Tailoring your business in a digital world that is constantly evolving can be daunting. However, this has become a necessity rather than an option. Digital transformation has the power to change how your business operates and to impact the customer journey, so it’s vital that leaders do what they can to ensure each transformation initiative is successful.
As experts, the members of Forbes Business Council have experience undertaking this uphill climb and achieving the most seamless transformation possible. Below, 20 of them share steps to help business leaders successfully unlock transformformation and take their businesses to the next level in the digital era.
1. Own Your Role In Setting The Vision
Because digital transformation fundamentally changes how your business operates and delivers value, you have to own your role in setting the vision and the strategy. Create a team of digitally savvy people to identify the technology’s potential and opportunities for its applications, ensuring they align with business goals. Encourage collaboration and facilitate open communication. – Sharat Potharaju, Beaconstac
2. Have A Digital Mindset
In any digital transformation, the most significant element is getting the management team aligned with the digital vision. The buying of digital assets is the least of the issues you’ll encounter. Having a digital mindset is the ultimate key to success. – Anuraag Sunder, Aon
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3. Embrace Standardization
An essential step to digital transformation is embracing standardization across operations. Taking inspiration from electronic medical records, we’ve found standardized protocols facilitate collaboration, drive innovation and ensure consistent quality. This approach not only aligns various aspects of the business, but also builds a robust foundation for continuous growth and adaptation to market needs. – Alexandria Luu, The Real Estate Physician
4. Figure Out What You Can Let Go Of
Transformation and change management is hard. To successfully embrace technology and our increasingly digital existence, it’s essential to let go of “sacred cows” in the organization, including metrics, processes, systems and the status quo. Every company needs to be a tech company or the business will be disrupted by one. Ask yourself what you are unwilling to change and why. – Jason Shafton, Winston Francois
5. Create A Culture Shift
Foster a culture of continuous learning and agility. This means not just training your employees on new digital tools, but also encouraging the development of a mindset that is open to change and adaptation. This culture shift ensures that your team is prepared to handle the constant evolution that comes with digital transformation and can navigate new challenges with resilience and creativity. – Mike Monti, APEX Call Centers
6. Ensure Goal And Desired Outcome Alignment
Executive alignment around goals and desired outcomes—why are you doing this in the first place? In conjunction with this, do the work to align people and processes. Technology will only exacerbate people and process issues. – Mary Fearon, OnPrpose Inc.
7. Map Out An Internal ‘Customer Journey’
There’s no reason why you can apply good design thinking to your customer offerings but not to your own house. Map out your internal “customer journey,” understanding both the employee processes and systems your team will move between. This will not only help you to do just enough digital transformation, but also make sure you’ve enhanced the areas of your business that will generate the most success. – John Jarosz, Sightglass
8. Embrace Labor Specialization
Leaders should embrace labor specialization and upskilling. In 1913, Henry Ford was able to upskill his workforce in specific segments and use those skills to improve the time needed to make new cars, creating the assembly line. Labor specialization based on competitive advantages is at the essence of the economy, and all leaders must embrace that to ensure company success in transformative times. – Ollie Howie, New Community Transformation Fund
9. Ask What Problems You Want To Solve
Businesses that want to undertake a digital transformation have no shortage of options for technology solutions. To swiftly navigate through all the digital solutions available, consider the following question: “What specific problem are we looking to solve or specific opportunity are we seeking to realize?” This helps cut through the noise and eliminate options that have unnecessary bells and whistles. – Sara Khaki, Atlanta Divorce Law Group
10. Adopt Processes That Ensure Accurate Data
Successful digital transformation depends on accurate data. Moving on-premises information to the cloud, creating analytics and using AI will have diminished value and insight if the data itself is incomplete or inaccurate. I suggest scrubbing the most important information and adopting processes and data integrity tools that make digital transformation a more powerful option. – Ray Rasmussen, rGen Consulting
11. Invest In Tools That Improve Performance
Our business has taken the essential step of enhancing our online presence in this digital era as well as utilizing technology in our performance management system. This includes tools such as 15Five to ensure continuous and ongoing feedback. Each business should assess its unique needs to determine their next steps toward staying relevant and ultimately driving success. – Helen Lao, ClearPath Solutions
12. Ensure Your Employees Understand Added Value
Make sure your employees understand the value-add of that transition. Sustained use of a new digital platform does not happen without buy-in from the end users. We are creatures of habit and without that buy-in, people will just revert back to what they’re comfortable with. When that happens, you end up paying for a digital platform that hardly gets used. Help your employees see why this is “better.” – Sam Cho, Port of Seattle
13. Allow Employees To Be A Part Of The Process
For digitization to be successful, people need to be taken along for the ride. These are my top three takeaways for making digitization work. Work with people who are where you want to be. Empower your employees to embrace the new work environment by communicating openly. Schedule training so that the potential can be fully realized by everyone involved. The bottom line is that the solutions already exist. – Maximilian Kramer, Kramer & Matt GmbH
14. Make Sure All Parties Are Collaborating
The key to digital transformation is collaboration. In the art world, social media has given rise to contemporary artists who are transcending traditional paths and engaging directly with audiences on platforms like Instagram. Galleries that have adapted and embraced this digital transformation by collaborating with this cohort have elevated and evolved their role and connected with a new generation. – Pearl Lam, Pearl Lam Galleries
15. Foster A Culture of Adaptability
In navigating digital transformation, a crucial step I’ve found is fostering a culture of adaptability. Technology evolves rapidly, and success lies in equipping teams to embrace change. Encourage continuous learning, open dialogue and promote a willingness to pivot strategies. This human-centric approach not only enhances technology adoption, but also cultivates innovation and resilience. – Sufian Chowdhury, Kinetik
16. Benchmark Your Current Digital Maturity
Benchmarking the current state of digital maturity is critical before embarking on digital transformation initiatives. As digital transformation encompasses a number of areas, it is important to understand the maturity at which different departments operate before putting together a roadmap for digital transformation in the organization. This will give a lot of clarity and help identify priorities. – Vasudevan Swaminathan, Zuci Systems
17. Differentiate Your Digital Offerings
Like many businesses, ours underwent digital transformation due to the pandemic. Our events program spun off to the digital space for about 18 months, then slowly came back to in-person events. We’d assumed digital would die off once in-person was possible again, but we still have great interest in our digital events. The key is differentiating the offerings—we have one for education and the other is for networking. – Lisa Kay Smith, The PR Net
18. Ask Yourself ‘Why’
We’re a digital-first company but needed to undergo a transformation or pivot in Q1 that required full team effort to expand our strategy to include both B2C and B2B. That meant a reimagining of our current products, redefining our value proposition and having comprehensive internal discussions. The essential step is always to ask why. If that isn’t clear, then no transformation will achieve lift off. – Daniel Sieberg, GoodTrust
19. Embrace An Iterative Approach
Strike a balance by embracing an iterative approach. Instead of taking on the entire transformation at once, break it down into manageable steps and focus on incremental progress. Continuously gather feedback from employees and stakeholders, using it to refine and optimize each stage. Applying an agile strategy in this manner increases the chances of a successful transformation journey. – Eduardo Mello, Alabama Solutions
20. Be Agile And Flexible
Stay agile and flexible, as the digital landscape is constantly evolving. Be prepared to adapt your strategy and plans as new technologies emerge and market conditions change. Embrace an agile mindset that allows your organization to respond quickly to opportunities and challenges. Fail quickly, iterate and adapt. Remember that digital transformation is not a one-time project; it’s an ongoing journey. – Asaad Hakeem, SARC MedIQ Inc.
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