The digital parlance of the ‘F’ word. Pardon my French.

Are we having the discussions on Agility action that would make the enterprise more flexible in an emerging new economy or discussing only on efficiency measures to keep the company afloat? Either way the new age ‘F word’ Digitization, has its place.

The myth

I am not a technology expert. In there lies the myth about Digitization, digitalization and digital transformation. Many seem to think it’s a technology of sorts and spoken by the whiz kids of technology. Many shy away thinking they know little about all the techno buzz words from blockchains to AI’s to data lakes to RPA’s. If you didn’t know those acronyms, don’t worry as it will not hurt you in your digitization journey.

I send out WhatsApp messages to a fair bit of my friends, relatives and acquaintances, asking a simple question as to what they think digitization/digitalization and digital transformation is. Some senior executives said it was moving from analog to digital such as an analog watch to a digital apple watch, while certain others developed the broad thinking of it as, enabling e- commerce of different sorts. Yet some others responded saying it’s making it easier to do things through internet assisted platforms. Taking automation to a common man was a reply from a half-techie. A top techie responded saying, digitising manual work but the process it forms would be digitalization. Are these responses wrong? No, far from it. All had parts of the digitization process embedded. The issue is not just the words but as to what we understand about digital transformation. That’s what we should be interested in.

The reality is that most of us are not sure what this means. Many seniors who run organizations perhaps are not sure themselves as to exactly what it means or how to get about it. Perhaps many are wedged in between, where the transformation seems like a need but lacking the understanding on what it is and how to get about it. We must remember, most of the investor entrepreneurs and seniors in our part of the world at least, are not techies as such. They need to have a fair bit of an understanding of where the world is heading with digitization, digitalization or digital transformation. But they don’t need to know the technology that would take them there. Business managers need to understand and map the journey. Not the nuts and bolts that makes up the vehicle. We can find engineers for that.

The truth

Let’s get out of playing with words, but look at the core.

I believe what most of us are seeking is a bit of all these buzz words but with the core concept of needing to transform your business. This is digital transformation. You need to digitize some or many areas in the process. You might need to undertake many a project that builds digitalization and transforms processes and action. But the core is “The digital transformation of your business”. That’s the key.

Customer centric transformation of business. That’s the starting point and the underlying principle of the digital journey. To understand where your customers are moving and transform and reposition your business to be relevant to them. In today’s day and age, to get there with a sustainable business model that’s relevant for tomorrow, the digitization journey we undertake today has to be truly transformative, looking beyond what was good for us in the past. The legacy mindset needs to be cleared.

So, there goes the underlying fact. Digital transformation is all about, transforming your business / processes, digitally enabled, to respond to customers better. It’s about a strategic realignment thus you serve the customer better. You beat the competition. You pre-empt disruption. You re-position your offering based on customer realignments. It’s a complete journey of end-to-end. It’s not having a website or an e-commerce channel. That’s adding a channel.

The conclusion

Does every business need to undertake this journey; well ideally it looks to be so, given the speed and intensity with which technology is changing the world and the way in which new generations are embracing techno-centric consumerism. Besides that, the new normal, bringing in a future that’s more dependent on technology centred delivery systems across the globe, gives very little choice.

Is it the words that matter? Well, just map out your customer journey and see where you need to meet him/her to serve and what’s the best method to do so in an efficient manner. Well, digitization has to be a part of it, given the need for speed and efficiency. Then just map that new customer serving/servicing path. That’s your digital transformation path.

Should you know technology to do a digital transformation or for that matter select a technology and then customise that and build a journey. Well far from it. We don’t even know what technology would be there in two years to come, leave along a decade. Just map your business path and enable it with the technology required to achieve the level of success you determine as needed. The old saying of Mercedes engine in a Morris Minor might not work.

You know your customer better than anyone else. You design the path.