I Would Say "Three No" To Digital Transformation

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I. What Is a Digital Transformation?

Since the proposal of "digitization", various industries have made different interpretations of it:

Alibaba proposes that digitization "is a process from business to data and back to business." The key to the digital transformation of enterprises lies in three points: unified IT structure, Internet-based business, and intelligent online data.

The consulting firm IBM puts digitalization at the strategic level: digitalization integrates digital and physical elements, the overall strategic planning, the transformation of business models, and the setting of new directions for the entire industry.

Source: IBM

Banking institutions put forward that digital transformation is to build a digital banking ecosystem under the guidance of financial technology strategy, driven by technology and data, based on knowledge sharing, and platform ecology as the logic, to provide customers and various partners with more convenience, more efficient financial services.

To sum up,"digital transformation is the process of people's productivity and production relations from the current to the digital environment."

II. What Problems Can Digital Transformation Solve for Enterprises?

1. Digital Transformation Solves the Production Problems of Enterprises

For the traditional manufacturing industry, the integration with the Internet platform can expand the upstream and downstream scope of the manufacturing industry chain and connect with big data. For example, based on valuable big data such as industry consumption trends, the production direction of manufacturing enterprises is determined, thereby improving production efficiency.

2. Digital Transformation Solves the Marketing Problems of Enterprises

In enterprise marketing, sales are no longer limited to offline physical stores but move sales to online. Correspondingly, corporate marketing strategies will also focus on crucial points in online marketing and promotion strategies.

Through many current data analysis and management platforms, the relevant data of target consumers is collected to achieve an excellent state of low operating costs and high operating efficiency.

III. The "Three No" of Digital Transformation

Technological change is both an opportunity and a challenge for companies. As more and more companies embark on digital transformation, many are experiencing the creative destruction of digitalization: Companies found that the privacy disclosure event has lost the customer group. The lack of digital talents has led to the stagnation of transformation.

Therefore, to make good use of the double-edged digitalization and avoid the harm caused by digitalization, enterprises must learn to do "three no."

1. Not Just Data

As a world-renowned pizza brand, Domino's has also experienced a downturn.

At a time of rapid development of digital technology, to meet customers' changing needs in the fast-food industry, Domino's decided to build a leading online ordering and point-of-sale platform, or what we call an e-commerce platform. At the same time, Domino's also proposed a "precision marketing" strategy. This means that the platform created by Domino's not only should collect data such as customers' names, contact information, and orders but also realize the information analysis of customers through the existing data assets to improve the consumption experience of customers. Since then, Domino's transformation has entered the fast lane.

Source: Domino’s Pizza

Domino's not only collect the customer's data through the online system platform but also uses and analyzes these data to extract the customer's personal information such as eating habits, consumption frequency, consumption range, and taste preference, and uses this information to optimize the product information and advertising mode of the platform.

Therefore, digitizing resources and realizing information analysis through data assets is the first step in digital transformation.

Digital transformation is not just about refining data but realizing the combination of data and information.

2. Not Just Tools

When it comes to digital transformation, many people may think of tools for the first time and use tools to assist transformation. But the implementation of tools alone cannot achieve true digital transformation. There is another essential factor: the power of culture.

In its growth, Amazon has constantly emphasized that "entrepreneurship is always the first day." No matter how fast the company develops, how large the scale is, how muscular the strength is and how high the market value is, it should be as fast, flexible, and iterative as on the first day of entrepreneurship.

To continuously build and strengthen the organizational culture of "Day One," Amazon has completed a clear definition from slogan to a specific behavior, designed a practical method from concept to daily work, made itself serve as an example to others in every decision, and gave special meaning to organizational culture through originality awards.

Source: Amazon

By continuously activating the "Day One" organizational culture, Amazon has successfully avoided the so-called diseases of large companies, such as complex processes, slow action, and rigid organization. The organizational culture of "Day One" brings Amazon employees not empty slogans but the vitality that each employee is inspired by and self-expressed.

This is the second step of digital transformation: Constrained processes through tools and constrained employees through culture. Digital transformation is not only the purchase and sale of tools but also the implementation of "tools + culture".

3. Not Just Individuals

Digital transformation will also accelerate talents transformation. In recent years, digital technology has been developing at an unprecedented speed. The continuous emergence of artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, cloud computing, and other technologies also pose challenges to traditional talents: Digital awareness, digital operation ability, insight, driving force. Cultivating digital talent is what enterprises need to consider.

In addition to the talents themselves, enterprises will also encounter some problems during digital transformation. On the one hand, such as the coordination concern of a remote office, on the other hand, there are problems such as personnel redundancy caused by changes in demand structure and efficiency improvement. At this time, the cultivation of digital talents alone cannot solve all problems, and enterprises at this time urgently need institutional reforms.

In terms of organizational structure, enterprises should establish an organizational responsibility and authority structure that matches the emerging capacity building, operation, and optimization. That is to establish a flexible organization in time to improve the adaptability of the organizational system to all aspects of digital transformation.

This is the third step of the digital transformation: Digital transformation depends on individual talent and the management of individual + systems.

There is no universal formula for digital transformation, and there is no so-called silver bullet. How to conform to the trend and transform the actual digitization? Please remember the "three no".