FEATURE: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
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CIOS SHOULD ADDRESS THE DIGITAL
READINESS OF THE ORGANISATION
TO GET AN UNDERSTANDING OF BOTH
BUSINESS AND IT READINESS.
the ecosystem level but also inside the
organisation. Issues of ownership and
control of processes, information and
systems make people reluctant to share
their knowledge. Digital innovation with its
collaborative cross-functional teams is often
very different from what employees are used
to with regards to functions and hierarchies
– resistance is inevitable.
“It’s not necessary to have everyone on
board in the early stages,” said Blosch.
“Try to find areas where interests overlap and
create a starting point. Build a first version,
test the idea and use the success story to gain
the momentum needed for the next step.”
Barrier No. 3: The business isn’t ready
Many business leaders are caught up in the
hype around digital business. But when the
CIO or CDO wants to start the transformation
process, it turns out that the business doesn’t
have the skills or resources needed.
services. Employees need new skills focused
on innovation, change and creativity along
with the new technologies themselves, such
as Artificial Intelligence and Internet of
Things.
“There are two approaches to breach
the talent gap – upskill and bimodal,” added
Blosch. “In smaller or more innovative
organisations, it is possible to redefine
individuals’ roles to include more skills and
competencies needed to support digital.
In other organisations, using a bimodal
approach makes sense by creating a
separate group to handle innovation with
the requisite skill set.”
Barrier No. 5: The current practices
don’t support the talent
Having the right talent is essential and
having the right practices lets the talent
work effectively. Highly structured and slow
traditional processes don’t work for digital.
There are no tried and tested models to
implement, but every organisation has to
find the practices that suits it best.
“Some organisations may shift to a product
management-based approach for digital
innovations because it allows for multiple
iterations. Operational innovations can follow
the usual approaches until the digital team is
skilled and experienced enough to extend its
reach and share the learned practices with the
organization,” explained Blosch.
Barrier No. 6: Change isn’t easy
It’s often technically challenging and
expensive to make digital work. Developing
platforms, changing the organisational
structure, creating an ecosystem of
partners – all of this costs time, resources and
money.
Over the long term, enterprises should build
the organisational capabilities that make
change simpler and faster.
To do that, they should develop a platform-
based strategy that supports continuous
change and design principles and then
innovate on top of that platform, allowing
new services to draw from the platform and
its core services. n
“CIOs should address the digital readiness of
the organisation to get an understanding of
both business and IT readiness,” added Blosch.
“Then, focus on the early adopters with the
willingness and openness to change and
leverage digital. But keep in mind that digital
may just not be relevant to certain parts of
the organisation.”
Barrier No. 4: The talent gap
Most organisations follow a traditional
pattern – organised into functions such as IT,
sales and supply chain and largely focused
on operations. Change can be slow in this
kind of environment. Digital innovation
requires an organisation to adopt a different
approach. People, processes and technology
blend to create new business models and
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INTELLIGENTCIO
A Garnter Inc. survey
found that only
a small number
of organisations
have been able to
successfully scale
their digital initiatives
www.intelligentcio.com