Digital disruption doesn’t respect industry boundaries. As incumbents dabble with digital, bolder players are seizing their chance to dominate a new, technology-driven world. The only way to compete is to embrace digital at the core of your organisation and adopt a digital mindset to transform for tomorrow. Yet, 75 per cent of incumbents have yet to act.
We believe there are three perfectly achievable steps leaders can take to build their organisations to evolve in line with customer, market and technology disruption. We must learn lessons from disruptors, grapple with digital talent deficits and embrace an experimental mindset to unlock competitive advantage.
How ready is your organisation to Transform for Tomorrow
Savannah Group in partnership with PA Consulting and Prof. Venkat Venkatraman from Boston University have collaborated on a research study and report, collecting views and opinions from over 400 senior executives on the current state of their organisation’s digital transformation. Some of the findings include:
- 78% of respondents are experiencing tension between traditional and digital ways of working within their organisation
- 74% of respondents are more comfortable adopting digital technologies to enhance current business models than to disrupt them
- 66% of respondents are over-investing in “what we are good at today” and under-investing in “what we should be good at tomorrow
Have you Transformed for Tomorrow?
- Digital inside and out
- Balance present and future value
- Improved digital competencies and understanding among senior leaders
- Develop a pipeline of future talent with the skills to succeed in the digital age
- Maintain customer intimacy
- Adapt and respond at speed
- Pivot to be data driven
- Operate and manage platforms
A widening gap between ambition and reality
Leaders are clear on the direction, but the reality is organisations are struggling to respond. A core challenge of digital transformation is about keeping and preserving existing business, while at the same time preparing for a future shaped by technology change.
Starting your Digital Transformation
The journey to becoming ‘digital at the core’ isn’t the same for every organisation, and it’s important to take a tailored route. For many organisations, the answer is to run their current business on a legacy environment and create a separate digital sandbox or digital ‘bolt-on’ for the future business.
But wouldn’t it be great to have a common digital fabric underpinning both the current and future business?
To build a digital-first business, leaders must blend strategy and execution in a ‘think big, start small, scale fast’ approach:
Think big – Define your digital ambition
The way in which value and competitive advantage is created in the digital age is very different.
Start small – Take immediate small steps towards that ambition
Smaller experiments are easier to start, fund, learn from, tweak, and stop if they don’t work. And because they’re smaller, you can do more of them.
Scale fast – Deliver sustainable impact
Iterate and optimise. This is how you can monetise innovation, as well as create robust capabilities, momentum and confidence.
There’s no ‘start and exit’ – these steps aren’t necessarily sequential, and are in a permanent state of iteration, building an organisation that is responsive and agile at its core.
For the full results and commentary, download our report “Transforming for tomorrow“.
