Seven Deadly Sins of Digital Transformation
Transform with purpose: Technology drives change, but people power success.
Precedence Research estimates the global digital transformation market size was valued at $943.97 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach over $9.149 trillion by 2033, growing at a notable CAGR of 25.5% from 2024 to 2033.
Don’t commit one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Digital Transformation!
Focusing on technology over people: While technology is certainly an important aspect of digital transformation, it’s arguably more important to consider how the changes will impact employees. Strong leadership and good change management will help ensure employees are inspired, motivated, and aligned with the digital strategy.
Neglecting the customer experience: Customer experience must be at the heart of digital transformation. Process optimization and cost reduction will help improve the business, but they won’t change the game. Leveraging high-quality product, customer, and market data allows companies to create new business models that provide better product/service performance, customer experience, and business outcomes for customers.
Doing it alone: Adopting and implementing a variety of new technologies that need to cohesively work together while simultaneously modifying processes and managing cultural changes is a tough undertaking. Very few companies, if any, have the expertise and experience in-house to pull it off. Partner with experts you trust!
Not considering security: As organizations adopt new technologies, it's important to consider the security implications, both for the organization and for the customers. Cybersecurity is too important to be considered an afterthought in the digital transformation process. According to Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report 2022, Manufacturing at 28% had the highest ransomware incident and recovery engagements of any industry.
Not being agile: Very few large-scale transformations go exactly as planned. In addition, technological advancements and market conditions are changing so fast that failure to react and adapt quickly can be catastrophic. Embrace digital and cultural agility to foster an environment of continual innovation.
Lack of a clear vision & strategy: A good digital transformation strategy should describe what success looks like, how it will be graded, and how the combination of technologies will be integrated across all systems and processes to transform the business.
Lack of leadership agreement & commitment: Digital transformations are designed to be disruptive and can often be costly. Company leaders not only need to agree on the digital strategy, but they also must be fully committed. Otherwise, digital initiatives will run the risk of goal and priority misalignment, high levels of resistance, and loss of funding.
References:
Precedence Research 2023 Digital Transformation Market Report: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/digital-transformation-market
Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2022: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/security-insider/intelligence-reports/microsoft-digital-defense-report-2022
