Successful digitization: Digitally progressive companies are more successful – especially if they are customer-oriented.
Digitally progressive companies have more satisfied employees and are economically more successful than their more analog competitors. They have a higher “Digital Culture Score”. This means that these companies are already more advanced in terms of culture and use of digital possibilities. Capgemini Consulting has demonstrated this in the “Culture First!” study.
The consulting firm sums up: The triad of strategy, organization and culture produces the best results. This means that the introduction of technology or software alone is of no use.
If you blindly follow trends, you are distancing yourself from your target group
However, the realization that the harmonious triad of strategy, organization and culture is the basis does not yet seem to be very widespread. As described in the article “Worth Reading: German ‘Digitization’ versus American Innovation and Digitization”, the motto in Germany is: If you want to sound visionary without being specific, you reach for the term “digitization”. Whether politicians, executives or intellectuals, like the lemmings, this group of people is following the trend. They shine with phrases and buzzwords, without knowing to what extent the respective target group even benefits from it. The fatal thing about it: Depending on the target group, the need for technical possibilities or necessities is very different. Not every target group demands the “latest technology”. The simple consequence: The target group turns away with incomprehension.
This risk can be easily avoided: The company only has to put the needs of its various customer groups at the centre of its measures. If this is the case, it brings the wishes of the customer groups in line with the digital possibilities. Not everything for everyone, but differentiation! If customers or potential customers are only satisfied with state-of-the-art technology, then the target group is the driver. Digitalisation becomes a means to an end rather than an end in itself and can unfold its positive potential. This results in a small side effect: the company does not blindly invest in technology, generates high costs which are only slowly amortized. The investment correlates with the needs of the target group.
The most important thing: the question of culture
However, this path cannot be taken overnight. Customer orientation cannot be implemented or prescribed by a Chief Digital Officer alone. It must rather develop as a culture within a company. This means that all employees who work more or less directly with the customer need to have similar knowledge or skills in digital possibilities. Leadership plays an important role here. You can find out what this means in the article “Corporate culture – a challenge for managers”.
Conclusion of successful digitization : It is important that managers observe trends and developments. But before they blindly follow them, or for fear of missing something, they should always look at the digital needs of their target group.
Note: This is a machine translation. It is neither 100% complete nor 100% correct. We can therefore not guarantee the result.
