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viernes, 30 de octubre de 2020

Digitization. What is digitization? Part 1 Strategy, culture, leadership and innovation

 




Digitization. What is digitization?

 

Strategic consulting. What can we offer our clients?

• Digital strategy and business development

• Digital culture, leadership and innovation 

1) Strategy and business development. It is difficult today to conceive business strategies without having the concept of digitization in the middle. Digitization becomes part of the strategy and the way of developing business. Therefore, on how to do business yourself. Digitization is not simply "automating everything that can be" but obtaining and analyzing as much data as possible to know what customers really want and need. Digitization puts customers in "focus", as it should be. A strategy that does not consider what our customers want and need from us is a strategy that does not make sense in an increasingly competitive digital world.

Therefore, we will need to impregnate ourselves with a “digital culture” in order to develop and define a “digital strategy”. Information is power and, in the market, those who have the best ability to obtain data and analyze it properly have the best chance of success. We, as leaders, seek the success that “digital strategy” provides us.

2) Culture. Digital culture. How can you create a digital culture in your company? Culture is the essence of the company, it is the way of seeing and doing things, of facing life. It is the way that the collaborators of the company have to relate, communicate and understand each other to achieve defined common objectives. Culture is part of the history, of the present and shapes the future of the company. This future is impregnated with "digitization" and therefore all the members of the company must "acquire the necessary digital culture" to understand what the "digital strategy" is going to require of us. The change is abysmal and will require a common effort both in preparation, training and development of digital knowledge in people. Data, databases, data analysis, suitable software programs, projections, statistics, networking, videoconferencing, teleworking, process automation, “paperless processes”, digital documentation, digital marketing, social networks, digital campaigns, etc., etc., etc.

A "digital culture" is not created from today to tomorrow and requires real planning to achieve it. From the strategy for the selection of future personnel, through a truly comprehensive training strategy for all key personnel. We can start by digitizing simple internal communication processes, a shared digital agenda, arranging meetings by videoconference, facilitating teleworking, adapting the “digital document file”, digital order management, digital inventory management, digital sales management, etc.

As in many other facets of the company, leaders must act in an exemplary manner by being the first to adopt the "digital measures" that are implemented in the company. Not only by adopting but by encouraging the use of digital media. If an e-commerce platform is adopted, for example, the use of it should be encouraged by the leaders.

3) Leadership. Digital leadership. How can you promote digital leadership? In the previous point, the importance of leaders in a digital transformation of the company has already been commented. Today more than ever, leaders must bet on this transformation in a clear, unequivocal and constant way. Digital transformation is a process that requires both human and monetary resources and whose investment must be reflected in the company's budgets. Therefore, there is no digitization without investment. My advice is to undertake a specific digitization plan for three (maximum five) years. Anything that exceeds this period will be detrimental to the "uniformity" of the digitization process due to the enormous technological advance in both hardware and software. Process leaders must be aware of this and proceed to a prior exhaustive analysis to determine what is necessary and what is possible to do according to existing resources and approved budgets.

In these times of pandemic, leadership must be demonstrated more than ever. We are in times of leaders willing to give the best of themselves to carry out tasks that will surely offer a promising future to companies that decide for digital transformation. Complete digital transformation to be more efficient, more effective, more knowledgeable about what customers want and need, in short, more differentiators to be more competitive and obtain the expected results.

4) Innovation. Digital innovation. How can digital innovation be promoted? Customers are in "focus", as stated before. We collect and analyze more customer data, so we will better understand what they want and what they need. It is the basis for having a "digitized innovation" and highly focused because we start from the data obtained and analyzed from customers. We can study the frequency of visits to our digital catalog, what products, technologies and services interesting for customers, how much time they dedicate to each section, from where the consultations are made, type of people who consult, etc. In addition, via social networks we can carry out quick opinion surveys to see trends, geographical areas of interest, etc. All this in a relatively short space of time will provide us with very valuable information so that people dedicated to innovation in the company know how to direct their thoughts to obtain differentiating products, technologies and services that will make us more competitive in the market.

Can you drive a digital innovation? Yes, of course, promoting more and more digital interaction with customers through e-mailings, interactive newsletters, social networks, digital fairs, blogs, etc.

Digital innovation is the differentiating element that will allow us to get out of mediocrity to become a leading company in the market. But really the important thing is to get the products to market, that is, to sell them in a profitable way for the company and in this way to do business that gives continuity and viability to the company. 

For this we need a powerful sales system that we have called “Digital Sales Result Strategy”.


José Carlos Álvarez Tobar,  P.A.D.E  IESE

Strategic Advisory                                               

           






 T: (+34) 93 205 5950 | M: (+34) 607 212 156 |                
@: josecarlos.alvarez@iese.net
 www.awinvestment.eu







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