Organizations are all feeling the sudden and increased
urgency of digital transformation. But there’s still a lack of clarity on
what digital transformation actually means. Definitions vary widely
between companies and within companies. Me thinking, when a term can be stretched to
mean just about anything, it starts to mean nothing. Urgency without clarity
can be a risky combination.
The biggest challenge in today’s world is the language
related to digital transformation. The term has been co-opted by every IT
marketing person selling anything from personality to followers.
Around the world, organizations are spending about a
trillion dollars a year on digital transformation. Seventy percent of those
transformations fail. I believe that this is happening because language
prevents business and public sector owners from setting the right end goal. It
also prevents them from following a very disciplined approach to getting there.
A report
last year from CompleteSpectrum showed a confusing mix of definitions
of digital transformation from senior leaders. These senior leaders only
agreed on one thing — 94% reported that digital transformation was high on
their list of priorities.
I think it makes sense that digital transformation will vary
for a bank versus a university versus a toothpaste brand, but it’s critical for
teams within an organization to have clarity.
What i want to do is to be precise and talk about
technology which is at the heart of digital transformation.
