Globalization has brought-in some incomprehensible situations. Never in the history of businesses and economies have we seen the contrasting trends happening at the same time e.g. on one hand some businesses are experiencing great challenges in growth, specially the ones that are related to oil and gas and on the other had the challenges depending on Chinese economies. These are very large businesses that contribute significantly to global economy. So any impact on them has cascading effect on global wealth. On the other hand news from the US interest rate hike had a feeling that US – the largest economy in the world – was back on track and things would be quite upbeat. Also, the disruption that technologies have brought in has created a sense of new world which is spawning new businesses such as e-Commerce companies, Uber, AirBnB, PayPal, Mobile Wallets types businesses.
While the companies are struggling due to economic challenges and the global tensions, there also is a tremendous hope from the new age companies on account of emerging technological advancements. On one hand there is a struggle for survival and on the other there is a competition for innovation and disruption.
Interestingly, when we meet the customers on either side of the spectrum, we hear some common approaches and it makes the whole business truly amazing. The companies who are experiencing challenging times due to oil and gas crises, Chinese market meltdown and slower growth of economies, are talking about ‘Digital Transformation’ initiative to create value in the existing processes. These companies want re-look at how they can transform their businesses by increasing productivity and improving the value delivered through customer engagement channels. When they are not able to bring in additional revenue, they want to get more value out of existing processes. That’s precisely why they are embarking upon ‘Digital transformation’.
The other set of customers who are using technology as a differentiator in core business areas, too are talking about ‘Digital Transformation’. When asked upon the reasoning for their continued focus on pushing technology further into the business, they offered interesting insights. As per most of these customers, one of the key reasons is the change in the way their consumers are interacting with them. They give example of how their consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by many factors which are technology driven e.g. experience of placing the order through mobile phone, interaction with customer service representative, ease of locating stores, security and privacy of data etc. Given the amount of choices and ease of switching, the businesses are forced to be on their toes for not just acquiring new customers but also retaining the profitable ones.
According these companies, ‘Digital Transformation’ goes beyond mere technology refresh or leveraging social media and mobile platforms. For the survival – both in challenging times and in growing times – ‘Digital Transformation’ means transforming your business while keeping technology advances in mind, re-orienting internal and external processes to align with customer behavior. The idea is to re-look at every aspect of your business process, transform it to deliver more value and leverage technology to execute this vision.
Thus, no matter whether your business is struggling or growing, you need to make sure that your teams are engaged in this ‘Digital Transformation’ initiative. Having said this, speed of execution is the key. You can not have this project going on for years, you have to create an environment where it is being executed in real time.
Like this aspect of speed, there are more granular areas that determine the success of the organization. We would take a look at those in coming months.
Stay digitally ahead !