Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Digital Transformation Starts With The CEO
Digital Transformation Starts With The CEO
the battle.” I believe this saying holds significant meaning for business
leaders who are forced to innovate and evolve or risk becoming extinct in
today’s increasingly competitive landscape.
Speaking from firsthand experience, I believe for CEOs there is one decision
to make and commit to: the choice to digitally transform. In today’s business
climate, every company is a technology company, and every CEO must
champion digital transformation across their business. Change is often
uncomfortable and unwelcome, but here’s why you should say yes to digital
transformation.
Let’s face it: Many organizations are in a battle for existence. Today, “born in
the cloud” vendors or those free of legacy systems and infrastructure are
causing massive disruption and creating a seamless, instantaneous customer
experience that rivals cannot imitate.
History often repeats itself, and in looking at recent years, you’ll notice a few
former household names that have lost the battle for business existence due
to lack of technological innovation. The most-talked-about example is
Blockbuster, the home movie rental store. Internally, it was a profitable, well-
oiled machine, lacking any major competitors and claiming a niche space. Yet
suddenly, internet streaming and subscription services like Netflix emerged,
and end users noticed the efficiency, convenience and innovation, which
resulted in Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy in 2010 and ultimately closing
its doors in 2013.
Failure to transform digitally is cited as one of the main reasons over half of
the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since 2000, Blockbuster
included. The drive to digitally transform is a battlefield event for many
companies and their leaders. Optically, prioritizing digital transformation
when “the business is doing fine” seems like the wrong move — when in
reality, this is a flawed assumption.
Think about this: While it seems like an overnight change, the business
"battlefield" rapidly evolves. Suddenly, your troops and armaments are
increasingly irrelevant. Now, digital transformation becomes a battlefield
priority, and the fight for survival begins. If your organization reaches this
point without a plan in motion, the battle is already lost. It is mission-critical
to avoid being reactive. Remain proactive in the battle for business success,
innovation and quite often, survival.
Second, it's vital to acknowledge that this process doesn’t happen overnight
and is extremely complex, requiring IT and business teams to fully embrace
the disruption. This journey will lead organizations to shift to microservices-
based architectures running on-premise and in the cloud, delivered through
web and mobile interfaces simultaneously. A good proof point is Amazon,
which moved to a fully distributed, decentralized services platform delivering
multiple unique applications.
And finally, many organizations will struggle due to inefficient and ineffective
communications. Employees who are unaware of the changes or challenges
may cause mistakes, delays and disappointments. To overcome resistance
and ensure a successful digital transformation experience, business leaders
need to embrace their transformational initiatives and support them with
frequent and timely communications. The foundation of each digital
transformation initiative lies in the mission-critical applications deployed
across on-premise, cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructure. Leaders driving
transformation initiatives need to ensure that their management and
reporting is supported by unparalleled insight and visibility to optimize
performance, thwart potential issues and provide a consistent customer
experience.
Don’t let obstacles get in the way of your business evolution. Again, let’s
remember, “Courage in danger is half the battle.” I believe the other half is
simply saying yes to change. What’s stopping you?