When it comes to digital transformation, there are many different ways for businesses to succeed. However, there is only one way for them to fail: not starting! The world is changing rapidly, and technologies are evolving at an ever-increasing pace. To stay competitive in today’s business environment and be at the forefront of these technological advancements, you need to keep up with innovation in your field or risk falling behind your competitors. Here are ten things to help ensure your organisation’s successful digital transformation journey:
Believe that your culture and processes will eventually be disrupted.
If you’re reading this, then it’s likely that you’ve already accepted that your culture and processes will eventually be disrupted. As a digital transformation leader, it’s your job to manage the disruption and empower yourself and others to embrace change. How will you ever embrace change if you’re afraid of disrupting your culture or process?
No one wants to change. And yet no one can avoid it either! Change is a constant in our lives, yet we often resist embracing it because we’re timid about making mistakes or failing at something new. But if we don’t try new things and make mistakes, we’ll never grow as people or as organisations.
The best way to get comfortable with failing sometimes is by practising failing first fast before it becomes glaring:
Question everything you know about software development.
Software development is a process, not a product. It’s more of a team sport than it is an individual effort. Software development isn’t linear; it follows many different paths and can be impacted by many other factors.
A successful software development project requires more than just coding — it requires careful planning and collaboration across your team and with your customers or clients. This is why you need to rethink everything you know about the way software gets built to achieve digital transformation success.
Stop comparing your organisation to others.
Comparing your organisation to the success of others can be a fruitless exercise; why not focus on what’s most important for you? This way, you can craft a tailored digital transformation strategy that aligns with your goals and objectives.
Find the executive champion. And don’t be afraid to “raise the profile of your ideas” by using social media to be seen as a thought leader in your field.
The first step to getting started on your digital transformation is to find the executive champion. This person should be respected by the team and understand the business well. Their role will be critical in driving the process forward.
The second step is defining what you want to achieve through digital transformation, which can help you identify which areas of your business will benefit most – customer experience or operational efficiency. You can also use social media to raise your profile as a thought leader in your field, and this could help you attract new talent that’ll bring fresh ideas into your company.
Take advantage of third-party expertise.
It’s important to remember that you can’t be everything to everyone. You may have the best intentions, but if you try and do everything yourself, it will take longer than expected and cost more money. If your company is looking into digital transformation, it would be wise to enlist the help of experts who work with companies that are similar in size and industry to yours. For example:
- Your marketing team may know all about social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—but they might not understand how analytics software works or what kind of technology could be used for your next project. * A consultant specialising in data analysis can walk them through these processes step-by-step, so they can implement them effectively moving forward.* Similarly, if there are IT resources available within your organisation. Still, not enough people with knowledge about specific areas like mobile applications development or cybersecurity risk assessment tools consider contacting an outside agency specialising in those services.
There’s no such thing as failure or success anymore, only experiments.
There’s no such thing as failure or success anymore, only experiments.
The digital transformation journey is a series of experiments, some of which will fail, and others will succeed. The key is to learn from each one and be willing to try again. This “failure-as-a-learning-experience” mindset can help you become more resilient in your digital transformation approach and allow you to look at things differently—and maybe even shift your perspective on what success means!
Don’t try to boil the ocean with digital transformation.
Digital transformation is a long process and can be overwhelming. If you try to change everything at once, you will likely not make much progress. Instead of trying to boil the ocean, focus on one thing at a time. Don’t try to change everything in your organisation all at once; instead, focus on changing one thing in each area or department before moving on to another location or department.
Start small and then expand, focusing on one product line at a time.
I also recommend that you start small. Pick one product line first and expand from there. You’ll need to make sure you can get the most value out of your digital transformation while still being able to make a profit.
Keep in mind: don’t try to do everything at once, don’t try and do it all yourself, and don’t try to do everything simultaneously.
Make sure you plan to educate customers about the change and gain trust by starting small and winning them over with incremental improvements.
When you’re planning your digital transformation, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure you plan to educate customers about the change and gain their trust by starting small and winning them over with incremental improvements. Second, focus on one product line at a time rather than trying to change everything at once. Thirdly, focus on incremental improvements that add to big wins for your customers and company. Fourthly, don’t let yourself get caught up in the hype of all these changes—remember that it’s important not to rush things or try too much at once.
These are just some essential tips for how businesses should go about implementing their digital transformations successfully!
Digital transformation is an ongoing process; there is no endpoint or destination when you’re done. You’ll always be learning, experimenting and improving as technology evolves.
Digital transformation is an ongoing process; there is no endpoint or destination when you’re done. You’ll always be learning, experimenting and improving as technology evolves.
This means that the ability to learn from one another, collaborate and build a culture of innovation will be critical for organisations looking to become digital-first businesses.
There are many ways to succeed in digital transformation, but only one way to fail–not starting!
The most important thing to realise about digital transformation is that there are many ways to succeed. There are some things you don’t want to do, though–like not starting at all.
Here are some tips for ensuring your organisation makes it through the process in one piece:
- Start small and grow from there. It’s better to start with a small pilot program than a large-scale implementation without clearly understanding how things will work. Then, you can always scale up as needed!
- Plan so that when things inevitably go wrong (and they will), you know how and where to fix them. This means having proper communication structures in place. Hence, everyone has clear channels for sharing information–and if anything goes wrong or breaks down during implementation, having a plan in place so it can be fixed quickly without disrupting too much else going on around them.
- Ensure your team has buy-in from leadership before proceeding with anything significant because no matter how great an idea might seem at first glance, if top management doesn’t support it, then chances are excellent that anyone who needs approval won’t find either
Bottom Line
You can’t afford to wait for someone else to make the first move. Instead, you need to be proactive and take charge of your transformation. It’s not easy, but the good news is that you’re not alone! Plenty of resources (like this blog) will help guide you through the process step by step.
Who am I?
I am Dotun Adeoye, a Business Growth Strategist & Author of the 5 Pillars of Business Growth.
I’ve built up my experience via serial entrepreneurship, consulting leadership roles in business growth, business development and product innovation in large companies worldwide in the last 30 years.
I’ve also been a lead product innovation consultant on many digital transformation projects in the private and public sectors across the world
Today, I consult with large businesses on how to sustainably grow their businesses, sustain infinite growth, and ensure business continuity irrespective of the business climate.
Hire Dotun Adeoye to Speak Virtually or In – Person at your company’s event to cover this or other topics. You can also get in touch via +44 203 097 1718 or dotun at dotunadeoye.com.
