Thursday, February 22, 2018

The Timing, Tempo, and Harmony of Digitalization

Being digital in one's business implies first going digital internally and culturally.

We live in an information abundant and technology empowered world and every day more and more technology affects the way we think, live, and work. Digitalization represents a break from the past and implies the full-scale changes in the way that the business is conducted so that simply adopting some new gadgets isn’t insufficient. It is a holistic effort and multifaceted discipline to touch every aspect of the business. The journey of digital transformation is all about weighing the following main business elements impacting change -people, process, and technology and balance the timing, tempo, and harmony of digitalization.

Timing:
The high-mature digital organizations are highly conscious about what’s happening in their environment, constantly improving the business and seeing change as an opportunity while keeping a holistic overview of the business are the core messages. It is only a matter of time. Change and the digitalization journey starts with the realization that where you are currently no longer can deliver the business objective, envision of success for your company and your shareholders, especially for the long-term, and determine what the future needs to look like. It needs to have a sense of urgency because vision, decisiveness and proactive attitude are crucial to initiate changes in the marketplace. Successful organizations see the changes coming and with preplanning to overcome the resistance before it even manifests. While those businesses that wait for demand to changes are lagging behind the curve. Timing is really important, the good moment to change is when the top management senses the urgency from the strategic perspective and the bottom of the hierarchy feel the pain from the daily operational lens. The change inertia is minimized via the common understanding of the necessity and imperatives of changes, grasp opportunities timely and prevent risks effectively.

Tempo:
Change and digitalization are more as a journey than a destination, the organization’s information pulse and digital tempo need to run at the right pace to keep the enterprise body circling well, keep it energetic and healthy. Monitoring the digital pulse of the organization is to help the leadership team make an objective assessment of the business’s change capability via assessing the business’s maturity traits such as adaptability, responsiveness, effectiveness, flexibility, resilience, and speed, etc. Digital is the age of people and options; it provides the opportunity to think the new approach to do things, run in a very entrepreneur way to solve business problems effectively, intensify digital with focus, present empathy to their people, shapen prioritization skills to get important things done; know when to take the gas pedal to speed up and harness innovation; and when to take the brake to control risks. Often, change will not be the straight line, there will be bumps and roadblocks along the way. Thus, taking the right pace is important to strike the right balance of the change and stability, to ensure the business can both reap some quick wins and more importantly achieve the long-term strategic advantage.


The harmonies of digitalization: Many organizations are still confused digital with general technology adoption. The management and staff need to be working as high performing and creative teams, having both internal and external beliefs around how the business is a movement for ennoblement and improvement. It is the business "harmony." A business organization can only achieve high performance by taking the collaboration road. Creating a context where people can collaborate where they are empowered and respected and make collective decisions. Giving everyone a voice in how the organization and the people in it can prosper and thrive. Understanding and recognizing that everyone plays a "piece of the pie," imagine the true meaning when you say "Teamwork." Creating a context where people can collaborate where they are empowered and respected and make collective decisions is the essence of the business harmonization. The challenge for achieving the harmonies of digitalizing the business is to manage its portfolio of relevant cross-border synergies, strategic flexibility and organizational interdependence, fine-tune the structure and improve changeability, empower people, engage digital talent and balance effectiveness and efficiency.

Being digital in one's business implies first going digital internally and culturally. It means the deeper you can perceive the holistic digital impact, the further you can reach the digital vision and pinnacle. Fine-tuning all important business elements and striking the right balance of timing, tempo, and harmony of changes are all crucial to make change sustainable and the journey delightful.







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