Is Your Industry Immune To The Digital Transformation? – NO – All Brands Are Going Digital
It can’t be overstated: no industry is immune to digital transformation. In 2017, we are seeing that all brands are going digital.
This message is almost everywhere, from the internet to business magazines to almost every new digital-related study that endeavors to address the importance of businesses adapting to and remaining competitive and relevant in this new business landscape. Everyone is on the same page that all brands are going digital is the next massive industry pivot.
Interestingly, even though both digital and non-digital companies are aware that digital disruption is inevitable, not all of them (except for industry leaders) are making fundamental changes to stay ahead of these threats. Well, they might be paying attention, but still feel they don’t have what it takes to make the necessary adjustments. Sadly, some are also regularly fed with a barrage of advice – most often than not, conflicting and wrong – about thriving, growing and transforming themselves to fit in the fast-changing market.
Other reports have also found that companies are reluctant to embrace new technology innovations because of certain perceptions. These perceptions are treacherous, misleading and can lead to dangerous and expensive blunders for organizations even on the verge of moving into the new digital economy.
If you still believe that your industry is free from digital transformation, you need to look around and learn from big names like Blockbusters and Kodak that were displaced by new digitally savvy competitors. And this explains why many leaders in every industry have embraced the change and continue to gain huge benefits than their competitors.
You can avoid getting caught up in this confusion. And this post will help you understand why no industry is immune to digital transformation, and why your business needs a digital transformation overhaul not only to stay competitive in the continuously-evolving market but also keep pace with technological disruption.
It’s not Only About Technology
Digital transformation has made it easy for big digital companies to adapt to the storm of new technology usually affecting markets and customers. Unlike the past, electronic records are rampant, online shopping is becoming popular, and businesses are moving their offline businesses online. Is that all digitalization is all about?
Acquiring and implementing the right technology for your business is important. If you don’t treat technology as a tool, nonetheless, you’re preparing for disappointments. No matter the technology you acquire to run your business, an alteration in your business culture is what makes digital transformation a success. You have to think about people, data, processes, and culture of the organization for technology to work.
One of the challenging parts of the process is your staff adapting and accepting the change. Nevertheless, if the leadership team can step up and point the rest of the staff in the right direction, the change will be embraced across the whole company.
Other Opportunities Exists Apart From Customer Experience and Marketing
Digital transformation has aided the world’s biggest players in every industry to stay ahead of their competitors by creating, enabling and nurturing stellar customer experience. Even with the ever-changing technology, they can swiftly transform their internal processes to quickly deliver exciting new products and services that their customers crave.
While organizations that are moving to digital focus so much on creating an exceptional and highly relevant customer experience (they consider it their top priority), other opportunities also exist in efficiency, productivity and employee leverage. Together, these three forces can ensure that products are in line with advances in technology, meet customer expectations and generally lead to productivity improvement. When you take advantage of these opportunities the right way, you get access to larger online markets that are currently out of reach, which is one surefire way to accelerate growth.
Digital Transformation is Not a One-Time Investment
Digital transformation is not a one-off project or investment. A lot of organizations that believe that their digital transformation program is going very well – even if it’s delivering the results anticipated – have it all wrong. In fact, digital business models that provide your organization the ability to stay ahead of your competitors are constantly-changing. New channels are emerging, different ways of engaging with your customers and making your brand connection more tangible are conceived as well.
Evolution
Evolving with the rapid pace of digital change requires an extra and continued effort to increase efficiency with technology wherever possible. That would mean adopting agile principles across the business. For instance, investing in a slick website seems like the best thing to do if you aim to create an online presence. However, customers will require more than a website for you to gain their trust and become a leader in the industry. You see, the prevalence of legacy technology spans all industries, and even if you acquired the most successful digital transformation program, you cannot be digital in one day/month/year. Technology changes day after day, therefore, business transformation must be continuous or else you’re going to fall increasingly behind.
Moreover, technological innovations have led to technology disruptions. Identifying and assessing such threats might not be a problem. However, to remain competitive in the long run, established companies must adopt and use new and right technology innovations to curb tech disruptions. This mean that what you used last year might not necessarily provide the results you want today.
Digital Transformation Approach is Not Different for Every Industry and Company
Resistance to change is one of the challenges that hinder digital transformation. Some organizations are not receptive to the new trend simply because they struggle or because they don’t see their expectations met or exceeded.
While some industries and companies are more digital than others, the journey towards digital transformation is not different. The large and growing gap that still exists between industries, and between companies within those industries isn’t attributed to the approach industry leaders take to become digital entirely. It is because they understand that digital transformation is not a mere shake-up of processes, but rather a fundamental change to the very foundational components of the business. They understand that they have to frequently engage their customers through high quality, simple digital channels, streamline workflow and operations through an effective and seamless collaboration between teams and departments, gain insights and foresight that can help improve management and marketing decisions, and more importantly, speed development of new products and services going forward.
Digital TransformationThe truth is these things are not premeditated nor are companies ready to transform every time a new technology emerges. They are forced to evolve. The sooner they do it, the better. All brands are going digital, make sure you do.
With this in mind, industry leaders are not only paying attention but also not reluctant to make alterations in their business strategies necessitated by the changing landscape. To them, transformation is a way of life, and are using digital technologies to move forward digitally as well as accelerate their growth.
