How merging culture and technology can lead to sustainable digital transformation in the new normal
The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic landscape has, in some ways, defied conventional wisdom. The onset of the pandemic and large-scale, nationwide lockdowns had pushed market watchers to predict an economic recession that would dwarf the 2008 meltdown. And soon enough, we saw a steep drop in markets. In March 2020, the Dow-Jones index lost a third of its value in just a month’s time. Across the globe, the scenario was not much different.
But by the end of April, something peculiar began to happen. The global economy began recovering its losses. Although the pace of this recovery was not equal across regions, there was still a marked improvement in nearly every quarter.
By the end of October, the GDP in the eurozone had grown by 12.7 percent. According to the IMF, by 2023, EU recovery funds are expected to drive GDP growth 0.75 percent higher than originally expected.
Much of this phenomenal recovery has been chalked up to the rapid adoption, driven in part by digital technologies.
The pandemic and subsequent outbreak containment measures have forced businesses to accelerate their digital transformation journey. Digital solutions that were ‘should-have’ in the pre-COVID-19 era have become a ‘must-have’.
As a result, organisations and governments have progressed at warp-speed on their digital journeys during these past few months, pushing efficiency and productivity across the board despite the various constraints associated with the situation.
For organisations higher up the digital maturity ladder, digital acceleration meant achieving long-term transformation goals within months, if not weeks. On the other hand, organisations whose digital strategies were still nascent had to fortify these strategies and kickstart transformation initiatives almost overnight.
A recent Digital Acceleration report by HCL Technologies has revealed that almost 88 percent of organisations now have a well-developed formal digital transformation strategy.
The Asia-Pacific region suffered the brunt of the pandemic. It has also seen one of the greatest rates of adoption of digital tools. In the ANZ region alone, only 41 percent organisations considered digital transformation a board-level concern in the pre-COVID-19 age. Today, that number stands at 65 percent.
These developments contain key learnings for the economy as a whole, across regions and industries.
Let me make my case by starting with the technology bit.
One of the major impediments to the pace and success of the digital transformation wave is the stronghold of legacy technology and outdated data management models.
According to the HCL Digital Acceleration report, data security and governance concerns (40 percent) and legacy technologies (35 percent) are two of the most pressing threats to digital acceleration.
Large enterprises – organisations that were major adopters of technological innovations for the last couple of decades – tend to rely on infrastructure that comprise hundreds, if not thousands, of disparate systems. All these systems drive a treasure trove of data that can help decision-makers grow their business.
