Blaming failure in the technology often diverting attention from a failure in leadership. If you are just speeding up current processes by automating or cutting costs you are not transforming but just improving.
By definition, if you cut costs by 50% p.a. there soon comes a time when the marginal improvement will be negligible.
Transformation means understanding the changes in customer behaviour and competitive disruption that will undermine your current business model. This happens gradually, gradually and then suddenly.
Transformation requires an overarching strategy based on this anticipation of change and in "You're going digital- now what?" Paul Leonardi explains the process to plan your company's transformation.
- Leader's campaign for Buy-in on Goals
- Employees decide whether to use Tools
- Employees decide how to use Tools
- Employee behavior changes
- Local performance improves
- Performance aligns with company Goals
Valuable article in this month's MIT Sloan Management Review
The failure myth: Most digital transformation efforts fail because the technology didn’t work. Reality check: Most digital transformation efforts fail because employees didn’t use the new technology. There are two main reasons for this. First, when people are not sufficiently trained, they can’t apply new tools effectively, so they stop using them and find alternatives. Second, when leaders promise certain outcomes that don’t quickly materialize — like an increase in customer satisfaction or swifter time to market — employees will make a principled decision that it’s in the best interest of the company for them to find other methods to secure those outcomes.
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/youre-going-digital-now-what/
