Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in 4 Key Areas
Digital transformation requires talent. Assembling the right team of people in four domains — technology, data, process people, and organizational change capacity — may be the single most important step that a company contemplating digital transformation can take. Each of these areas require a certain set of skills.
In the technology domain, you need people with technological depth and breadth, and the ability to work hand-in-hand with the business. Leaders of the technology domain must be great communicators, and they must have strategic sense. You’ll need this same breadth and depth in the next domain: data. You also need the ability to convince large numbers of people at the front lines of organizations to take on new roles as data customers and data creators.
When considering the next domain, process, look for the ability to “herd cats” – to align silos and to know when incremental process improvement is sufficient or when radical process reengineering is necessary. Finally, for organizational change capability, look for leadership, teamwork, courage, emotional intelligence, and other elements of change management.
Over the years we’ve participated in, advised on, or studied hundreds of digital transformations. In doing so, we’ve gained a perspective on just how difficult true digital transformation really is and what it takes to succeed. Digital transformation is not for the faint of heart — the unfortunate reality is that, to date, many such efforts, like transformation programs in general, have failed.
Success requires bringing together and coordinating a far greater range of effort than most leaders appreciate. A poor showing in any one of four inter-related domains — technology, data, process, or organizational change capability — can scuttle an otherwise well-conceived transformation. The really important stuff, from creating and communicating a compelling vision, to crafting a plan and adjusting it on the fly, to slogging through the details, is all about people.
More than anything else, digital transformation requires talent. Indeed, assembling the right team of technology, data, and process people who can work together — with a strong leader who can bring about change — may be the single most important step that a company contemplating digital transformation can take. Of course, even the best talent does not guarantee success. But a lack of it almost guarantees failure.
Let’s explore the talent needed in each of the four domains in turn.
From the Internet of Things, to blockchain, to data lakes, to artificial intelligence, the raw potential of emerging technologies is staggering. And while many of these are becoming easier to use, understanding how any particular technology contributes to transformational opportunity, adapting that technology to the specific needs of the business, and integrating it with existing systems is extremely complex. Complicating matters, most companies have enormous technical debt — embedded legacy technologies that are difficult to change. You can only resolve these issues with people who have technological depth and breadth, and the ability to work hand-in-hand with the business.
Challenging as these difficulties are, an even more critical issue is that many business people have lost faith in their IT department’s ability to drive major change, as many IT functions are primarily focused on “keeping the lights on.” Eventually, however, digital transformation must incorporate institutional IT, so rebuilding trust is essential. This means that technologists must provide, and demonstrate, business value with every technology innovation. Thus, leaders of the technology domain must be great communicators, and they must have the strategic sense to make technological choices that balance innovation and dealing with technical debt.
