Leaders across regulated industries are under pressure to streamline operations and deliver new, sustainable, and innovative offerings to advance their brand’s reputation, drive better business outcomes, and stay ahead of competition. This pressure is coming from a myriad of interacting internal challenges and external forces that make the current state untenable, driving the new business imperative.
Internally, digitalization and cloud adoption are difficult because they entail culture change and must not compromise cyber security. Workforce resignations and reshuffling mean increased pressure to ensure employees are efficient and engaged.
Externally, suppliers, regulators, and consumers are pressing on companies from all directions. Suppliers cannot always meet demand, have increased their prices, and have mixed ability to meet companies’ needs for sustainable supplies and transparency. Regulators and consumers are demanding increased sustainability practices and transparency. Consumers balk at increased prices, while expecting products and experiences tailored to their changing behaviors.
Companies must ensure they are prepared to weather the risks and disruptions that stem from these complex internal and external factors. Change is needed not just to avoid the negative, but also to grasp the positive. Seizing the opportunities digital transformation presents means companies will outpace disruptions, drive business outcomes, and strengthen relationships. The ideal future state is characterized by agility, efficiency, and innovation, driven by people and data, and enabled by technology.
Companies must develop a vision of the transformed future tailored to their organization, so they can map a route to that future, based on an understanding of where they are today. The first steps along the route should be discrete, rapid, pilot projects. Experts recommend that these projects be chosen based on each project’s ability to measure success, alignment with vision, and value.
Once value has been proven through targeted pilot projects, companies can expand the initiative. Typically, the path to the future begins with initiatives that enable the company to work more efficiently. The longer term may entail radical change as companies transform their entire business to unlock the power and potential of data.
