Being part of India’s Digital Transformation Journey

April 23, 2021

Digital transformation basically means the integration of digital technology into all areas of business- fundamentally transforming the way it operates and how it caters to its customers. With COVID-19 having a drastic impact on businesses, the demand for digitalization has increased, helping businesses in every step to manage operations, costs and time and enable them to provide quality experience for employees and customers.

But simply becoming virtual, that is, with everything operating remotely, cannot be considered “going digital”. Digital means a complete culture change journey that needs to be embraced from top to the bottom, and employee perceptions need to be in sync with the that of the employers’ and vice versa.

India is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for digital consumers today, with over half a billion registered internet users. Even so, the digital adoption is uneven among businesses. As digital capabilities improve and connectivity is becoming omnipresent, technology is touted to radically transform every sector of India’s economy.

So why are many companies struggling to get on board the digital transformation wagon?

Today COVID has made it more necessary than ever for businesses to adopt digitalization, but in the current circumstances, many companies are having to begin this implementation of these strategies remotely which is even a further challenge. Reportedly, more than 60% of the organisations in India have struggled since the onset of COVID, to act on their digital transformation or create goals for this, as per an analysis conducted recently.

Some more reasons companies have failed in implementing a successful digital strategy are:

• Confusing terms (for business owners that lack good technical knowledge)

• Unrealistic goals – When trying to implement digitalization too fast, eager to keep up with competition.

• Not investing in good digital transformation services understanding the factors and economics.

• Not acknowledging the significance of culture change within the organization.

• Overlooking other external factors which may later slow down the processes.

Organisations often plan and execute their digital transformation strategy without considering or giving a deeper thought to these concerns.

Instead, they focus on investments and resources which they think is the most crucial part, but these only come in later. The foremost step should be to define the path towards digital transformation, by addressing the aforementioned factors. While digital technologies can bring significant value, businesses can only use them to the fullest if they have the right structure in place.

Culture has been deemed the most important element for any transformation in an organisation, so culture change is a prerequisite of any digital transformation and needs to be given due diligence. Aligning people and resources to the purpose, defining the organisation’s priorities and key values are key for the success of any business. This is something many businesses do not seem to give importance to, but it is worth noting that if the business owners or organization leaders are not able to mobilize their employees and bring a change from within, it defeats the whole purpose of adapting a new approach.

So, for a successful digital transformation, businesses and organizations need to integrate every change into the company and familiarize its people with the new changes, and let them get used to them. It has to be a deep and though driven strategy, along with measurable objectives to assess the stages of the transformation.

For every business in India going through this process, or contemplating it, knowing how you stand in your digital journey can help you assess the challenges have a better approach towards digital, and become a part of our country’s digital evolution.