Everyone everywhere seems to be talking about digital transformation (DX) – the process where companies overhaul their structures and functionalities to reach a new stage of digital efficiency and enlightenment. However, for the most part, the focus of those interested in digital transformation remains fixated on new technology and software, rather than on the people and teams responsible for adopting this emerging tech.
62% of employees say that corporate culture could be the main hurdle to digital transformation. In other words, the average business isn’t just struggling to stay ahead of new hardware and software – they’re missing out on the human element too. Part of the reason for that is the fact that corporate culture remains one of the most misunderstood, yet most important elements of any growing company.
If digital transformation is pivotal to the survival of the modern business, then corporate culture is the lifeline that companies need to create to make transformation possible.
A Culture of Digital Agility
In the digital world, there’s more to a successful corporate culture than implementing strategies for engagement and employee satisfaction. Today’s businesses need to create a strategy for constant evolution – they need to become agile in their vision of the future. The days of making a couple of changes to organisational infrastructure once every five years or so are gone. Today, there’s a growing need for companies to build momentum in their digital strategies. Indeed, digital transformation may be less about technology, and more about the organisational agility that brands can embody.
Culture is the heartbeat that leads the adoption of technology. Without the right internal drive, passion, and understanding, it’s impossible to understand not just what a company needs to thrive in these changing times, but how new technology can be used successfully. That means that “corporate culture” is quickly transforming into “digital culture”. Rather than focusing exclusively on purpose, vision, and leadership, businesses with their eye on transformation are looking at digital elements of culture, like:
- Innovation: The ability to take risks and implement new, disruptive technology, or explore up-and-coming ideas.
- Flexibility and agility: A focus on fast, dynamic decision making, and the ability for companies to respond and adapt well to new demands and technologies
- Collaboration: The ability to interact through new, cross-channel teams that spread far and wide across the world, and make the most out of enterprise skills.
- Decision-making: Today’s businesses need to use analytics and data to transform the results of their key decisions.
- Open Culture: A chance to extend partnerships for transformation across third-party start-ups, vendors, and external networks
- Customer focus: The chance to use new and improved digital solutions for the expansion of the customer base, and the revolution of new customer experiences in everything from AI, to chatbots, and more.
The Challenge of Digital Transformation: Mind the Culture Gap
Culture is often overlooked as an element of digital transformation. However, when you look at it from a “big picture” perspective, it starts to become obvious just how essential culture can be. After all, you can change your processes, your infrastructure, and even the technology you use down to every piece of software – but if you don’t address the people behind your company – then change can’t thrive. Culture is the operating system of your business – without it, you’re left staring into the void.
Successful cultural change requires action from the top of the ladder all the way down. That means managers and front-of-store employees all need to have the same drive and focus. Digital transformation can’t happen in silos, which means that you need to begin your cultural strategy before true transformation can begin.
