By Spyros Salpeas, Head of Digital Innovation and Key Customer Programs MEA, Orange Business Services
Digital innovation; technology is empowering people in new ways
Regardless of all the hype, new digital technology is really all about empowering the organisation (governments, public and private sector institutions) and people in new ways. Digital transformation is an organisational change management challenge – part of a strategic and cultural organisational transformation – and that means that it’s all about people. The threat is the speed and scale of tech-driven change but perhaps the real challenge is to turn this risk into opportunity – and ultimately, value.
Easy to say, difficult to do
In PwC’s 21st CEO Survey 2018, speed of technological change again made the global list of things that keep CEOs up at night (number six in the top 15). In the Middle East, this rose to number five in the top 10 list.
According to the Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey 2018, new technologies in themselves do not improve performance and need to be incorporated into existing or redesigned business processes. It states that in 2017 more organisations than ever put in place a digital strategy but growth is faltering – it is proving to be complex and almost eight in 10 CIOs believe their digital strategy is only moderately effective or worse. It adds that digital strategies are still in their infancy, with most investment focused on the ‘front end’ rather than deeper operational activities.
One challenging area identified in the Harvey Nash/KPMG survey is a skills shortage – 65% of CIOs reported a lack of skills holding back their strategies and that outsourcing is increasingly used as a skills enhancer rather than cost saver.
Digital transformation is more than getting employees to use some new software and hardware, it should be a genuine transforming process that changes the way people share, communicate and collaborate as a team. This means that the responsibility for digital transformation goes way beyond IT and that of all the core business functions of any organisation, human resources (HR) plays a vital role in this essentially human transformational process, putting structure and practice around the technology with skills and training.
The unique role and responsibility of the organisational leadership team including the CEO and CIO (or CXO, CTO, CDO) and head of HR, of course, is not just to lead from the front – but to lead by example.
Introducing and adopting any organisational change may meet some resistance so how does the organisation streamline and fast-track the adoption of new technology, especially when the stakes are so high (transform or be disrupted, perhaps into obsolescence) and when time is of the essence (businesses must digitally transform fast to compete with pure-play digital competitors as well as traditional competition)?
One starting point is to develop digital in the workplace from a base of familiarity – what people are already using outside the workplace. In many ways, employees may be ahead – even way ahead – of the corporation when it comes to the adoption of innovation and technology and comfort with its use – BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is part of this and so is COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled).
You cannot simply hand over the software to the employees and expect instant results; the process of introduction including awareness and training is essential.
Take a simple example of video conferencing – a very common communications tool for multinationals with teams and individuals working remotely and needing to collaborate. A recent study revealed that more than 60% of employees would do twice as many videoconference format meetings if they knew how to use the technology properly. It’s clever technology – but it’s not rocket science when it comes to putting these tools into people’s hands.
What can the organisational and functional leadership do to help enable the digital transformation process? Leading from the front may sound simple but there is no doubt that leaders who go further and set the example, by actively using and being seen to use new communications channels and tools, for example, through a highly visible executive blogging programme, or simply by using unified communications tools, tend to get a more positive response.
Training is a vital component of the digital transformation process; the digital skills gap is an issue and according to Strategy& (part of PwC) there is an insufficient regional supply of digital professionals in the GCC due to limited academic preparation for digital skills, slow adoption of advanced ICT courses in the education system, a lack of skilled instructors to provide these advanced courses and limited focus on developing the technical and vocational education and training sector in the region. And there is an inadequate professional development environment and limited interest in pursuing digital careers.
There’s a lot at stake.
PwC’s 2016 Industry 4.0 Middle East Industry Survey found that companies anticipated significant gains from digitisation and integration over the following five years, including estimated annual digital revenue increase of 3.8% (US$17bn); cost reductions of 3.8% a year on average (US$17.3bn). It also found that Middle East companies are committing to Industry 4.0 with the vast majority (89%) planning to invest 4% or more of their annual revenue in digital operations solutions, amounting to an investment of US$42bn over the following five years.
What about the employees?
According to a Dell and Intel study, 42% of millennials say they are likely to quit their jobs if the technology available to them is substandard.
So the pressure really is on to make digital work in the workplace.
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