Customers and employees expect a more seamless and consumer-friendly way to interact with the companies they do business with.
For many, the benchmark for innovation is the seamless experience of streaming platforms like Netflix or Disney+. The ability to deliver content instantly, at scale, and tailored to the individual has redefined entire industries. Becoming more digital—both internally and externally—is increasingly the only path to greater profitability, differentiated offerings, speed to market, and sustained market share.
Organizations today are wrestling with critical questions that highlight the urgency of digital transformation:
What is my “Netflix moment”? Which digitally enabled competitor is preparing to disrupt my industry?
How do I prioritize the right digital initiatives and allocate capital most effectively?
How do I help my leadership team understand that digital transformation is not a one-time project, but an ongoing journey requiring alignment across all levels of the organization?
Which areas should we emphasize—go-to-market strategy, product and service innovation, or supply chain modernization? Which offer the highest return, which carry the most risk, and which can deliver results most quickly?
Should we invest in entirely new digital business opportunities, or concentrate on digitizing and optimizing our existing operating model?
How can we reimagine and digitize core business processes, while leveraging data insights to continuously evolve our business model?
Digital Transformation Definition
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Digital Transformation is a long-term journey to rewire how a business operates using modern, scalable, digital technologies to eliminate friction at critical points of interaction between your company and its customers, prospects and employees.
What market forces drive the need for digital transformation?
Major market disruptions like manufacturers setting up a direct-to-consumer sales channel drive the need for digital transformation. Also, event tickets being delivered digitally or more subtle changes like declining customer NPS scores due to perceived difficulty in transacting with your company.
Another example is increased employee turnover because the employee experience is outdated and the realization that your operating costs are not in line with industry standards due to outdated processes and a lack of automation. Or the inability to grow the top line due to uncertainty of marketing effectiveness.
Digital transformation begins with strategy and vision, but like any transformation requires leadership alignment and commitment, adoption of a true digital mindset, a transformative execution plan that brings new capabilities to life, and finally ongoing measurement of digitally enabled outcomes that drive adjustment to the roadmap.