Learning Curve in the Digital Age

So far, we have covered the history, scope and future of digital transformation along with its emerging trends in the previous blogs. It made us think - so what are we learning or what should we be learning? In this blog we wanted to answer those specific questions, we are going to put down what we have learnt about digital transformation and how we facilitate a culture of change of innovation starting from wherever any one of us is. The last part of the last sentence, ‘wherever anyone of us is', is what is stopping many companies and individuals to acknowledge the depth and impact of digital transformation. We want those companies and individuals to learn four distinguish reasons to see for themselves where they belong at this point. These four reasons are not the be-all-end-all areas of interest but we realise they come close to understanding the striking impact of the digital transformation. 

— lack of imagination and strategy 

— lack of agility and insufficient encouragement toward innovation 

— lack of pertinent competencies and insufficient innovation culture 

— lack of new roles and responsibilities for the digital professionals 

A platform economy 

We live in a ‘platform economy’. Uber, Airbnb, Facebook and Alibaba are some of the well-known examples. Until the last decade, one could not have imagined that the world’s largest taxi service company will own no vehicles or that the world’s largest accommodation company owns no real estate. Alibaba as the world's largest retailer carries no inventory and Facebook, the world’s largest content company does not create its content. The irony is that these digital disruptions are being made possible by exploiting the existing infrastructure, products, services and content. This strategy enables a significantly faster growth rate than more traditional business models based on physical goods. The widely known examples above show that the impact of digital transformation is already tremendous. This is why digital transformation should be a part of your strategy - those are the new basics today. 

The most important of all, though, is the culture both at the individual and the organisational level to generate innovation and secure the existence of the duo in times of digital transformation. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari opined that companies today have to radically revolutionise themselves every few years just to stay relevant. What he says makes sense because technology and the internet have changed the business landscape forever. The key building blocks are already in place for digital technologies to be as important and transformational to society and the economy. 

Attitude is Everything

At Celeix Digital, we continuously strive towards informing our readers of the rapidly changing business landscape and the resulting innovation pressure. Digital transformation needs to be the elephant in room during the board discussions. Most business leaders around the world even today are believing that digital disruption is not a matter of board-level attention. It is the middle-level managers who are banging their heads and wondering if the companies they work for will be the incumbents that will be washed out in the coming digital disruption wave in the coming years. There are also those hands-on C-level executives who are taking a ‘wait and see' approach in hope of emulating successful competitors who ride this wave and see how they fare in the end. Celeix Digital believes that digital transformation is a journey for all levels and they ought to proactively be willing to transform themselves to compete in the morrows to come. 

Increasing Unpredictability 

Thanks to digitisation, a potential danger can turn into a real threat to existence almost overnight without big investments or lengthy processes. Trends and competition appear increasingly unpredictable because, at the time of market analysis, the competition simply might not yet exist. As a result, businesses no longer seem to have a real strategic influence on their course of action, which can have a paralysing effect. Many enterprises still try to relocate themselves in the digital landscape considering the same traditional borders, and not realising that trade branches and business models have fundamentally changed. Some companies have not yet developed an overall strategy to address this. Although it is impossible to fully prepare for the changing world, distinguishing and addressing the learnings and designing a strategy accordingly will help clarify the situation to establish a versatile strategy and tackle the unpredictability - something many companies fail to develop and execute. 

Companies increasingly realise that they have to reinvent themselves and that they have to embark on that journey right now. But the big question is are we ready? True change needs true authenticity - it’s not just a new slogan.

Time for Innovation Labs 

There are not only new players in the game, the whole game is a new one. Handling such a fundamental change requires a lot of imagination. When a company’s leaders fully recognize the impact of digital transformation, they can then imagine a vision to react to it. This is true for many enterprises that want to tackle the emerging shift and are determined to be a part of it. To tackle possible disruptions because of technological advancements, it might be necessary to trigger an internal transformation first that changes the inner core, the corporate DNA with its norms and values. 

Leveraging an innovation lab or creating an internal position to promote innovation can be an effective starting point. Innovation labs may help to establish the agile innovative power of a start-up culture, but may sometimes serve more as an alibi (hey! we are doing something), than as a first step towards a true redefinition of how a company sees itself and its field of business. Also, external innovation labs might strengthen the development of two separate cultures instead of influencing core norms and values. This happens if there are hardly any exchange processes between the lab and the original part of the company, which may lead to a we-don’t-do-that-here syndrome. 

Even with a clear vision that takes the tremendous development of digital transformation into account and an agile approach to realise and encourage innovation, some companies still struggle to tackle the challenges of digital transformation. If leaders and employees do not have the right competencies, the necessary new processes cannot be executed. With competencies, we refer to a set of skills, knowledge and attitude. An organisational transformation cannot succeed without competent individuals who truly understand the meaning and complexity of digital transformation.