Later, this experimental approach to developing businesses led them to solve more problems in the sector. Could I know exactly when my car will arrive? Could I know how much the journey will cost me? As you can see, before this new model emerged, the industry only operated on known standards. Now, with digitization, new opportunities open up for visionaries, those who can look beyond what is known in their sector.
We encourage you to do the same in your business and/or sector of activity. Ask yourself how you could improve service to your customers, how you could offer them more value with the use of some technology that you believe has potential. There you will find one of the keys to success in digital transformation.
You might not know it, but your customer is empowered. They have a mobile device with power and unlimited access to information. Before visiting your business, they will likely have checked your product and service catalog, your locations, all the reviews you have (and even if you don't) and may have even conducted a small market study comparing other options offered by your competition.
But, just as your customers have tools to be excellent consumers, do your employees have tools that enable them to perform their jobs better and enhance their capabilities? For example, your sales team could improve their performance if they have a CRM with AI that helps them determine if a customer is part of the target audience for a marketing campaign you want to launch. Or on the operations side, you may have a functioning e-commerce with relative success, but perhaps you are not able to grow because you do not have a real-time system to manage all the orders that come in and carry out effective picking.
Your organization, in addition to having technological tools, must be supported by a culture based on collaboration, transparency, and innovation. Change should be seen as an opportunity, and learning from mistakes as part of the journey. One of the main obstacles to digital transformation and the much-anticipated economic recovery is that we continue to rely on very traditional work structures: hierarchical, centralized, and authoritarian, which prevent the natural generation of new dynamics and processes within companies.
Nowdays only 35% of organizations digital transformation efforts are successful. The journey will not be easy, but the risk of not addressing it successfully is very high, a large percentage of current jobs may disappear within 10 years. The pace of change is so high that not betting on digitization can lead to the demise of your business, while other businesses will flourish because they have been able to seize the opportunities that arise.
Which side do you choose to be on?