Things we don't get about digital transformation

Digital transformation is not a new thing: it started decades ago. It's just that back then it wasn't called this, and it is also much more spectacular today than in the 20th century. So there is a history we can explore, and when we do, unsurprisingly, there are a few things that stood out all along.

The time is never right

At the end of the 1980s, my colleagues and I used to share a computer. Everything was handwritten and scattered in the organization, and it remained so long after servers, databases and word processors became available. In the middle of the 1990s I had to bring my own computer to the office for my new employer to reluctantly consider providing computers to engineers. At the turn of the century it was challenging to convince my boss that C-level people could type their documents instead of giving handwritten papers to secretaries. Later on, way before the first iPad was released, I could see physical hesitation when I invited people to doodle with me on the touch-screen of my laptop.

During the pandemic, companies scrambled to use work-from-home technologies that start-ups had been trying to sell them for years. They could have taken advantage of them long ago.

Everyday Titanics of conservative money sink in the digital oceans.

All my life the companies I worked with were late. They typically started to implement something once it was proven and mainstream, struggling because they had little idea of how it worked.

Digital transformation is an entrepreneurial thing. If you wait until you can buy off the shelf, you're constantly in the past. You need to explore and anticipate. If you want to implement on time, it is never too early to experiment.

As usual, this is a tall order for corporate managers, who invest only when there is a clear return and low level of risk. To succeed in digital transformation, you need to walk around, play with things, try stuff, talk to weird people, and all this looks like a big fat waste of time to serious decision-makers. What they can't see is that tens of thousands of euros spent in the early stages will save them millions later, or open up gigantic but short-lived opportunities. And it's not like you can choose: some people still think that they can get a free ride with digital technology and that cybersecurity is optional. Everyday Titanics of conservative money sink in the digital oceans.

It's a red queen thing

In Alice in Wonderland, it's the red queen who tells Alice "it takes all the running you can do, just to keep in the same place".

Digital transformation is not something you can complete. Once it was about putting computers everywhere, then going paperless, then the workflow was the must have, then big data showed up, and of course all this looks so insignificant when you think of artificial intelligence today.

There is no top of the mountain. It grows as you climb, and even much faster if you don't hurry up. Just like product development, there is not a moment when you can say "I'm done", and you can fold the product development department. Even before you are finished with what you're doing, you're already thinking of the next move, the next big thing.

Actually if you get everything right today, and you really make the most of all the digital approaches and technologies available, with a bit of luck you might be sort of prepared for the next wave. But don't count on it and don't rest on your laurels. The hardest part is probably yet to come!

Get the business right before you transform it

Throughout the years I've been shocked over and over again by people approaching digital transformation like refurbishing, just digitizing a bit of their traditional business so it works better. This leads to all sorts of misbehavior, for instance :

• Herd mentality. "All our neighbors have an ERP, we need one".
• Fads. "This blockchain thing looks fantastic".
• Big brother. "With this app I'll be able to micromanage everyone any minute on anything".
• Tinkering. "Sales don't work, we'll buy a CRM".
• The sorcerer's apprentice. "Let's go online and see what happens".
• Blind bets. "Cryptocurrencies can quickly improve our bottom line".

When your business is mature, it is tempting to put strategy and vision on the back burner and freewheel a bit. Once you know your market, your competitors and how to make money, if nothing breaks there is no need to fix anything. You just do business as usual, with some adjustments when things change, for instance using a new digital technology when it becomes handy.

Unfortunately digital transformation doesn't work this way. New technologies don't improve your business, they create new things. They often work in a disruptive, not progressive way. You need to deeply understand what they do, analyze what you are doing now, imagine what you could do then, and anticipate because everything is moving in all directions at the same time. Without some thorough work on your strategy, organization, marketing and management, engaging in digital transformation activities is sleepwalking into a storm. You're opening a Pandora box without even knowing what it is.

We're humans

And even before we think about business, technology or companies, let's not forget that all this is about people. From the paper believers that I saw worshiping printers several times a day for so many years, to the engineers suddenly granted the superpower of multiplying mistakes with CAD, but also millions of small entrepreneurs empowered by their smartphone, we have all been changed by digital waves in many incredible ways.

Digital transformation is a constant interaction between us, the technology and the business environment, and when one changes, the other two are affected. It seems crazy to put a sociologist alone in charge of a digital project, and yet we're unfazed if an engineer or a business person runs the show. We are very professional when it is about money or technology, and happy-go-lucky when it is about us.

This has cost us dearly, often, and it will be much worse if we don't change our ways, because everyday the stakes are higher and digital technologies are getting closer to humans.

Now how many of us really try to anticipate new digital developments, benchmark the speed of their activities, review their business when implementing a digital project or formally look into its human aspect? The real challenge is not to agree on the above, but to take it into account in real business life.

Oh yes, internet. I think I forgot to talk about this one. It has something to do with digital transformation as well, right? There might be a few things to say about this too 😁.

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