A HUMAN TAKE ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Author, Shannon Murphy

LEADING CHANGE IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS

The digital transformation of business. It’s happening. It’s been happening. And its very nature is to keep evolving every minute, every second. Whether we’re talking about e-commerce (online sales), digital marketing (online customer engagement, including social), or data-driven manufacturing and pipeline optimizations, the innovations keep coming. So powerful, they’re downright intimidating. But leaders — and their teams — need to keep their feet on the ground to find their place in the cloud. It’s time to move past misperceptions, expand how we think about our businesses in digital contexts, and tackle the primary challenge: transforming ourselves.

If You’re Confused, You’re Not Alone

Every company feels the pressure to make digital advances work for them. But figuring out where, and how to even begin, is a challenge. Simultaneously, digital makes business leaders feel like anything’s possible — but everything’s risky.

“Digital transformation requires serious grit,” acknowledges Nicole Umana, head of Global Digital Shopper Insights at Mars Wrigley Confectionery. “It is not for the faint-hearted.” Since 2017, Mars has been undergoing the largest transformation in its 109-year history, expanding digital integration across everything from operations to consumer-driven “Moments That Matter.” But even for this strong, venerable brand, real fears had to be overcome first.

These feelings are understandable. After all, the average brand faces a consumer base whose expectations have never been higher and a field of competition that’s never been wider. When today’s companies try to use digital to enhance any customer journey, they essentially must compete with all companies (regardless of product or service) that deliver great experiences.

There are also fewer and fewer places to hide from the companies that use technology most effectively. Digital giant Amazon moved confidently into brick and mortar grocery with its acquisition of Whole Foods and now has tentacles in hospitality (thanks to a partnership with Marriott, in which its Alexa devices greet guests in their hotel rooms). Quite reasonably, nobody assumes that even the most “traditional” businesses and services won’t be disrupted overnight.

Even the most successful global CEOs feel like they’re falling behind. And when surveyed by the Conference Board in 2018, they reported plenty of anxiety about it. Over half of respondents cited “creating new business models because of disruptive technologies” as their 2nd-top concern. These leaders recognize that old models relative to advertising, marketing, sales and margins often aren’t relevant anymore. Even upgrades to the most basic business functions need to keep pace as competitors hunt for efficiencies.

Also keeping CEOs up at night? Worries about being able to find the skilled digital professionals they’ll need. According to the Conference Board’s 2019 survey, global CEOs saw “lack of skilled talent as one of the few obstacles to innovation that will get worse, not better, by 2025.” This would seem to suggest they understood their situation, at least. But these same CEOs, in the same survey, also expressed “high confidence” that their current cultures will remain successful over the coming five years. Here, they revealed how much they underestimate the challenge in front of them. Digitization transforms how entire companies operate, which hits culture hard.

“Mindset and behavioral shifts can be some of the biggest challenges with strategic reinvention,” Umana warns. “Digital must become part of the fabric of the organization. At the companies that are truly leading in this space, it becomes everyone’s job to think about it.”

The expansiveness, the stakes, the competition, the uncertainty. They’re real. Leaders feel them but don’t know how to respond. And as a result, digital anxiety is wreaking havoc across businesses everywhere.

Many leaders are attempting digital transformation, as they know they must. But when hunger to “figure out digital” kicks in without equal levels of curiosity and flexibility, one of two emotions usually follows: an enormous sense of urgency or a strong feeling of inadequacy. Both are based in fear. Neither leads to good business behaviors.

It’s past time to recognize that digital transformation isn’t just a technology challenge, it’s a human one. There are plenty of potential benefits of digitization for companies to reap. But first, leaders are going to have to face feeling personally overwhelmed and outmatched — and begin to explore why. The first step to overcoming a problem, after all, is admitting that you have one.

