Why Digital Transformations Fail and How to Avoid the Most Common Pitfalls

Why Digital Transformations

In a post-COVID world, digital transformation is a higher priority than ever for leaders of large enterprises. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the pandemic has caused over 80% of companies to accelerate their digital transformation efforts. But what was true before COVID is still true today: about “70% of digital transformations fall short of their objectives.”  

Why is this happening when so many vendors, analysts, and consultants consistently describe the impact of digital transformation on business growth in positive, glowing terms?  The answer is complex, and is often unique to each individual company attempting to transform itself. However, based on our work with Fortune 500 clients, we see three general obstacles to avoid.

3 Common Obstacles to Successful Digital Transformation   

•  Lack of urgency in recognizing that digitization is a bet-your-business strategy. Some businesses fail to recognize that digital transformation is no longer just an option. It is now a matter of business survival. Your biggest competitive threat might not even be coming from within your own industry. Think about companies like Amazon and Tesla. These are “digital first” companies that now dominate the retail and auto industries. The market cap of Amazon now nearly exceeds the entire rest of the U.S. retail industry. Similarly, the market cap of Tesla overwhelms all other automakers combined. Just last week, GM literally threw in the towel and announced it will be going all-electric by 2035. Don’t be like GM. Get ahead of new technologies before the market forces you to adopt them on its terms. It's all about adopting new digital technologies that enable your organization to serve customers in the way that they expect to be served.

• Use of traditional approaches to solve non-traditional problems. Digital transformation is a relatively new phenomenon for many companies, and, when it comes to executing digitization projects, no instruction manual exists on implementation. Oftentimes, strategy teams within Fortune 500 organizations will just ask IT teams, the CIO, or the Chief Digital Officer to “make it happen” without any real guidance, assistance, or collaboration.  Ideally, the decision on which emerging technologies to select should involve inputs from groups of stakeholders across the organization.  Line of business leaders and IT leaders should work jointly to understand how best to discover, evaluate, and implement new digital technologies.

• A focus on internal rather than external benefits. Organizations often make the mistake of focusing solely on digitizing their internal operations, rather than on prioritizing how these moves will impact their end customers.  For example, why not share those internal supply chain data analytics with customers so that your organization can help speed up their commerce? How do emerging technology investments provide customers with benefits that they weren’t experiencing before? Again, it should all be about improving the customer’s experience, and not just about reducing internal costs.

Speeding Up the Transition Process

The best way to avoid these obstacles is to speed up the transition process to a digital-first organization. Organizations can set themselves up for success by constantly experimenting with and evaluating new technologies that can impact their business. The more you try new things, the faster you will bring your organization to the promised land. 

This is easier said than done. Companies like to focus on what they are good at (or, more precisely, what they were good at 5 years ago). The bigger the enterprise, the more resistance to change. But change can come up on you all at once, as the past year of dealing with COVID has shown all of us.

Case in point: Nearly every business we work with is expanding their e-commerce business because of COVID. If they don’t have a robust e-commerce engine, they’re building one. If they have one, it has never seen the level of usage that it’s experiencing today.  Websites are at the breaking point because of explosive volumes in traffic. In order to regain the agility that helped to build their business to begin with, they need to quickly modernize in every area.

‍How can Traction Technology help?

Traction Technology is a ground-breaking platform engineered expressly to eliminate internal innovation silos, thereby enabling enterprises to seamlessly collaborate and align their business needs with promising technologies. By providing dynamic features that promote collaboration and innovation, they aim to accelerate digital transformation in the enterprise.

Here's how Traction Technology can help:

Discovery of Relevant Startups: Traction Technology helps established companies discover relevant advanced technologies aligned with their strategic goals and innovation areas. It curates startups based on different industries, technology trends, and areas of business interest, making it easier to find potential partners or investment opportunities and share this information across the enterprise.

Collaboration and Engagement Tools: Traction Technology offers tools that help manage the engagement process with startups. It provides a structured approach to evaluating, tracking, and managing interactions with multiple startups across multiple project and pilots, improving efficiency and collaboration.

Data-Driven Insights: The platform provides data-driven insights to help make informed decisions. This includes information on startup funding, growth indicators, customers and competitors, which can help in assessing potential startup partnerships.

Innovation Pipeline Management: Traction Technology aids in managing the innovation pipeline. It helps companies capture ideas and request and track innovation projects, monitor progress, and measure results in real time, promoting a culture of continuous innovation.

Track KPIs and Generate Custom Reports: Effortlessly track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with real time dashboards and generate custom reports tailored to your organization's unique requirements. Stay

ahead of the curve by monitoring projects progress and engagement.

By leveraging a platform like Traction Technology, established companies can gain a competitive edge, driving their digital transformation journey and adapting to the fast-paced business environment. It supports the integration of startup agility, innovation, and customer-centric approach into their operations, which is critical for success in the digital age.

About Traction Technology 

We built Traction Technology to meet the needs of the most demanding customers, empowering individuals and teams to accelerate and help automate the discovery and evaluation of emerging technologies. Traction Technology speeds up the time to innovation at large enterprises, saving valuable time and money by accelerating revenue-producing digital transformation projects and reducing the strain on internal resources, while significantly mitigating the risk inherent in working with early-stage technologies.

Let us share some case studies and see if there is a fit based on your needs.

‍Traction Report Update: 23 ways AI could  transform your business in 2023. 

For more information

●     Explore our software and research services.

●     Download our brochure: How to Evaluate Enterprise Startups.

●   Watch a demo of our innovation management platform and start your free trial.

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