Digital Transformation Strategies

In 2014, the term “digital transformation” was rare. But today, the world would be hard-pressed to find a technology conference where the buzzword wasn’t featured prominently. The expression, which refers to the use of digital technologies such as the Big Data, Internet of Things, application programming interfaces and artificial intelligence to drive business transformation.

But while the concept of leveraging digital technology as a central strategy for everything in all sectors, the notion of digital transformation is receiving an unhealthy amount of hype. It’s as if we have been on a digital transformation roller coaster for the past four years, but climbing the coaster’s initial slope the entire time. 

Establish digital KPIs

In a digital age, key performance indicators (KPIs) must evolve to reflect the concept of digital strengths and weaknesses. But even if you are not a consumer-focused industry, follow the leaders and create your set of enterprise-wide digital KPIs.These will become your enterprise compass built into the performance objectives of every leader within the organization. Digital allows for deeper outcome-driven measures and digital KPIs apply to all industries including government.

Plan a new talent strategy

To ensure that digital transformation strategies succeed requires a focus on talent and that organizations leverage “cross-functional teams with technology at their core. Technology is now critical to each functional areas of each and every organization.

The rise of digital business is changing how firms hire and retain talent, but the shift isn’t easy. Recent  studies show that talent and culture are top challenges for all functional leaders including CIOs. But one thing that is clear, you will need a different approach than traditional hiring.

In recent years, organizations were mostly able to find professionals with the skills they needed, including professionals versed in areas such as customer relationship management software, cloud computing, project management and infrastructure. But now, the market is not meeting the demand for professionals experienced in BIG DATA ,CYBER SECURITY,ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, and INTERNET OF THINGS.

In terms of finding talent to help with these initiatives, follow a creative approach like find alternative ways to fill the need using contracting, renting, sharing, nurturing from within. Lease skills instead of buying them and work with your sourcing leaders to capitalize on external services.

One of the most potent aspects of these may be its ability to augment human workers, combining the best capabilities of human workers with the best capabilities of machine learning systems. “AI will automate some people out of work”. Recent report reveals “starting in 2020, 1.8 million jobs will indeed be lost globally.” But by that same year, AI will have created 2.3 million new jobs, creating trillions of dollars' worth of new business value while saving billions of hours of work. “So, prioritize your investment in artificial intelligence, beginning at the top with AI capable leaders.”

Prioritizing culture and talent evolution

The secret to digital is analog and by analog, I mean people. “It is about augmenting the people you already have and modernizing your talent for scale.” What I noted that the looming skill gap is not just an IT problem. “There has been a 60% growth in technology skills required for non-IT roles in the past couple of years,”. For organizations to scale digital projects will require a shift in how they approach culture and talent, instilling what called “digital dexterity” in workers, which requires being agile, analytical, innovative and creative. Digital dexterity also requires bridging the physical and virtual worlds. “Talents like being a customer empath, a skill mentor, a process hacker and an app savant will all require a rich blend of digital and analog competencies in the broader workplace.