Quadra

The challenge. Building awareness in the enterprise is the starting point to any digital transformation initiative. Transformation drivers from the top must put digital transformation at the top of the enterprise’s agenda. It is essential that people in the organization understand the scale and pace of the digital impact their industry is undergoing because of the disruptions brought in by the nexus of forces – Social media, mobility, information flow pattern and analytics and the Cloud. The creating awareness drive can gain momentum if this awareness process is made experiential.

The approach. It is essential to build a coalition of believers who can understand the potential impact of digital technologies on the business and the need and the urgency with which this transformation has to be pursued. Align the top team with this temperament will make things easier for the enterprise to drive this sentiment down to the last rung of employees whose participation would hasten the transformation.

Businesses need to identify potential threats and opportunities that they possess as an organization that will either contribute to or hinder the endeavor. Creating a risk profile containing the consequences that the business would have to encounter in the absence or slow pursue of this transformation journey would contribute to the overall support of the executives towards this strategic change in the business model. In most cases the CEO is responsible for roping in the senior leaders into the transformation team.

It is also essential that enterprises know their starting point in the journey. They need to measure how mature their digital competencies are, and which strategic asset will help them to excel amidst the competition.  Assessing the strategic assets of the enterprise and defining those that will be relevant in a digital world and those that won’t – physical assets, competencies, intangible assets and digital assets like data which in most cases would turn out to be a high value currency can set the framework for further acquisition, development or realigning of the resources.