In a rapidly changing digital world, companies today know they need to prepare for how digital advancements will affect their industry – whether those changes have begun or are yet to be seen. According to an MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte University Press study, Aligning the Organization for Its Digital Future, nearly 90% of respondents to a 2015 global survey of managers and executives anticipate their industries will be disrupted by digital trends to a great or moderate extent, but only 44% say their organizations are adequately prepared for the disruptions to come.
It’s not surprising to see that only 44% believe they are adequately prepared for the disruptions ahead. The thought alone is somewhat daunting – developing digital capabilities or technologies, ensuring organizational goals are aligned, having the right talent to get the job done, not to mention a million other pressing priorities.
While many are unprepared, some organizations are being categorized as “digitally mature” and are making leaps forward. So what’s their secret? Do they have the brightest tech-focused minds in the industry to make these digital strides? While this may be the case for some organizations, it isn’t a requirement.
Develop common characteristics for a strong digital culture
MIT Sloan Management Review states that digitally mature organizations actually share a set of cultural characteristics. These common characteristics help transform organizations and propel them into the digital future. Characteristics include an expanded appetite for risk, rapid experimenting, heavy investment in talent, and recruiting and developing leaders who excel at “soft” skills.
Take a long-term view of digital strategy
In addition to the common characteristics of digitally mature organizations, they also place focus and emphasis on aligning their digital strategy with the overarching business strategy. According to John Hagel, co-chairman of the Center for the Edge at Deloitte, incorporating digital strategies is an imperative all companies need to accept.
Hagel states, “There is a tendency to see digital technology as an opportunity or choice. However, the mounting pressures of a rapidly shifting business landscape are turning digital from a choice into an imperative. The longer a business waits, the more marginalized it will become.”
Companies need to take a longer-term view of strategy to excel at digital transformation. Hagel believes that businesses should create strategies with 10- or 20-year time horizons to better gauge how their industry will change and how they can prepare for that change. He suggests using an approach used by many Silicon Valley companies: the zoom-out/zoom-in approach.
- Zoom-out looks at 10 or more years, predicting and defining what the market will look like and what customers will expect.
- Zoom-in looks at the next 6 to 12 months and identifies two to three business initiatives that will have the greatest potential to accelerate movement toward long-term destination.
Engage in rapid experimentation
Experimentation can be a scary word for some organizations. There’s often a mentality that once you put something out into the universe, it needs to be perfect. The benefit with experimentation is that organizations are able to quickly conduct small experiments to determine customer relevance, value, feasibility, and more.
Facebook frequently experiments with “minimum viable products” by testing small new features with a select audience to minimize their overall risk. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, Facebook gives major advertising clients access to new code 24 hours before broader releases. If something isn’t working, they can move customers back to previous versions. If everything is working properly, they roll out changes to their customer base of over 1.5 billion.
The key is to learn from experiments. Don’t dwell on what doesn’t work, and leverage the things that do. The benefit: You can quickly learn from failures – and successes – through continuous experimentation and adaption.
Invest in your own talent
According to MIT Sloan Management Review, you don’t need to hire high-tech geniuses to become a digitally mature organization. Effective digital leaders’ main attributes include “the ability to inspire, manage complexity, and develop distinct digital cultures conducive to success in rapidly changing environments.”
Beyond leadership, more than 75% of digitally maturing organizations surveyed provide their employees with resources and opportunities to develop their digital acumen. When you invest in your employees and provide them opportunities to learn and grow, they in turn are more satisfied and engaged.
It all hinges on digital congruence
Organizations that are succeeding share a common set of characteristics within their culture that enable them to be digitally mature. These characteristics are pieces that make up the digital puzzle. Many companies fail to ensure that all elements are working together.
The MIT Sloan Management Review references this as digital congruence – “when the culture, people, structure and tasks align with one another, the company strategy, and the challenges of a constantly changing digital landscape.”
Ultimately, being digitally mature is much more than the latest, greatest technological advances. Organizations are better suited to move forward in the digital landscape when all facets, from strategy and an investment in talent to an expanded appetite for risk and experimentation, are aligned.
