How Ready is Your Organization in Embracing Change and Innovation?

Businesses are facing change at an unprecedented rate. The positive effect is that these changes enable advancements and end-to-end digital transformations allowing organizations to automate their processes, increase efficiencies and provide a better experience to their customers. However, this change is not uniform across sectors. Industries relying majorly on manual labor often find it difficult to transition. Even when they find the right opportunity to leap ahead and transform, they do not invest adequate time to understand the needs of their operations in order to align the change initiatives with their goals in the long term.

Digitalize or Perish

Most organizations across the world today are spending a significant percentage of their business continuity investments on digitalization. They understand that unless the organizations transform and align with digital priorities, they stand to risk their position in the market and perish eventually. But what does digitalization offer that is so ground-breaking?

Powered by IoT sensors, digital twins, and analytics-enabled plant management, many industries are able to identify inflection points in processes, which if addressed could be streamlined to avoid expensive reactive measures. Digitalization also offers means to improve efficiencies in the long run. Financial institutions are running quick verifications and identifying client history to engage closely to deliver personalized experiences. There are many such similar instances where organizations in both public and private sectors are already reaping the advantages of making the shift.

Ground-level Challenges En route

As discussed in the beginning, transformation is not an easy task for all sectors. There are several roadblocks that businesses must be wary of while transitioning to the digital realm. Our discussion here encompasses the major challenges in accomplishing the digital transformation.

People Transformation: The toughest part of bringing about digital transformation is people transformation which includes skill transformation and thought transformation. Upskilling can be hard for older employees and often lack of direction and desire for change along with the fear of being left behind tend to affect their decisions. Drivers from managerial and executive levels must try to engage with them and invest time to explain how the transition could actually have a positive effect on their careers by adding new skills to their profiles for which they will be actively sought.

Critical decisions from leadership drive commitment that emboldens employees' willingness to take upskilling in a positive stride. Encouraging a multi-dimensional collaboration among teams also cultivates an inclusive experience that engages employees to foresee how their decisions contribute to their professional growth as well as the organization’s growth. Acknowledge employee accomplishments and accept their failures considering them both a part of the progress. Let the employees share their ideas and drive innovation from within process lines to cultivate the digital mindset and gain from people that actually engage with the process first-hand.

Resource Cost Offset: Almost all resources (primary and secondary) are becoming expensive to source and store. Knowing when they need them and in what quantity will allow businesses to identify demand fluctuations and align them to cost fluctuations to optimize procurement, inventory management, and supply chain on the whole. Geo-political volatility and the pandemic are other factors pushing many countries toward inflation. Tracking financials and identifying business priorities to reallocate the budget is of utmost significance in such a scenario.

Prioritize Sustainability: Sustainable practices across business processes are required to counter the existing damage and achieve net zero or carbon negative impact on the environment. There is a misconception that sustainability can cut down the net profits for organizations. On the contrary, they can bring about new revenue streams for businesses making sure profitability and sustainability go hand-in-hand.

Digital enablement is the perfect catalyst for organizations as they embark on a journey to address their carbon footprint. Digitally visualizing business processes beyond manufacturing and distribution, and service units allows organizations to understand where and how their business affects the planet. This in turn will let them make necessary changes that can reduce emissions and effluents.

Transformation is inevitable for sustainability, but time is of significance. To stay ahead of the competition, businesses must define the perfect strategy according to their goals and act early. In each of the scenarios discussed above, there are different ways in which organizations can address the challenges and yet emerge successfully. Business stakeholders should take stock of their process and enable change subtly to align with market dynamics.

An expert’s view can easily identify the right solutions for complex scenarios of a business landscape. Engage in a conversation with thought leaders. Digitalize the business ecosystem to transform. Stay prepared to act and embrace the change!