Digitalization is no longer a new topic, and "digital transformation" has been at the top of many companies' agendas for some time. And although a large proportion of companies are actively working on it, the potential underlying this megatrend is rarely fully exploited.
“65% of companies in Germany see themselves as laggards in digitalization”
Bitkom, 2021
Initially, it was sufficient to integrate individual digital technologies into existing value chains and products. But today, value chains and business models must change holistically. Digitalization affects all aspects of the organization, from dealing with customers and partners to the working methods and processes of employees and the products and services offered and how they are marketed.
"Two thirds (69 percent) assume that in five years' time, digital business models will be of very great importance or even decisive for their own economic success“
Bitkom, 2022
The complexity of these necessary changes can quickly overwhelm companies. It is therefore not surprising that only 24% of all corporate transformations are successful. But no transformation is not a solution if companies want to remain relevant in the digital age. Successful digital transformations therefore require new, systematic approaches.
“Only 24% of all transformations are successful”
Reeves et al., MIT Sloan Management Review, 2018
Targeted digital strategy as the starting point for successful transformation
A well-thought-out digital strategy with a clear vision for the future is the starting point for any successful digital transformation. It must be individually determined which strategic goals are to be achieved through digitization and how well the company is already positioned in individual areas in order to identify and address the most relevant fields of action.
A successful digital strategy is based on the following building blocks:
- An external analysis of the market, trends, technologies, business models, etc. to identify and prioritize the opportunities and risks in the market related to digitization.
- An internal analysis of business models, value creation processes, etc. to determine the strengths and weaknesses with regard to digitization.
- The development of a maturity model with relevant fields for digitization from an external and internal perspective (e.g. processes & working methods, culture & mindsets, offers & business models, resources & infrastructure, etc.) as a basis for the subsequent analysis and planning.
- The definition of strategic goals for digitization and the corresponding derivation of a vision for the future („TO BE“) based on the maturity model in order to prioritize the most important fields of action.
- The determination of the status quo of the organization with regard to digitization based on the maturity model („IS“) in order to identify the largest action gaps („TO BE - IS“).
- The development of possible digitization measures (e.g. development of new business models, IT infrastructure, cultural change, customer centricity, etc.) to address the largest identified action gaps.
- A selection of the most relevant digitization measures aligned with the objective.
