March 2019
Digital transformation success factors are are traded around in abundance. You cannot open an article or other piece of advice these days, and not bump into a secret digital transformation recipe.
Behnam Tabrizi et.al. states In a very interesting article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) :
The article then goes on an describing the most important lessons learnt from these failures are:
- Figure out your business strategy before you invest in anything
- Leverage insiders
- Design customer experience from the outside in
- Recognize employees’ fear of being replaced
- Bring Silicon Valley start-up culture inside
That’s all good stuff. It touches on some of the most crucial points for digital transformation. But, it leaves out some of the vital digital transformation success factors.
Something missing?
On second inspection we would say that the lessons learnt are somewhat unbalanced.
For sure, there can be no doubt that the human issues amongst your employees and staff are pivotal for the success (or failure) of your digital journey. Nor should there be any question about the importance of close customer interaction. Similarly, a major digital transformation success factor is also that you get your basic business models and strategy right.
However, the article leaves out some crucial aspects and ingredients that are needed in almost every successful change programme.
For example, it doesn’t touch on the need to optimise your work processes. This is something that Sloane and CapGemini quite rightly identified as a main issue that drives measurable, positive results.
After all, the teaming up with ecosystem partners does not feature for Tabrizi either. Developing skills to define, design and develop on digital infrastructure is an “it will sort out itself” issue.
If I had a hammer…
What we often see at unleash.digital is that people focus on what they are good at. And this is ok. Your HR folks tell you that digital transformation is all about your employees. Change consultants emphasise the mindset and behavioural changes. Furthermore, executive coaches zoom in on the performance of CXOs and key management staff.
After all, for a hammer, everything that sticks out of a wall must be a nail.
Far from it. In other words, next time when you listen to an organisation that wants to sell you support in a digital transformation programme ask yourself: will they really cover all the areas that are important in my specific environment?
In conclusion, don’t simply disregard one areas of digital change that you are not familiar with. It might the most important part in your journey.
Want to know how to kickstart your digital transformation programme?
Visit our Ultimate Guide to Digital Transformation here ➥
Want to avoid the pitfalls that lead to digital transformation problems?
Take some cues from our Practical Steps of Digital Transformation ➥