‘Going digital’ sounds easy.
Sadly, it is not.
Almost every company I visit or work with needs, to one degree or another to be aggressively moving down the path towards ‘digitisation’.
Just what does ‘digitisation’ mean?
For most of my clients it means automating some or all of the existing processes driven by bits of unconnected software and spreadsheets, liberally connected by people handing things over.
It is a mess, and there is not one, or even a suite of digital measures that will address the whole challenge, despite what the software vendors sprout.
The world is digitising at an accelerating rate, so keeping up is not only a competitive imperative, it is a strategic necessity. Never more than now as ChatGPT burst onto the scene, compressing everything, and making the ‘digitisation’ drive one of life and death.
On of my former clients is a printing business, an SME with deep capabilities in all things ‘printing’ that enabled the company to be very successful, in the past. Their capabilities are terrific, cutting edge, if we were still in 1999.
If I use them as a metaphor for most I work with, there is a consistent pattern.
- They did not see Digitisation as an investment in the future, rather it is seen as an expense.
- There was no consideration of the application of digital to their product offerings, beyond the digital printing machines, and services beyond those that made them successful 20 years ago.
- Their business model, beyond what is demanded by the two biggest customers, who between them deliver 34% of revenue, has not changed.
- They have not considered digitisation of operational processes, beyond a 25-year-old ERP system. The system has not been adequately updated, and they only use a portion of the existing capability.
- They have not modified their organisational and operational culture to meet the changed expectations of their customers, and the market.
No digitisation effort can succeed without the support of an operating culture that encourages ongoing change. Organisational processes can be modified by decree, but they will not stick. It takes everyone in the boat to be pulling in the same direction, in unison to make progress. This takes leadership, and a willingness to be both vulnerable internally, and a strong ability to absorb the stuff from outside. The leadership group must ‘get out of the building’. Not to smell the roses, but to see the lie of the land, and understand where the opportunities and challenges are hiding.
Coming to this point, where there is a recognition that change is no longer a choice, is where you are given one point out of a possible 10. Now you need to do something about it all to have a shot at the following 9 points. A daunting prospect for most.
The process has 5 easy in principle steps:
- Map the existing operational processes so you know what to change, and where the gaps/opportunities are hiding..
- Map and change the mindset of the people, so you understand the extent of the challenge.
- Take small and incremental steps along a path that all understand leads to a digital future, which means that a lot of collaborative planning has been done.
- Ensure that there are the necessary opportunities for all stakeholders, but particularly employees to grow and change with you. Those that choose not to, also choose to work elsewhere. There are no free rides.
- Ensure the resources of time and money are allocated uncompromisingly to the long-term outcomes. It is just too easy to put aside something that is important but not urgent, for something that may seem to be urgent, but is not important to the transformational effort.
As noted, since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the time before the liquidator comes around for those who choose not to change has compressed radically.
Most, if not all SME’s beyond the digital start-ups now cropping up like mushrooms after rain, will need outside expertise.
Consider that help to be an investment in survival, not a cost.
Header cartoon credit: Tom Fishburne at Marketoonist.com
