How Do You Know If You Need Digital Transformation?
Before any digital transformation, it’s important to assess your digital maturity. Fortunately, there are several benchmarks available, including Google and Boston Consulting Group’s digital maturity benchmark and the Microsoft and Harvard Business Review (HBR) model.
HBR identifies five stages that companies typically progress through on their transformation journey. By evaluating your company’s current performance using this benchmark, you can gain insight into where you are on your digital transformation journey and use this as a starting point.
As digital transformation progresses, your digital efforts will become more efficient and effective.
In addition to defining the levels of digital maturity, HBR also assessed the digital maturity of 150 companies across different industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, consumer products, financial services, aerospace, pharma, and biotech.
They discovered that while some companies struggled to make progress in their digital transformation efforts, many had achieved significant success. Interestingly, success wasn’t linked to the size of the company’s IT budget, nor did it matter whether the company was a digital native like Uber, Airbnb, or Netflix.
Size wasn’t a barrier to transformation either. Enterprises like Unilever, Fidelity, and Starbucks foster a digital innovation mindset and culture.
Finally, the researchers concluded that not all industries achieved a positive return on investment from their digital transformation efforts. Simply investing in technology isn’t enough – companies must provide the tools transformers need and support employees at all levels. It takes the right combination of technology, people, and processes to achieve superior performance. Companies that didn’t adequately support their employees with effective tools and processes failed.
To ensure the success of digital transformation initiatives, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the level of digital maturity in your industry, your competitive landscape, customer expectations, and the specific benefits you can gain from your initiatives. Only then can you maximize your chances of success.
