Digital business is the way of the present and the future. However, many businesses own and operate so much technical debt that they face a long road of strategizing to remain competitive. The relentlessness of digital disruption makes it impractical for businesses to operate in the same way they have for decades. Consequently, digital transformation strategies have become critical.
Companies that are risk-averse or hesitant (but committed) to change should consider bringing in a senior-level change agent to the C-suite whose primary job is to facilitate organizational change. A change agent will ensure the organization remains agile and seizes opportunities to compete.
The competitive landscape isn’t going to get less competitive. It’s going to get more so.
3 Digital Transformation Strategies to Consider:
1. Fix Your Future Problems
Transformation takes time. During a digital transformation journey, you have to see where the puck is going, not where it is now. Instead of investing resources to solve your current problems, invest in those that could come up three years from now. You will leapfrog your competition by taking this approach.
Dust off the complaints, criticisms, and stressors so you can get to the heart of the problem. You may find that multiple challenges can be simplified to two or three key pain points. Alleviate those, and the solution is like a spider web; it flanges out and addresses a number of needs. Your current issues might disappear completely over the next three years.
2. Solve Problems Your Competitors Can’t
First, ask yourself, “What is our top challenge or inhibitor to growing the business?” This initiates thinking around where your business is struggling the most, failing to keep up, or not recognizing its revenue potential. Struggling to come up with an answer? Then, ask, “If we don’t do anything, what would happen?”
Every business has a competitive advantage. Other questions to ask include, “What are our competitors doing to solve this problem that we aren’t? What can we do that our competitors can’t to solve that problem?”
3. Leverage Your Existing Resources
We recently implemented an online catalog for a large cooperative, which spans the retail, energy, agriculture, and home building industries, to use with its network of members. As we continued working on incremental business improvements, we discovered a quick win when attempting to set a meeting with one of the executives.
After learning that he wouldn’t be available for the next 30 days, we asked why. We hoped to better understand the business. As a result, we learned that they were preparing for a large event where all of the client’s distributors come and place their annual orders. “He has to make sure the catalogs are all printed and shipped and delivered, and it’s a stressful time,” the team said.
We suggested using the online catalog on tablets during the event. Once we explained the concept, the client said, “Do you realize that’s going to save us $8 million a year in printing?” The solution came at no additional cost to the client. It was simply thinking about what they already had in place and using it in a slightly different way.
Want More Digital Transformation Advice?
The digital transformation strategies I share in this blog post draw from Perficient’s e-book, “How to Make Digital Transformation Gains in 2019.” In it, my fellow Perficient Chief Strategists and I share real-world examples from conversations with today’s leading brands at various stages of digital transformation. Our 10-chapter e-book features our business insights, actions to take now, and client success stories. Download it here or via the form below.
Next in the Series
This blog series is part of a special series inspired by our e-book. In the next post, Perficient Chief Strategist Eric Roch shares tips for launching an IT modernization program.
Subscribe to our Digital Transformation weekly digest here to get the blog posts automatically delivered to your inbox every week. Or, follow our Digital Transformation blog for this series and advice on the topic from all of our thought leaders.
About the Author
Mike Rabbior has 20 years of experience in the digital commerce industry. He began his career at IBM and spent nearly a decade helping to design and grow its industry-leading flagship commerce platform, WebSphere Commerce. Then, he helped form Trifecta Technologies Canada, an IBM business partner that provided its clients with a trusted advisor and strong solution delivery. In 2014, the company was acquired by Perficient.
Mike possesses strong and deep expertise in nearly every business vertical and technical domain. He also leads client conversations regarding strategy and transformation.
