{"id":25005,"date":"2019-01-30T10:47:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T10:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=25005"},"modified":"2019-01-30T12:28:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T12:28:25","slug":"5-ways-to-successfully-fail-digital-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/5-ways-to-successfully-fail-digital-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Successfully Fail Digital Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

As with every new technology evolution, there is also an abundance of content on how some large organisations tried digital transformation and failed spectacularly.<\/p>\n

It is nearly impossible not coming across an article or a post about digital transformation on any given day. I can at least guarantee you have seen one today.<\/p>\n

Considering the profundity of digital, the abundance of content on digital transformation must be expected. I think all industries, governments and even the society are still in the process of comprehending what digital truly means. Everyone who has seen that\u00a0mm-hmm moment<\/a>\u00a0would have definitely developed second thoughts about the opportunities as well as the threads that come with digital. To me, it is somewhat akin to\u00a0discovering plastics<\/a>; the scientific wonder of the early 1900s, now an environmental curse. It is for that reason now we are talking about everything digital; digital economy, digital culture, digital government,\u00a0digital thinking<\/a>\u00a0and so on.<\/p>\n

As with every new technology evolution, there is also an abundance of content on how some large organisations tried digital transformation and failed spectacularly<\/a>. Some even take the bar higher by predicting that 90% of digital transformation projects will fail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McKinsey also draws the attention to digital strategies organisations have today and signals that they are likely to fail if they don\u2019t fully understand the digital economy and its demands.<\/p>\n

One, who reads these downhearted articles and listens to failure stories, might for a second think there is a demand for failure in digital transformation. This article is inspired by that fictitious demand, but I trust you appreciate what is the actual point here.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, here are the top 5 ways for successfully failing digital transformation.<\/p>\n

1. It is all about mobile apps and web pages.<\/h3>\n

Chances are your company already has web and mobile applications. You might become \u201cdigital\u201d by refacing those apps and adding some new cool features without actually thinking about the overall customer experience. If your company has no mobile apps, you should definitely take that as a golden opportunity and create as many mobile apps as you can. There may be functional overlaps, your customers may have to install 20 different apps and end up calling the customer centre but that\u2019s OK. Digital is speed<\/a> and you certainly don\u2019t have time to understand the digital economy<\/a> and its dynamics. Similarly, creating a digital mobile strategy<\/a> is simply not agile.<\/p>\n

Bonus:<\/strong> Ask IT guys to build a few APIs and organise a hackathon to rubber-stamp your digitality (yes, it\u2019s totally a word).<\/p>\n

2. Digitise the present.<\/h3>\n

Digital means automating existing processes and make them available through online channels. Your digital transformation is done once you replace your paper forms with web applications. Don\u2019t make the mistake of mapping out customer journeys, or re-imagining your interactions and relationships with your customers and the rest of the digital players. Others may be busy with creating new digital business models<\/a> or building new digital ecosystems<\/a>, but don\u2019t let them distract you, you can always let them disrupt you later.<\/p>\n

3. New technology, traditional thinking.<\/h3>\n

Digital is the cloud, AI, machine learning, the blockchain, IOT and all the other technologies in Gartner\u2019s hype cycle<\/a>. Embed these technologies in your projects as much as you can. Use machine learning to generate random numbers, use chat-bots to let your customers know of your call centre number. However new the technology is, stick with the existing, tried and tested processes. Being able to stand up a new cloud instance in a matter of minutes shouldn\u2019t mean you can access those instances without going through weeks of governance and approval processes. It is also a good practice to ineffectively deliver such technologies through a tennis game between operational silos.<\/p>\n

4. Do it once, and do it right. Don\u2019t experiment.<\/h3>\n

Experimenting with new solutions and business models<\/a> or prototyping ideas are unnecessary risks. You cannot foresee the feature and certainly, you do not have the luxury to test and fail. Think of how your peers or execs would see it if your experiment fails. Don\u2019t forget, culture eats strategy for breakfast; don\u2019t be a pancake. Follow the leading company in your industry, wait for them to be successful first before you copy what they did. If you happen to be the leader, just follow this digital transformation methodology until you no longer have to carry that burden.<\/p>\n

5. It\u2019s a transformation project, not a cultural shift.<\/h3>\n

And just to re-emphasise all that has been discussed in previous paragraphs: treat digital transformation as a project, not as a cultural and business shift<\/a>. You cannot kick off any transformation without a deadline and a defined ROI. No doubt you will hear voices in the industry saying digital transformation is a continuous effort, a mindset change for the whole organisation<\/a>. Simply ignore those romantics and enjoy your half-baked digital transformation or analogue stagnation.<\/p>\n

\n

This last item concludes my top 5 list for successfully failing digital transformation. On a serious note, the boundaries and the impact of digital are hard to define, and, digital transformation is easier said than done. IDC predicts\u00a0digital transformation spending to reach $1.7 trillion worldwide in 2018<\/a>, a 42% increase from 2017. Interestingly, that is the same amount of\u00a0money globally spent on the military in 2017<\/a>. Yet, IDC also predicts 75% of the organisations will fail to meet their digital transformation objectives\u200a\u2014\u200aeven without the help of my successfully failing digital transformation methodology. Nevertheless, digital transformation is bound to happen in one way or another. As Greg Verdino\u00a0cleverly defined in his article<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cdigital transformation closes the gap between what digital customers already expect and what analogue businesses actually deliver\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This blog first appeared here<\/a>, and was reposted with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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