Across all industries, Digital Transformation is a boardroom agenda. CIOs are focusing on leveraging next-generation technologies like that of cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, Blockchain, AR/VR and many others to foster business growth while improving the workforce productivity and operating cost-efficiently.

Further Digital Transformation is also about finding new ways of connecting people to people, people to devices, devices to other devices or ideas, and about whatever it takes to bring innovation into the organization. And when you connect people, devices, and ideas in innovative ways like never before, you are a step closer to creating new business models which may have the potential to disrupt the market. For example: in the case of a connected car, you get real-time information about the driver’s behaviour. This data allows the insurance company to create new pricing models for customers. 

Workplaces are transformed by re-imagining and developing tools which can improve the way employees interact and transact in a connected space. Also, Customer experiences are enhanced with it as well, as connected things bring forward innovative ways to assess the consumption of products or services which fulfil their needs. So Digital Transformation is all about developing new business models by transforming legacy systems, process governance, and connecting people, ideas and devices in innovative ways.

The first key element which drives digital transformation is creating a differentiated Transformation Strategy. It starts with first getting the right people on board and aligning all stakeholders for the desired outcome. You also need to find out the right technology & understand the risk with digital transformation. After running a pilot test, analyze the impact, ask your users for feedback and roll out the relevant technology.

While technology is a crucial aspect of digitalization, collaborative innovation is the second element that drives Digital Transformation. Most transformative innovations have been born from a collaborative play. For example, the idea for Google Play was born when founders were playing games in the boardroom. While having a conversation with a senior executive of a large organization, I learnt that to introduce and accelerate transformation in an enterprise; it is crucial to enable everyone in the company to ask the right questions. When the right questions are asked, new ideas and relevant innovations are generated. Thus, it is essential to have an innovation-leading query platform where everyone – every member of the organization, has the freedom to ask questions. Some of these questions (which are not often paid much heed to) are the ones that can induce the most significant changes in the organization.

The third essential element is improving engagement as poor customer engagement, or employee engagement severely impacts the performance of a business. Improving customer engagement and that of employees brings significant business value to the organization. The fundamental strategy followed by digital disruptors is to invest in engagement initiatives – be it employees or customers or broader social ecosystem. Solving the problem of engagement is the key to improving the Digital Transformation and the success that it entails. You can engage your people starting from brainstorming about how to enable the transformation and even to the point where change is executed successfully. An exciting way to engage employees is by leveraging play. When applied correctly, it can motivate people to create a pleasant environment which leads to the growth of business and creates frictionless business transactions. In the coming chapters, I would touch upon how world-class companies are using playful experiences to understand their customers, improve their experiences, create new products & services, and solve a variety of business problems.

Fourth, the democratization of business processes is a crucial enabler that must be taken to ensure maximum innovation and transformation. It includes, but is not limited to, the democratization of financing and communication. With transparency in a company’s finances, business leaders will be able to understand where and how their organization’s funds are being spent, thereby reducing misuse and confusion. The democratization of communication will allow all the members of an organization to speak freely and voice their opinions, thus encouraging everyone to share new ideas and spark innovation. It is vital to develop and create the right culture. For example, democratization could lead to a risk-taking culture in the workplace, which can further to WOW customer experience. 

Finally, data-driven decision making is also critical. Traditional methods of decision-making often cause business leaders to overlook crucial aspects of a decision, which leads to highly disruptive consequences in the future. With the use of organized data and a way to view that data understandably, businesses can counter the problem of making bad decisions and thus, make more informed decisions. For example, I will talk about how companies can launch multi-criteria decision-making tools for employees at all levels. Such tools can help them in visualizing and taking rational decisions like making critical decisions in the development of a roadmap to enable their movement to the cloud-based platforms.

Key Takeaways
Digital Transformation is also about finding new ways of connecting people, devices and ideas to create new business models which have the potential to disrupt the market.Dynamic Strategy, Innovation, Culture, Democratization of Business Process & Data-Driven Decision Making drives the digital transformation.Solving the problem of engagement (be it that of employee or customer) is the key to improve the success of Digital Transformation.