The world is increasingly digitized. We’re spending more time online and it has changed how we work, shop, and spend our free time.
90% of people have increased their online activities, which has shown that the most important change that businesses need to make to be successful in the future is digital transformation.
Even during periods when the global economy is not doing well, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increases in online shopping and sped up the process of digital transformation.
During the pandemic, many people increased their online activity by 20-25 times. Some people were able to transition to remote work 43 times faster than their bosses thought possible.
Digital transformation is something that businesses have been aware of for many years.
The primary benefit of digital technology that enterprises have been the first to appreciate is speed.
We investigate what businesses need to do to improve performance, customer engagement, and profits through digital transformation skills.
1. Define Clear Objectives
In order to create a custom-made framework, you’ll need to figure out exactly what digital transformation means to your company and employees in terms of objectives and long-term strategy.
The study found that digital transformation is often confused with digitization and digitalization, which are both processes that are a part of digital transformation.
Different interpretations among leaders and managers lead to different goals, causing inconsistencies in actions and outcomes.
If the goals of the digital transformation are not clear or not communicated well, the final result will be that different parts of the organization are not working together towards the same goal, and people will see this as a failure.
If the organization does not have a culture of transformation that includes everyone or the employees are resistant to change, it will be difficult to get them to agree to new processes.
The only way to solve this is to create an integrated transformation framework that uses both technology and people.
A digital transformation can mean different things to different businesses, so it’s important to tailor the transformation to fit the specific business. After the interpretation is complete, the business should focus on creating a long-term strategy that will keep them competitive in their industry.
A clear purpose gives the organization energy and aligns everyone to work together towards practical, achievable objectives.
2. Create an Integrated Strategy
It is crucial that businesses have a clear vision and set of strategic objectives to create a truly integrated digital strategy- only 59% of businesses overcome all hurdles without this. This would allow for sustainable transformation goals to be met.
Many businesses make the mistake of concentrating on particular technologies to improve general performance, rather than developing a complete strategy designed to overhaul their whole operation across all systems and processes.
Like with many things, digital transformations usually don’t work out as expected because people try to put new technologies onto processes that don’t work instead of fixing the processes. Also, people are usually resistant to change which doesn’t help the situation.
Leaders can improve business transformation results by integrating strategies that start with a goal-driven process, organizational design change management, and developing these strategies together.
This means that every interaction a customer has with a company, from finding out about the product to using it to after-sales service, should be taken into account when digitizing a business.
System integration is vital in connecting all of a company’s IT systems, technologies, applications, and software so they function as one system.
The SI connects different parts of a business infrastructure so that they can work together, which can make various processes faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
The digital transformation industry is predicted to grow to $530 billion by 2025, double the 2015 value.
3. Inspire a Change in Culture Through Leadership
Digital leadership is more important than ever. Those in charge need to find new ways to lead and support a workforce that consists of full-time employees, AI tools, freelancers, and remote workers who are all working together.
Leaders need to be able to adapt their leadership style to changing situations in the workplace.
The group of people make sure that everyone who works there is ready and willing to change the way the business operates using digital technologies.
The area of leadership is receiving a lot of attention from people working on transformation projects. Our research shows that these people are feeling a lot of pressure when it comes to strategy and leadership.
One of the biggest lessons for leaders is understanding that digital transformation is not only about harnessing new technology but also about inspiring and motivating human change.
In order to be successful digitally, you need to overcome the human obstacles that are preventing change. This includes motivating employees to see the value in new work methods and showing them how technology can help, not hurt, their careers.
Leadership is responsible for solving these people-based challenges and requires the ability to drive change on a large scale.
Leadership and talent are both important in critical positions, as no one person has all the required knowledge and capability.
Digital transformation is a shift in the organization’s culture. Therefore, leaders need to have a strong transformation plan in place in order to be successful. Leaders also need to understand the digital ecosystem and its potential.
By understanding the complexities of successful digital transformation, they can develop the confidence to invest in digital transformation strategies and capabilities that will enable ongoing success.
According to the research, 66% of respondents have experienced a significant amount of disruption in the last six to twelve months.
The forced changes due to the pandemic in recent years have affected us individually as well as our workplaces in various ways. It does not seem like the trend of changing work patterns and new technologies will slow down anytime soon.
The text is saying that digital transformation has gone from being a luxuary to a neccessity.
Nadella states that, in the past year, the way we work has changed rapidly and that we need to redefine productivity to include factors such as collaboration, learning, and well-being. He emphasizes the need for flexibility in when, where, and how people work.
Learning agility is the ability to take what you have learned from experiences and apply that knowledge to new and challenging situations.
Executives who are quick learners are five times more likely to stay highly engaged, and companies with these types of employees have 25% higher profit margins.
This readiness to learn and change gives us the opportunity to take on new opportunities faster. Jeanne Ross, from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research, tells us that “becoming digital introduces new revenue streams as old revenue streams deteriorate.”
Learnable agility is a key skill for employees, especially those in leadership positions. It allows you to unlearn unproductive habits and think creatively.
The number one driver of digital transformations is the ability to make fast, agile leadership decisions.
