How to manage Digital Transformation ?

03 Jun

An interview of Sharon Kedem-Shanny, CEO of GlobaLeadPro

Question - What are the most prominent expressions today that can be seen in organizations when it comes to digital transformation?

There are two levels in the organization that can and should be looked at in the context of digital transformation.

The first is the business level - a digital business transformation that is necessary today to maintain the competitive advantage of the organization.

The second is the internal organizational level - an organizational digital transformation that in many ways enables business digitization, but beyond that improves the work processes in the organization and makes the experience in the organization interactive and employee-friendly. At the business level, the main expression is to make the business processes interactive - friendly - effective, including creating a high level of connection to the end user. It could be comprehensive transformation projects, or a "rolling" process to make more and more business processes interactive. Obviously, the impact on the organization is great, because changing business processes to interactives also affects the workforce in the organization, the training, customer support, and so on.

At the internal operational level in the organization, the key expressions are upgrading / modernizing technologies to more innovative, more flexible and faster - those that allow the organization to move at a fast pace, automate processes, make internal organizational processes interactive by looking at employee experience and efficiency, information availability and up-to-dateness. Also accessibility of information - use of data and analytics.

Question - What do you think is the proportion of organizations that are already in the midst of the transition to digital, and what is the proportion of organizations that are expected to undergo the change in the coming year?

In fact the vast majority of organizations are at one stage or another of digital transformation. There is no organization today that I know that has not started this process. Indeed, according to updated statistics from Gartner, 91% of the organizations are already in this process, which reinforces the feeling from the field that the vast majority are already in the midst of the journey. Organizations that are at the beginning of the road, as mentioned, the need to maintain the competitive advantage and maintain the ability of the organization are critical and require organizations to continue to complete their transition to digital.

Question - In what ways can GlobaLeadPro help organizations make the transition to digital right?

Our vision at GlobaLeadPro is the fast, efficient, and effective organization that provides an empowering experience to its employees on the one hand, and gives its customers constant value on the other. We know it's possible. We see in the field how the implementation of correct and up-to-date work processes makes it possible to create the necessary change in culture, thinking and results. We also specialize in leading and managing digital transformation projects for our clients, as well as building the right and appropriate work processes in the organization, ones that will serve it and complete the process. It is impossible to talk about digital transformation and expect old methods of thinking / working to fit. The change should be at this level as well. We help our customers understand what needs to change, and together we build the roadmap for this change - at the most practical level. At the same time, we provide these project management services by experienced project managers who work with the appropriate working methods.

Question - What are the fundamental differences between the managerial concept that has existed so far, compared to the managerial concepts that must be implemented with the transition to digital?

The differences are many and substantial, but the good news is that these are processes that have already begun to happen in many organizations in recent years due to the need to become more innovative and agile organizations that are able to give lasting value to their customers. First of all the central managerial concept in the organization should be the need for innovation and innovation which provides value to the customers.

Managers need to know the "pains" and needs of the customer and lead their teams to constantly innovate thinking about ways to give him / her value. The way is to encourage teams to think, get creative, and create while sharing the vision and organizational goals and customer focus. Along the way, one should also get used to allowing. Allow more space, allow trial and error, but do it in a way that does not harm the organization but brings better solutions. Managers need to get used to open communication, flowing at all levels in the organization and full transparency to teams. Sometimes it will even affect the organizational structure.

Agile and empowering organizational structure - less hierarchical and more integrative will fit much better into the digital age. At the more operational level, managers need to change the concept of planning to a more iterative and open planning for change and flexibility. Execution should also be iterative and in short work cycles. Flexibility and agility is a critical aspect when it comes to digital transformation.

Managers are also required to know how to maximize the use of data in day-to-day decisions, and continue to think about how to create databases that will be a competitive advantage for the organization.

Question - Please point out three weaknesses that organizations currently have when switching to digital. That is, what organizations tend to do wrong, and what needs to be improved for the transition to be smooth and smooth.

First of all let's put it on the table. This transition is not easy. There are many challenges in this journey and often also crises along the way. Organizations first need to understand this and prepare for it. The managers involved in the transformation projects should be the ones who have more resilience and ability to deal with uncertainty, difficulties and crises and know how to act and move forward. Staffing inexperienced and not “vaccinated” managers enough for leadership roles in transformation is a significant weakness. In the same context, a notable weakness is readiness. The organization must understand the complexity and prepare well. Investigate the options carefully (including vendor selection, technologies, approaches), analyze the implications carefully, including less optimistic scenarios and make sure the organization is willing to deal with them - from manpower and knowledge issues to costs, budgets and schedules. In terms of thinking and planning - the desire to "end the transformation at once" can be a weak point More about this source

Comments