Many organizations face unique challenges when it comes to adopting a Digital Transformation strategy. For some, the biggest challenge is where to begin. It’s important to recognize these challenges so that the business can fully leverage the opportunities of digital technologies, such as IoT and blockchain.
In this blog roundup, we asked Digital Transformation thought leaders about which industries are the most advanced and which lag behind when it comes to adopting digital transformation practices. Here’s what they had to say:
“The single most significant challenge faced by companies on their digital transformation journey is the cultural shift required to make the transformation. This shift requires a company to fundamentally change its business model, organizational structure, talent hiring and retention, and more — essentially, how it leverages technology. This transformation is a massive shift. Changes of this magnitude are challenging for any organization, but particularly for large, well-established ones.” – Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry
“The number one challenge is finding the right talent to execute on it. Gartner has done research with CIOs asking them about what they see as their top challenges. Number one was lack of talent and resources. You need people with a clear vision to create new business models, who can change an organization, develop solutions using the latest technologies. Where the demand for talent is already about five times bigger and supply and demand is growing faster and faster, attracting this talent is a major challenge.” – Roald Kruit, Co-Founder, Mendix
“Probably the biggest challenge is having a real understanding of what it means to dangerously transform the business. Many people believe that digital transformation means making the forms that round the business available online, or making some transactions available on a website or on an iPhone.However, true digital transformation means rethinking the way you run your business from top to bottom. Try and emulate the operational efficiency of start-up companies without the legacy issues many large companies face from traditional technology, people and thinking.” – Rod Willmott, Chief Wzard, Wzard Innovation
“It is a challenge to delight customers and other stakeholders through digital technologies and user experience, while continually exceeding their expectations at speed to prevent them from wanting to go elsewhere. This involves continual Innovation and delivery, agility and flexibility, along with a real understanding or what the customer wants and needs before they do! To do this, you need to become a digital enterprise (at the core). This involves many things, but certainly the right capability, to which the biggest challenge in digitally transforming the business is finding and keeping the right mix of skills and people.” – Ian Kingstone, Digital Transformation Advisor
“The biggest challenge is the speed at which digital transformation has happened. The second is legacy. The Internet is 25 years old. Smartphones (well, real smartphones) are less than 10 years old. Clearly, there were wider macroeconomic issues that caused significant slowdown in the adoption of a digital-first mentality with both the Dotcom crash and 2008-2009 financial crisis. However, things have moved so fast that I actually feel we’re in a post-mobile world.” – Tim Smalley, CMO, Audiense
“The challenge is gathering the strategic information to know what to do first, what to do next, what to defer and what to avoid. The point is to maximize resources by creating the biggest gains first and to build upon those gains each time. Currently, corporations do not have the right information – this is what needs to change to enable transformation. Information needed must be developed for each organization and must serve the needs of each individual.
