Follow Your Vision, Not the Competition

Originally published as part of, “The Day Before Digital Transformation” by Phil Perkins and Cheryl Smith

The first step to any digital transformation is to develop a digital strategy that is unique to your organization.  Transformation is about establishing a digital strategy that best fits your organization, and then applying digital technologies to your strategy.  Organizations that approach digital transformation by attempting to copy someone else’s strategy without establishing a digital strategy based on their own current strengths and challenges, goals, and values, or by simply attempting to bolt a digital transformation effort onto their e existing investments, have not transformed.  There are no short-cuts.  It is rare that an organization can be a fast follower and copy a competing organization’s digital strategy and be as successful as the competitor they are copying. 

Your team should start discussions focused on the large investments your organization has already made that used to be a great strength but that now appear to have become a millstone in an age of bits and bytes.  Ignoring your biggest investments when developing your digital strategy is not useful—you will be forced to deal with them at some point in your transformation process. They also have an inherent impact that is inescapable because the entire organization including decision making, key processes, and compensation plans has been developed to protect those investments.  Begin your thinking in terms of how you might develop a digital strategy that changes perceived weaknesses into strengths. 

For example, if you are a retailer, you may have to find new ways to monetize your physical footprint.  No amount of digital revenue will help you overcome the cost of unused space.  Although it may feel like it is your biggest liability, it could become your biggest asset with the right digital strategy.  If you are a restaurant, perhaps you need to choose whether you will become a ghost kitchen or a gathering place for people.  If you are a grocery store, you may need to start planning for a world where people no longer walk through the store, or if they do walk through the store, their experience is completely different than in the past. 

Every organization’s current strengths and weaknesses are different.  So, every digital strategy must be different and address what makes the most sense for you. The emerging technologies are powerful but generic and still evolving; thoughtful, creative application of them typically can solve what was thought to be unsolvable problems and challenges and provide digital strategy differentiation.

Once your strategy is established, you can begin to investigate potential short-cuts as to how an internal digital transformation strategy might be more quickly achieved, such as:

• Acquire a digital product/services organization that matches your strategy or a component of it.  Incorporate the product/service into established internal structures; eliminate the acquired people if the fit simply cannot be made to work.  Concentrate on the culture change required across the organization to continue to ensure product/service success.
• Acquire a digital product/services organization that matches your strategy or is a component of it.  Incorporate the staff into existing organization structures; phase out the purchased product/service if the product or service is not a perfect fit or cannot be made to work within the established structures.  Use the acquired staff to lead internal change.

Both actions have been shown to successfully jump-start transformation activities from within an organization. Of course, keeping both the product/service and the staff expertise is the best outcome following an acquisition. But experience has shown it is more often an either/or choice.  Handled correctly, each of these options has been proven to work.