Many organizations believe that they can :
Engage in a 1-off Digital Transformation project of a few months
Buy/Develop the digital tools based on the vision and action plan
And these digital tools and processes will solve all their Digital Challenges for the next 5 years
This is nothing but an illusion.
Why are 1-off Digital Transformation projects failing
Organizations can’t know all the challenges and changes that they will encounter during the Digital Transformation journey and thus can’t be too committed to one direction. All the interdependent changes and interworking of Digital tools and processes (including the current and the future ones) can’t be foreseen at the beginning. During the execution phase, you need to adjust the technology and change your approach that necessitate a rethink. Although you need a broad alignment on the direction but being too committed on a certain road map can only create realization nightmares.
What successful Digital Businesses can teach us about Digital Transformation.
You need shorter and continuous cycles of Strategy, Execution and Feedback.
Feedback on an ongoing basis after the execution of a certain phase from users and stakeholders. This feedback should be based on the “experience” of Digital Tools/Processes rather than the PowerPoint recommendations often disconnected with things on the ground.
You need a data-driven approach to measure the adoption of Technology and continuously evolve.
Digital Strategy and Execution — You can’t separate one from the other
The strategy team ensures a relentless drive towards the business goals and keeps everyone focused on the desired transformation. The execution team sets the digital tools, processes and policies in place working closely together with the strategy team.
An extremely important activity is to keep the Communication and IT staff aligned, empowered and trained so that they are not just a spectator in the process.
Through short and overlapping phases of strategy and execution, the learning from a phase are absorbed into the next phase either to improve it or to adapt the next course of action. This is a much wiser approach than a “hors sol” road map (imagined without any experience of implementing the Digital Transformation) that lays out all the steps in the beginning itself.
Would you trust a GPS that starts to bug when you encounter a roadblock or the one that recalculates an optimal route immediately? Or did you believe that you won’t encounter any roadblocks in your Digital Transformation journey ? At Symantra, we attribute the successful execution of our Digital Transformation projects to the fact that we place a team that combines Strategy, Data, Technology and User Experience with overlapping roles; thus facilitating shorter and continuous cycles of strategy, execution and feedback.
Let’s get in touch : contact@symantra.com