Follow these four fundamental principles to adopt an agile mindset:
- Prioritize people and interactions over processes and tools. This includes engaging with peers and thought leaders.
- Prioritize creating software that works over producing comprehensive documentation, which can cause unnecessary delays.
- Collaborate with customers instead of focusing on contracts and numbers, and let them inform product development and marketing.
- Respond to change, versus simply following a plan, with continuous adaptation. This entails a continual process of optimization, adjustment, and openness to change.
An agile mindset is useful for dealing with rapidly changing conditions as part of business and career growth. It offers a competitive advantage, especially in disruptive times.
5. Digital Literacy
You should never take the basics of digital marketing for granted in your business.
Thirty-three percent of workers in the United States lack the digital skills necessary for most jobs, according to a recent study.
In other words, over 1 in 10 people have no digital skills and almost 2 in 10 people have very limited skills.
Digital literacy is an important skill for potential employees to have.
Most people only use social media for making basic posts, and don’t know how to do more advanced things such as creating a paid ad or analyzing performance.
You will also need employees who are familiar with online tools such as Slack, Zoom, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Google Analytics.
You should not assume that all employees in your company will be able to use these programs easily.
Make sure your staff is up-to-date with the latest digital marketing trends so they know what to watch out for.
It is beneficial for your business to find ways to encourage digital literacy within the company. This could be done by offering short courses in digital marketing that would give employees a professional certification.
If you don’t keep up with the latest technology, you’ll fall behind and become irrelevant in a competitive business setting.
6. Data and Digital Security
Data breaches rose dramatically last year, with The Identity Theft Resource Center’s annual report showing a record-high 68 percent increase.
The reason for this increase is because of well-known cyberattacks that went after large oil pipelines in America as well as businesses like T-Mobile. This put the personal information of millions of people in danger.
Physical security is a simple task of ‘hardening’ a facility with security cameras, good locks, and security guards. However, data protection is more difficult to ensure. You must take measures to protect your company’s data, as well as your customers’ data.
If your information is seized and you’re the victim of a data hostage threat, you should know what to do. Whether people have broken into your system and are monitoring your activity or even copying sensitive research material or private data, you should be aware of it.
Cybersecurity refers to the practices and technologies used to protect electronic information from unauthorized access or damage. Cyber resilience is the ability of an organization to bounce back from a cyber attack or other digital disruption.
Both are huge concerns for organizations across the globe. Meeting these challenges requires technical proficiency, specialized talent, prioritization in business plans, and strong leadership.
For industries that need to protect sensitive data or customer information, this is the most important thing.
Digital security is important for businesses in order to protect customers and the business from data breaches and theft.
The security of your online data is essential to maintaining customer trust and ensuring the reputation and future success of your business.
7. Digital Marketing
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most important skills to have when it comes to digital marketing. While traditional media like billboards, displays on the sides of buildings, radio commercials, and television commercials are still important, digital marketing is also important.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most important skills to have when it comes to digital marketing.
In today’s society, we interact with social media and digital content on our phones and computers just as much as we do with real-world materials.
By 2025, 4.4 billion people across the world will be using social media networks regularly according to Statista data. This means that companies will need to have employees with the right skills to engage and convert these customers.
Marketing departments must now use digital media to interact with the market and get information from it. They must also be willing to use analytics to understand this data.
Digital transformation has made marketing more interactive and engaging for audiences.
Digitally savvy marketers that can understand and exploit the level of engagement afforded by digital marketing, stand the best chance of making an impact with consumers. Effective digital formats and channels include:
- Social media
- SEO & SEM (find out the how you can make SEO and SEM work together for great impact)
- Websites
- Paid search
- Display advertising
- Influencer marketing
- Affiliate marketing (consider affiliate marketing as a new revenue stream)
If your company wants to successfully undergo a digital transformation, it’s important to invest in digital marketing skills for your employees. This will ensure that your business is able to take advantage of all the opportunities that come with digitization.
8. Data Analysis
the saying “knowledge is power” is often used to describe the benefits of digital technology in business. This is because digital technology provides businesses with large amounts of data that can be used to improve their understanding of their customers and their market.
Your organization won’t be able to direct its marketing and creative dollars effectively if it doesn’t know who its target demographic is or where they like to shop or the devices used to research and browse.
If your teams can’t find the analytics tools or read the data they output, your business won’t know if the campaign is worth funding.
Data can be a helpful tool for businesses to identify areas of weakness or take advantage of strengths, but only if a company employs people who know how to find software, interpret data, and develop useful insights to act on.
It is important for businesses to be willing to assessment the large amounts of data that come from both customers and clients, as well as from day-to-day operations.
As Google moves away from using third-party cookies to collect customer data, it’s important for companies to find other ways to gather this information.
First-party data refers to data that a company collects about its own customers. Zero-party data is data that a company collects with the explicit consent of the customer.
Expertise from employees in data analysis, conclusion drawing, and policy/strategy development from data will benefit businesses.
Data and web analytics is not a glamorous task, but it is valuable to any organization’s digital transformation skillset.
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