A recent HBR article stressed that the digital transformation movement is not about technology and rather it digs deeper into the workforce behaviors and beliefs. It even provided a pretty succinct definition:
digital technologies provide possibilities for efficiency gains and customer intimacy.
–Digital Transformation is Not About Technology
HBR, March 13, 2019
What’s at the core of all this “digitizing”? Sure it’s efficiency and customers (it’s business after all) but if you boil it all down, these behemoth companies looking to change rapidly (transform) simply got too big. They scaled themselves right out of the very thing that got them to the top – agility, innovation, creativity. NOW they look to technology as a means to automate various processes and be able to reach consumers more quickly and accurately. They long to be small again and believe technology alone will signal a return to the agility they had and business as a (virtual) handshake and a smile.
Transforming means change but are companies just automating the archaic? Do they even need half the processes and protocols that they aim to digitize/automate? And is getting closer to customers just meaning to capture customer’s wants and needs faster, easier and at scale? “Intimacy” in this light doesn’t appear to be as personal as the word would imply. Get ready as it looks like a new unholy buzzword is emerging!
Sadly, I suspect that most businesses will automate to reduce the number of people needed v. automating to changing their business and redesign what only their people should and can do better – create and connect. So if digital transformation isn’t really about technology then what is it? As it sure doesn’t seem to be about humans either.
