What is digital transformation? There is a lot of talk at the moment about this process, where an organization overhauls its capabilities in order to reach digital enlightenment.
Corporate culture plays the most important role in digital transformation
The shift from one business to another is often accompanied by a need for people in the organization to adopt new processes, ways of working, and approaches to break down silos and relate differently to customers.
“Organization”, in this context, means much more than the actual structure of the company, with its hierarchy of responsibilities and departments. Organization, in a digital transformation world, includes the work culture and the set of practices and attitudes that are key to executing digital transformations.
Shortcomings in organizational culture are one of the main barriers to company success in the digital age. That is a central finding from McKinsey’s survey of global executives, which highlighted three digital-culture deficiencies: functional and departmental silos, a fear of taking risks, and difficulty forming and acting on a single view of the customer.
Although culture change is critically important to transformation, it is difficult and time consuming to achieve. But there’s no way around that!
Building a culture of constant change – a state of constant revolution is key. Companies don’t make a change and then just sit back and wait for the next five years of business as usual – these days are long gone. There is a need to build a new momentum and rhythm in the business that reflects the new reality of the industry in which they are operating.
Digital strategy: It’s about company culture
Digital transformation isn’t really about technology it’s about organizational agility – organizations culture plays a vital role in the digital transformation of any business.
Culture leads the adoption of technology. The ability to innovate depends on the impatience of the organizational culture.
| Analog Culture | Digital Culture |
|---|---|
| Defensive | Attack |
| Customers are distant | Customer centric |
| Data measures past performance | Data used for live insights and decision-making |
| Reporting | Real-time |
| Detailed business case required | Lean product canvas |
| Risk averse | Fail faster |
| Focus group insights | Frequent user testing |
| Market research | Listening and learning |
| Org chart | Minimum hierarchy |
| Department silos | Cross-functional teams |
| In-house is best | Network of expertise |
| Our offer | Customer needs |
→ Mentioned: 9 ways digitalization is disrupting your culture, and 3 ways you must respond and Learn why culture needs to come before technology
Short URL & Title:
Culture change is key in digital transformation — https://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/ozh
Share it:
If you enjoyed this article, please take 5 seconds to share it on your social network. Thanks!
The impact of disruption on business models - Disruption is changing the value propositions for…
Change management is obsolete - Change management is broken - Change management isn't applicable anymore.…
Companies need a crisis to change Organizations need to be able to make dramatic adjustments…
Is there something profoundly wrong with some of the basic assumptions about how change works?…
Changing something across the entire organization is a big deal, and a big commitment. Six…
Many of the corporate scandals in the past several years have been cases of wide-scale…
View Comments
Torben: Good article. My question, based on your chart, Analog vs Digital Culture, do you see a difference between implementing a digital culture and an organization/culture based on Agile?