To Overcome Common Fears, Dismiss 5 Common Myths

To clear confusion — and avoid havoc — it’s helpful to face the most serious barriers to progress and acknowledge their power. Among them are commonly-held beliefs about digitization that are actually myths. They cause so much panic and paralysis, and they’re not even true.

1. “Digital Can Be Mastered.” No, it can’t. Digital isn’t something that can be covered once and for all time in an MBA program. It also isn’t something that can be learned inside and out by accepting an e-commerce post or two. Things change too fast for anyone to declare themselves a master. The bright side, of course, is that anyone can become a student.
2. “Digital is a function.” Again, no. Digital is a transversal competency — meaning it lives at the intersection of many functions, incorporating many insights/inputs from within and without the company. Thinking of digital in functional terms is what results in new silo-building. It may be more helpful to think of digital not as a tool, but as a perspective.
3. “Digital Marketing is New and Emerging.” This myth is a tricky one because it’s both true and untrue. Marketing fundamentals remain the same. But brands’ toolboxes keep expanding, right along with consumer expectations. Figuring out targeting and the path to purchase are familiar challenges. But executing meaningful 1:1 interactions, true micro-targeting, at scale? That represents new promise. And a whole new landscape.
4. “Existing Models for Business and Margins Can Just Shift To Digital.” Nope. Digital transformation can only be achieved when businesses are willing to question and reimagine everything. Internal business workflows, partnerships, pipelines…all of it. It’s time to reimagine and revise expectations across everything from brand playbooks to P&Ls.
5. “The More Data You Have, the Better You Are.” For certain, lack of any data will be a problem. But data collection alone is no magic bullet. Businesses won’t know what they’ve got, much less how to make use of it, if they haven’t asked why they’re collecting data and aren’t actively brainstorming about how to put it work — on a continual basis. The goal is growth. Not data hoarding.

A Golden Rule: Leaders Transform First

Freed from the myths that make businesses move too fast or fail to move at all, savvy leaders can recognize: the potential is too vast to ignore, and they’re ready. Digital is forcing a transformation of human expectations, inside businesses and across the people they serve. But it’s also within reach. It’s possible to wield powerfully when thinking and understanding are aligned. So they should put undue urgency in its place, banish feelings of inadequacy, and commit to transformation — the personal kind.

First off, leaders will need to look themselves in the mirror and transform their thinking. It’s time to start asking new questions and not being afraid of the answers. Because no matter the challenge, there is probably a digital perspective on solving it. Just like consumers, business leaders should feel free to raise their expectations.

Grounded in their new perspective, leaders will be better-positioned to tackle the business’s most meaningful challenges — fearlessly asking and answering core questions about how to stay competitive. How can we optimize searches for our consumers? How can we make our portfolio fit for a digital experience? How should we improve our supply chains? And among all our challenges, what should we address first? How do we sequence our transformation to integrate our new perspectives — and not isolate our functions — as we move forward?

All these questions, if they’re well-framed, will have answers. And if they provoke nothing but silence and shrugs, that means it’s time for leadership to transform their understanding. Getting to the heart of a matter might take diligent exploration — it’s work. But barriers to understanding what’s challenging the business need to be overcome sooner rather than later, always.

Digital strategy must have clear links to the broader business vision and be a priority that is constantly reinforced by the most senior levels of the organization. Only transformed understanding can lead to transformative solutions. And only transformed executives can lead the rest of the company through successful digitization.

Follow These 7 Steps to Transformation

With leadership’s openness and curiosity established, anything is possible. Business leaders can then follow these sequenced steps to bring digital transformation from a source of intimidation to a dynamic reality.

