Mistakes to avoid when transitioning from analog to digital

BUSINESS leaders must always keep updated with the latest trends in technology, to have a clear vision of how that will impact the future of the company.

However, many businesses fail to plan appropriately, leading to lost investments and opportunities.

Effective and successful strategies depend on managers and executives avoiding hidden blind spots and making investment decisions that don’t hinder the company’s progress.

Globally, the private sector has been spending over US$1.2 trillion on digitizing business operations. However, only 1 percent of executives were satisfied with the outcome, according to figures from the World Economic Forum.

To avoid falling into traps when digitizing business processes, business leaders must first take note of a few key points:

• What digital activities are already available?
• How the industry will change in the next decade or more?
• What digitization strategies will work for the company?
• What is the end goal of the transition efforts?

Besides that, businesses should also beware of common mistakes made by other executives. For example, many business executives fail to evenly distribute their monetary investments across the duration of the transition.

Companies who make short-term investments neglect the organization’s long-term needs; while those making long-term investments don’t give enough attention to immediate developments, which affects current performance, thus impacting future goals.

Even when the strategy balances current and future needs, parts of the business could be overlooked, creating blind spots that disrupt overall performance.

Through an initial strategy planning, businesses can determine a schedule of where and when to invest. This also prevents business leaders from making small scattered investments without having an overall funding plan.

Different company structures will also affect a company’s digitization journey. Every company would have strategies that uniquely work for them, and not for other organizations.

For instance, heavily centralized companies tend to have a rigid chain of policies that are filtered from the top. On the flip side, businesses that encourage individual units to operate independently can duplicate investments, which will lead to double the costs.

Another common error is balancing the right resources and applications. Data, technology, operating model, and talents can both be an enabler or a hindrance.

Some companies focus on building up capabilities, without taking into consideration if additional staff, technology, and data capacity actually contribute additional value to the business.

On the other hand, many other companies cut corners on key resources in favor of spending on new business applications.

Technological changes are not slowing down and will continue to have an impact on businesses. Those that succeed in transitioning from analog to digital will be able to seize the opportunities available in the digital-driven future.

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