Digital Transformation is a industry “buzzword” and is often misunderstood in that the transformation is not just a “project” but a successful transformation is a transformation of the organization and your offering. It affects the way things are done, the tools of the trade, the company culture and processes. It is a translation of your strategic direction into a range of business initiatives that leverage digital and includes all relevant elements ranging from business models to organizational and cultural changes that need to occur to support the business goal.
One effective way of establishing a shared understanding of the business activities and provides a detailed view of the processes, information domains, and the supporting services is the use of the Operating Model Canvas. It is one of the more effective and highly visual models that allows to represent the organization in an easy to understand graphical form as well as listing the digital assets owned by the organization and the resources that are deployed. Whatever your (digital) ambition, every organization has digital and physical assets that combined effectively or leveraged separately can support a better customer experience. An analysis of the internal and external environment should be a core element of your analysis and will help provide inputs and outputs to the model.
However, whatever your direction and model used, don’t miss the “P” or people in your transformation journey. Change is difficult, but change is essential and the only constant in this time and age. However, change disrupts the current order and affects all people in your organization which can lead to loss of confidence, motivation, customer satisfaction and ultimately poorer financial results. Ongoing and effective communication, skill development of existing staff, possibly complemented (but ideally not replaced) with new, digitally experienced and skilled staff and engagement is key to your transformation that will need to leverage your existing capabilities, possibly complemented with new capabilities.
Our key takeaway from many digital transformation initiatives is that too much time and effort is placed on the process and the fact based definition of strategy and direction with too little attention for people, often the people that are ultimately core to your success.