Personal Case Experience:
Digital Strategy & Digitalization /3
 

Don't forget the obvious: Even in a digital world, it is all about people (DEUTSCHER TEXT FOLGT IN KÜRZE)

Obviously, the "digitalization imperative", has not only become a top priority for management but also for their supervisory boards, shareholders and other stakeholders, inluding the media. That causes a high level of stress for management and their organisations: The relatively high level of unknown new technologies, the cross-functional complexity and, not to forget, the resulting challenge of existing processes, products, business models and - of course - of key people will most likely challenge the existing power structures in the organisation itself.

Effective change management is therefore decisive from day one of a successful digital business transformation. That itself is obvious and nothing new. But nevertheless it needs to be addressed explicitely and properly when planning and executing the transformation. The process of developing an individual digital vision and digital transformation roadmap itself is inseparable from the process of developing your organisation and its people. Whether you fail to get the necessary buy-in or whether you manage to identify, activate and engage the right influencers in your organisation is decided already at the beginning of this process. So you better make sure to get it right from the beginning, with a clear focus on the objective. Not like SIEMENS which - despite an incredibly high investment of over a Billion - decided to completely restructure its eBusiness activities just about 1.5 - 2 years after they had started with an extraordinary level of motivation, excitement and ambitions. That story reveals, corporate (power) structures and politics might play a bigger role in shaping the destiny of our Digitalization initiative than you think. Even if the person at the very top - the Group´s CEO - is fully committed and appropriate budgets are in place. But if you seize the digital opportunity well you will find a way to deliver an entire new value proposition to your customer. And trust me, if it´s not you, then it is just a question of time before somebody else with do that. So, unless you are planning to invest in (expensive) acquisitions, you´d better start today.

Since the 90s I have worked on all of the 7 levels - in companies of all sized and cultures: for global corporations, for mid-sized enterprises and also with my own digital venture. I would love to embark on this journey with you and your team together!