January 04, 2021
Digital is changing how the world works and lives, providing better experiences and outcomes for people across the globe. It is the great leveler. But keeping a level head when trying to figure out how to build a digital organization is anything but one-dimensional.
Transformation is about Creativity
Bring innovation to the organization.
There is little empirical research that ties creative to actual sales revenues,
but innovation is always an important part of successful transformations. Conventional wisdom says that creativity matters. A recent Harvard study found that certain dimensions of creativity are more effective than others in influencing purchasing behavior. The dimensions are:
Originality. Comprises elements that are rare or surprising, or that move away from the obvious and commonplace.
Flexibility. Smoothly links the product to a range of different uses or ideas.
Elaboration. Adds unexpected details or extends simple ideas so that they become more intricate and complicated.
Synthesis. Blends or connects normally unrelated objects or ideas.
Artistic Value. Includes a high level of artistic creativity and contains aesthetically appealing verbal, visual, or sound elements (e.g., Apple).
Originality is often a factor in the most effective combinations of these dimensions, suggesting that this type of creativity plays an important role. In essence, being original is not enough—originality boosts sales only in the presence of the additional dimensions.
The combination of getting your digital house in order and developing new products and services that delight customers (in creative ways) is ultimately what wins day after day.
Transformation is about Performance
Successful digital business performance has become increasingly important.
- Digital is an investment that requires sufficient resources for execution. Building a digital organization often starts with investment funding that establishes foundational platforms, skills, and organizational structures.
- Transformation demands an orchestrated ecosystem. Many organizations rely on digital partners to increase pace and add skills while steadily developing select competencies in-house that align with their business goals.
- Digital organizations often start in IT, but that is rapidly changing. As digital organizations mature, we have seen a change from close alignment with corporate IT to self-directed functions closely aligned with core business domains (e.g., business units, marketing, and sales).
- Digital accountability and decision-making authority tend to focus on growth. Digital leaders rarely have full profit and loss responsibility. Instead, they are typically accountable for digital revenue growth and coordination of enterprise digital investments to achieve governance and positive outcomes.
- Digital organizations have moved from a transactional ecommerce focus to an omni-commerce focus. They provide a seamless customer experience anywhere, regardless of customers’ preferred method of shopping.
Strategy and Execution
Strategy is about two things:
- Doing what everyone else is doing (but spending less money doing it), and
- Doing something no one else can do.
Strategy is a matter of making choices about:
- Where you want to go,
- Where to play and,
- How to win…
…then setting goals and actions on how to create customer value over time. “Getting things done” then becomes implementation or execution.
So, where do you start?
You cannot determine what your organization looks like unless you first understand what you are good at, which capabilities may need improvement, and which competencies you possess.
- Competencies are the combination of knowledge, skills, and behavior.
- A competency is not necessarily a person or a role on an organizational chart, nor is it specific to a platform or tool.
- Digital business capabilities are areas such as commerce and fulfillment, or content management.
Transformation is not an assessment, organizational plan or roadmap that has a beginning and end. Transformation is informed by your digital strategy and moves with the customers you serve.
To learn more, download Valtech’s latest whitepaper:
Transformation As a Way of Business.