1. Declare a Digital Future. Addressing their employees with directness and empathy (in equal measure), leadership should explain why digital transformation is essential and help everyone see the future potential with the same clarity. Remember, employees likely feel under pressure, too. Concerned that they’re falling behind, just as worried as leadership that their skills aren’t keeping pace. (Who could blame them?) Thoughtful leaders will dispel their own people’s myths and announce a clear path forward.
2. Challenge Orthodoxies, Starting with the Most Familiar Challenges. One of digital’s most marvelous benefits is that it can cure headaches the business has been living with for a long time. So, what are the pain points that everyone in the organization has come to take for granted because “that’s just how things are”? Employees are likely to be thrilled at the chance to finally share what’s really slowing them — and the company — down. It may not be immediately clear what changes might solve a given problem. But asking that question itself can lead to innovation.
3. Invest in the Willing. The future is going to rely on both recruiting and retaining highly-skilled, highly-desirable employees. So if there ever was a time for businesses to invest in their people, it’s now. Leaders who want their cultures to stay relevant for years to come will reskill and upskill every willing worker. They’ll challenge what teamwork looks like, and how collaborations flow. Roles will be defined not in terms of tasks performed, but in terms of value and innovation delivered — a change that employees can welcome as they transform their own skill sets and futures.
4. Let Insights Drive Strategy, and Let Strategy Drive Data Collection. Resist the temptation to collect as much data as possible, with vague plans to determine its usefulness later. Rather than waste resources, leadership should identify a core insight, or problem to solve, or brand moment to master. With a specific challenge in mind, the company can develop a pointed strategy. And that strategy — not misplaced confidence in data for data’s sake — sets the stage for collecting information that’s relevant and actionable.
5. Reassess Every Ally. In times of transformation, every relationship should be reexamined. Which ones are most important? Which no longer deliver value? Which one, if improved, could can drive the most growth, right now? The answer might be consumers. Or it might be a partner, supplier, even a long-standing (and formerly perfectly on-target) AOR. Look past the obvious — and be prepared to revisit even the most fundamental collaborations. It’s time to think expansively, turning over every stone.
6. Integrate, Integrate, Integrate. We were all taught that knowledge is power. But collaboration is what drives progress in the digital world, so when even the smartest insights get siloed, they’re useless. Leaders should think horizontally when adopting and implementing new solutions. They should track, vigilantly, which teams and practices will be touched or impacted by any digital change. And they should look to synthesize and democratize data across all of them.
7. Be a Digital Participant. Gone are the days of testing new solutions (timidly) and learning (slowly and carefully, from the sidelines). Digital transformation requires daring. So leaders should make their plan, integrate across the organization, and commit to progressing as they learn on the fly — demanding personal investment across teams and keeping curious about what should come next.

By following these steps, leadership can act boldly while keeping an eye on the big picture, avoiding digital fragmentation. And with employees fully involved, new paradigms can gradually replace the old without causing chaos. Cohesive and in constant contact, new systems will monitor everything the company does and provide rationales for next waves of activation.

Because there’s no going back now — digital transformation is here, and it’s not going anywhere. To launch transformation is to commit to staying in it from now on, allowing digital to continuously evolve the company’s model, mindset, partnerships, competencies and culture.

“Possibly most importantly, the culture of the organization is critical,” Umana stresses. “You must create an environment where people have confidence to take risks and are rewarded when they can quickly prototype new ways of getting things done in a more agile way.”

So the next time leadership starts to feel nervous about digital transformation, they might call their most trusted team members together — and just talk to the people in the room. That’s when the change can start, that day, that hour. It begins at the moment leaders recognize the all-too-human forces holding everyone back from their shared, brighter digital future. It accelerates when everyone gets on board and embraces transformation as the company’s new North Star.

Is your business facing a transformation — digital or otherwise? Let’s tackle the future together. You can find us at: Bluedogdesign.com / info@bluedogdesign.com

Shannon Murphy serves as Partner, Vice President & Client Growth Lead, for Bluedog Design. In her role, she partners with clients to apply principles of Design Thinking that strengthen their businesses — developing inventive growth strategies across brand identity and engagement, marketing, product lifecycles (prototyping through in-store activation), portfolio management, organizational structure and business operations.