Industries across geographies are fast digitalizing operations in order to optimize output and elevate customer experience while creating a sustainable and safe ecosystem. In such an evolved business landscape that is perpetually innovating, the digital endeavors are multi-faceted and organizations need to be considerate of a quantum of crucial aspects. Cultural change in perspectives is one of them. While the industry leadership is waking up to the merits of digital transformation and adopting technological innovations, the organizational culture is often found wanting, causing roadblocks for the process of digitalization. It is, therefore, paramount to an organization’s well-being that an all-encompassing digital strategy is put in place that synergizes with a progressive organizational culture.
A HCLTech-StraightTalk collaborative study found that while 70% of the organizations already have a digital strategy in place, only 10% of the organizations have a definitive deployment plan. This reflects dourly on how organizations are getting more steadfast in developing digital plans, but are being unable to make a headway with their execution. The cultural challenges are the foremost reasons why most organizations are failing to see their visions turn into executable practices. For digitalization to be seamless, successful, and holistic, a cultural change is required across sales, marketing, IT, and operations.
Need for Change
The HCLTech-StraightTalk study found that 69% of the organizations feel that customer experience is at the center of digital transformation initiatives, but almost 90% of organizational leaders lack visibility into existing business processes. This does not reflect favorably on a business model that must tick the right boxes for sustainable business operations. In order to keep customers in the center of business operations and elevate their experience, organizations need to identify the areas needing change in alignment with its digital strategy. Three critical criteria that should be fulfilled before embarking on the digital journey are business viability, technological feasibility, and customer desirability. The digital strategy must revolve around these three aspects, thereby clearly emphasizing the changes required across spectrum.
The study found 92% organizational leaders find it exceedingly difficult to keep pace with the technological changes and only 64% are investing in digital innovations to leverage latest technologies. It is, therefore, our prerogative at HCLTech to add value to our partners’ operations by understanding their ambitions and driving their digital strategy and digital innovations to achieve scalable digital engineering. As trusted knowledge partners, we bring to the table the vision of a holistic ecosystem that vitalizes organizations’ ability of keeping pace with technological innovations.
Adaptability is the Key
Transformation, of any kind, needs time and resolve. However, seamless change is only successful in the end by adapting to the needs of time. It is therefore no surprise that the key doctrine of cultural change aligned to digitalization is a gradual acceptance of the changed status. Employees are the key drivers of any organizational change. Their involvement will strengthen the process and system to the point where digital is not just a tool anymore; it becomes the inherent modus operandi.
Clarity of purpose coupled with a fitting organizational strategy is paramount to optimizing digital engineering, and adapting to innovations perpetually is key to sustained growth. Human perceptions and behaviors must be more forthcoming towards the changing technological landscape. This will invariably lead to breaking down the silos that are omnipresent between business and IT, making digital innovations and transformation a seamless and an inclusive process. At HCLTech, while most of our clients have different objectives, the challenges they face follow a basic theme: culture and mindset. So, while the end objectives may vary, the challenges are common.
Incremental Change, Exponential Growth
As I mentioned, transformation demands patience and process. Digital is ubiquitous, and while organizations identify the pain points, and ambitions, and devise their digital strategies, the execution is stifled by the cultural challenges. Transformation is expected to hit such pockets of resistance and slow traffic. However, a robust digital strategy considers those as a part of the process and factors it in at the very start. At the heart of a successful digital strategy should be striking the right balance between desirability, feasibility, and viability. And, it can only be fueled by cultural change and engineering discipline.
While changing culture around digitalization, it is important to develop digital execution expertise internally by ramping up the available skills in the company. It is also equally important to be able to measure the digital transformation over frequent time periods in order to understand if expected results are being achieved or certain aspects of the transformation initiative is lagging. Agility is therefore another key cog in the digital wheel.
At HCLTech, we believe in valuing every aspect and pay meticulous attention to every component involved in the digital transformation process. This, keeps us ahead of the curve.
