What are the key Technologies that I need to embrace as I take my organization through a Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation, from the face of it, sounds like a technology-only exercise, but in reality it is not. This is not just my opinion. Many experts also have the same opinion – Digital transformation is as much about culture shift (if not more) as it is about technology shift. And the reason is mostly due to complexity – technology generally maintains a binary state (very digital), either it works or it does not. Culture, however, is all about people – and there could be way more than fifty shades of grey that you may end up finding.

But you’re not on this post to check ideas on culture shift. So, let’s just recognize the big elephant in the room and work around it for now. We’ll discuss about culture shift in another post. Just note that in some contexts the lines between technology and culture could get a bit blurry.

What is Digital Transformation?

As I have participated and observed in a number of digital transformation and pre-digital transformation waves of changes, I have discovered and rediscovered what a digital transformation is. I’ve read a lot on the subject as well as listened to a number of prominent thought leaders talk about it. And then I think – think about it all the time – to understand it, visualize it, structure it and figure how I see it from my perspective. In this and a number of follow up posts I will try to put forward my perspective on the subject through a number of key questions. Some lines of thought may appear to be very similar to what you have heard, read or experienced. Some may sound very different and maybe to the point of craziness.

Anyway, let’s start with what is digital transformation?

The way I see it, there are two views of it – one is environmental, at a macro level. The other is organizational, at a micro level.

Who is ripe for Disruption and thus for a Digital Transformation?

As I found some time to do some reading, listening and thinking on disruption and digital transformation, the question I came upon was – “what industries/companies do you think are ripe for disruption and digital transformation?”. The answer to this question is obviously not very easy to find, as it is a very complicated subject. However, there is a marker that could make this search a little bit easier, at least in the context that you live your life in. And it is not a marker that I have found. Many authors have written about it; many leaders have talked about it – the marker is “frustration”. They say, if there is something you are frustrated about and the same frustration is expressed by others as well, it is very likely that there is an opportunity ripe for disruption and thus (as response or pre-emptive strike against disruption) ripe for digital transformation. So, being frustrated at my wife for asking me to do household chores while I’m busy thinking about digital transformation does not qualify for the list – though the concept of a digital life partner may not be too far away (at least the ones who could do your household chores without bothering you) :).

Why do you need to embrace Digital Transformation?

Think of a river – a river that is flowing steadily. You are standing on its shore. You have come here to compete at an annual raft racing competition. You and your friends compete here every year. And over time you have actually become very good at it. In fact, last time you were the winners. That is very important, since, as per the rules of this competition, as a winner the previous year you have an advantage in that you will be starting ahead the others. That is a significant advantage in any race. The location of the race is kept a secret and before starting you do not have any idea how the river behaves like as you go downstream towards your finish line.

All previous races that you attended before were held in parts of rivers where it was flat and steady. So, you expect the same for this race as well. The good thing is that you are an expert in racing in steady waters. Now, as the race begins, you are obviously pacing ahead of the others. You have got an advantage of being able to start ahead of the others, plus your skills are most suitable for racing in a steady stream. Soon after, the river starts to turn – towards right, then left and then right again. And after one specific corner, to your horror, you see that the river is entering a rapid.

Monologue on Digital Transformation

Sid and Siddhartha caught up for tea one afternoon and decided to talk about what was going on in the market.

Siddhartha: “Hey, good to see you. How is life? What exactly are you doing these days?”

Sid: “Hey good to see ya man. Life is pretty nice. My work recently has been in the space of Digital Transformation these days. I’ve been doing some projects in this space”

Siddhartha: “That sounds pretty interesting. I think I’ve heard about this term before – ‘digital transformation’. Perhaps you mentioned it to me. What is it by the way?”

Sid: “Let’s see how I can explain it to you. Well, you know about disruption and the startup tidal waves right?”

Siddhartha: “Yes, there has been a lot of action taking place in the startup world. They are doing a lot of great things, very fast and very economically. And in a lot of cases, they are doing things very differently. All of this is creating a huge wave of disruption for the businesses that are the leaders of the status quo”

Sid: “Good, so you’re up to speed with that! So, all those waves of disruption is taking a toll on the existing businesses that do not know that they have to change or do not want to change, and so are not able to improve and be better businesses for their customers”

Siddhartha: “Fair enough”

Sid: “So, what do those businesses do? They have two options – deny the fact that this disruption is going on and will be impacting them OR do something about it. And that something is broadly identified as Digital Transformation”

Siddhartha: “Got it. But tell me one thing – why is it called Digital transformation? It could have been called any other transformation or may be just transformation?”

Sid: “Good question. So, the wave of disruptions that we talked about has been primarily digitally driven. As a result, digital technology has started to take front and centre stage with regards to any business these days. The transformational response to this wave has been on all fronts, however, the most transformative changes have been digitally driven. The opportunities with digitally led transformation are so many that digital has been the thread that has been the one single connecting factor of this transformation wave – thus Digital”

Siddhartha: “Wow, that is amazing. For a moment I thought it only meant website redesign and mobile app design?”

Sid: “They are part of it, but they are just two pieces of lego in a huge lego package. And there are so many other lego pieces in this package. And the beauty of this thing is that you can join those pieces in so many different ways to make so many different creations. It all depends upon your situation and what works for you. Anyway, the basic idea here is – how do you disrupt yourself before someone else disrupts you and steals your customers.”

Siddhartha: “Wow, that’s amazing. Let’s catch up some other time to discuss a bit more on how you do it, perhaps with some examples.”

Sid: “For sure, I’d be glad to discuss that!”

How much of your Organization stands behind the FOG?

Fog that is beautiful but conceals everything | Photo By: Robshenk/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 | Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AntietamFog.JPG

Have you heard of “Fog of War”? Do you know what it is? Do you relate to it as an organizational leader?

We, the people of the business world are not in war. We’re in peace. We don’t fight amongst each other. We’re all happy doing business with each other. Or, are we??

We have a limited amount of resources to produce things from and a limited number of customers to sell to. We compete for these on a daily basis. When one company is growing market share, there’s another that is surely losing. We’re all in for survival here. And that means war (although of a different form). However, it is not a bloody war, it’s a war of business. What’s at stake is not lives, but livelihoods. The winners and losers are not countries, but companies. But, it surely is a damn war. And as with any war, there always is the FOG OF WAR. You can only reduce it, but you can never eliminate it.

The question is not whether it is there or not, but if you can notice it or not, and how bad is it. And how can you reduce it.