Are Organisations Facing More Challenges to Transform Digitally?

To acquire digital literacy, one must learn the 5Ws and 1H to be digitally literate.

We cannot deny that the pandemic was unprecedented, but it does help many enterprises accelerate their business with new technologies and even change their business model. For example, MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) reported that Malaysian companies had increased their adoption of digital technologies and platforms for day-to-day operation. Their data has shown an increase from 19% in 2020 to 48% in 2021. If the business has started its digital adoption, it is a good sign as we need to rely on digital technologies to improve our business model.

One of the key factors why many organisations fail to transform is not fully understanding the purpose. Therefore, everyone needs to understand the fundamental of digital transformation and its journey.

Digital transformation is a long-haul journey. It transforms the legacy way of working and reimagines a new way of business working. It can also change a new business model by adopting digital technologies with customer experiences in mind. Therefore, it is critical to have someone who knows how to manoeuvre the organisation through the digital journey. 

It starts from the top

It is critical to understand that the key importance in starting the journey is from the top, the acceptance from all levels, and having everyone in the organisation with a growing digital mindset. The changing mindset is critical for accelerating the digital transformation.

Mary Kate added that digital used to be about IT and coding in those days. However, today it has become people’s business as an organisation need to equip themselves with the right resources and talent to create and promote a digital culture with customer-centric in mind. It is all about customers’ experiences, wants and needs. The customers can be your stakeholders, such as the investors, the internal or external customers, users, and even your strategic partners. 

Overcoming the way people think

The critical fundamental issue many faces is the way people think. Typically, many employees will think about digitalisation as upgrading the systems, infrastructure, smart technologies and many more.

However, digital transformation is not about those. Instead, it is about the current issues or challenges and what you need to do to overcome them with customer experiences in mind. It is not about technological change alone; it is going and being digital with a digital mindset to meet business outcomes.

The start of the digital transformation journey is to understand what exactly is being digital.

The World Bank reported that Malaysia’s Digital Economy is still lagging behind many ASEAN countries in late 2021.

Do not ignore the fundamentals

There are at least 100 million start-ups globally, increasing daily. Today, most start-ups are the accelerators of digital transformation. They come along with a new business model that adopts new technologies linked to the digital revolution that changes society today.

Once the start-up expanded, it became a Day 2 organisation as it evolved into a business-as-usual mode.  They might have established some footings for growth for a few years, but some might face challenges trying to sustain or expand their business while continuously facing fierce competition. 

As the organisation grows, the demand for additional resources increases, and they continuously strive to find the right fit for the organisation. In addition, new employees join the force, and different mindsets arise; thus, different cultures expand from a diverse management and operational team pool. 

The traditional way of working is changing now that digitalisation is taking over.

Moving away from the legacy operating model

Regardless, businesses need to transform and evolve as digitalisation is the future. If one fails to transform from the legacy way of business, they will potentially face the never-ending fierce competition, legacy culture and mindset, overcoming the newer and ageing generations, the big quit, and many more.