Did you ever think of Uber as a major competitor for FedEx? Today Uber deliver packages being a major disruptor. Thanks to the “digital transition.”
Only a few large businesses are truly digital, but being digital is an essential step that every business must eventually take if they are to stay relevant and efficient. Many businesses are still struggling to be digitized.
Businesses must complete several stages to become a digital organization. Understanding these stages helps make this transition as smooth as possible.
The Term “Digital Transitions” is Too Vague
Digital transformation alone is not enough. Businesses must pay attention to the design of their processes to fulfill the chosen digital strategies. One of the main goals behind going digital is for businesses to compete at a high level in their respective markets. For instance, before Amazon became such a huge digital success, books were limited to libraries and bookstores. But this digital transformation paved the way for an entirely innovative book reading experience.
The digital transition itself is much too vague. Why does your business want to go digital? What sort of unique products/services can your business provide digitally?
As we continue to move deeper into the digital age, we are going to see technology move quickly, and more products/services are going to become digital. Digital transformation solutions don’t mean that a business will adopt digital technology. It means that they will start using digital technology as a catalyst for the way they do business.
Define What it Means to Have a Digital Organization
For a business to become digital, it will have to reformulate its business strategy. Its entire model will need to be changed to meet digital demand. With that said, digital distribution is starting to become the norm for businesses, so everyone eventually needs to make the transition. Even small mom and pop stores can gain tremendous benefits from expanding digitally.
The first step is always going to be defining your business strategy as you move it into a more digital environment. How will it change your culture and capabilities? The goal must be to shape your business in a new way. The problem is that a lot of businesses move over to digital out of necessity without creating a digital roadmap. Action without a plan has no benefit.
With that in mind, here are some of the minima focuses that your business will need to make.
Become More Customer-Centric
Businesses are powered by customers more than ever before. Customers hold all of the power, so one of the primary reasons that businesses become digital is to become more customer-centric. The appeal is that customers can interact with their favorite businesses from anywhere. But they still expect the customer journey to be fully customized to meet their demand. The difference is that they want to be able to continue their transactions from anywhere.
Plan Big but Scale Slowly
Don’t try to do it all at once. Create an overall plan for digitizing your business and then take small steps towards implementing it. Another huge benefit of digital is that it has broken down most of the barriers that have traditionally kept small businesses from competing in a global market. The key is to plan and reshape your business to meet the new digital model. Just be sure that you don’t overwhelm your business. Take small steps until you reach specific milestones.
Let Data Empower your Business
Digital organizations can access all of the data they want. Information is powerful in business, and everyone has equal access to a ton of it. Digital organizations gain access to tools that traditional business models will not have. Even companies that are based in a local market will benefit from digital expansion.
Follow These Stages to Transition to Digital
Stage 1: Prep for the Transition
At this stage, your business will be brainstorming with the possibility of finding digital solutions to meet some of the new challenges that you are facing. This is going to seem very threatening to a lot of people within the business because they don’t understand what it truly means to go digital.
Most of the time, the main motivation behind digital transitions is to keep up with the competition. The chances are that your competitors are offering something valuable that you’re unable to compete with. At this early stage, planning is everything. Make sure that there are no internal structures that will hamper your efforts.
Stage 2: Shift in Mindset
When you start to shift your mindset over to a more digital focus, you’ll see things a bit differently. Everything becomes more inspirational and doesn’t come across as threatening. Going digital is more of an opportunity than it is a risk or a threat. This is the mindset that you want all of your team to possess before moving forward.
You’ll want to incorporate digital technology into the everyday operation of the business to enable this mindset. It will lead to faster operations and more streamlined business processes.
Stage 3: Master the Digital World
Once you have started to implement the plan for your company’s digital transition slowly, you’ll start to master the experience. This is where a digital-first mindset will start to form and eventually becomes the foundation in which you will build the future of your business. This is the stage in which businesses will start to reap the highest rewards.
Understanding your Digital DNA
Understanding what makes your digital business tick is going to help keep you on the right path moving forward. Here are three steps that will help you define your digital DNA:
- Determine the current level of your business’s digital maturity.
- Figure out how digital your business needs to become.
- Develop an action plan for achieving that end.
Key Principles of Digital Organization
One of the defining principles of a digital organization is that they are using digital practices in all areas of their business. It’s at the core of everything they do. This is a much different mindset than simply using the latest digital tools. Fully digital organizations follow all of these principles:
- They develop their culture around digital innovation.
- They take action to transition their business further.
- They overcome all challenges that come with the digital transition.
Facing the Challenges to Becoming Digital
- Many company cultures are highly resistant to change, so this is a mindset that must be overcome.
- Going digital requires businesses to share and collaborate on a higher level than traditional businesses. This limited collaboration mindset must be overcome.
- Many traditional businesses are not ready for digital transformation solutions. Make sure your business is fully ready before making the lunge.
- Businesses sometimes find that their current teams are just not qualified to perform the new processes required of a digital company. Training will be a requirement.
Conclusion
Digital transitions are the way of the business world now. To be in the market, it’s very important for companies to take baby steps towards digital transformation even to sustain and grow eventually. Before adopting digital transformation, companies must look for market research services, and data analysis services to be able to identify the digital gaps effectively, be aware of some of the challenges that digital transitions might create and adopt technology accordingly. Start the journey today to stay ahead tomorrow. Contact us to know more about how market research can help in your digital journey.
– Research Optimus
