A recent survey of directors, CEOs, and senior executives found that digital transformation (DT) risk is their #1 concern in 2019. Yet 70% of all DT initiatives do not reach their goals. Of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on DT last year, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste. Why do some DT efforts succeed and others fail?
Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology
Strategy, culture, and customer experience are just as important.
March 13, 2019
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Summary.
Companies are pouring millions into “digital transformation” initiatives — but a high percentage of those fail to pay off. That’s because companies put the cart before the horse, focusing on a specific technology (“we need a machine-learning strategy!”) rather than doing the hard work of fitting the change into the overall business strategy first. Not only should they align tech investments with business goals — they should also lean more on insider knowledge than outside consultants, acknowledge fears about job loss that those insiders may have, develop deep knowledge of how changes will affect customer experience, and use process techniques borrowed from the tech world (experimentation, prototyping, etc.) to facilitate change.