Six steps to transforming your business successfully

The pandemic has only accelerated the digital shift that has forced organizations to experiment with everything from new hires to repivoting business models. With S$24billion announced by the Singapore government in the recent Budget 2021 statement to drive transformation for businesses and citizens over the next three years, the climate is now ripe for businesses to make good, impactful progress in their digital transformation journeys.

Despite being a priority for almost any business today, transformation remains a complex process that even some of the most iconic companies have grappled with unsuccessfully. While some issues may be unique to an organization, or connected to external forces outside a company's control, there are also some widely-held misconceptions about transformation that often hold organizations back from becoming more agile and technologically-empowered. Acknowledging the hard truths and gaps about the whole process, can help provide a head start in ensuring successful transformation.

What does it take to transform:

1) Transforming doesn't mean doing the same thing as everyone

It is vital for transformation to be driven by a shared sense of purpose throughout the organization, on outcomes that are directly relevant to the business, and not merely looking to imitate what leading companies are rolling out. Transformation projects need to be evaluated across two fundamental dimensions - whether they create the desired value, and whether they continuously enhance the enterprise's ability to create that value.

2) Transforming isn't the only thing that matters

Transformation is a balancing act between facilitating change, and ensuring regular business operations are not neglected or deprived of resources to a negative degree.

3) Transformation isn't always horizontal

Balance across the organizational leadership is also desired for successful transformation programs. Simplified, more horizontal structures in which management layers are reduced and where people are empowered to speak out, can contribute to business agility and positive transformational impact.

4) 'Failing fast' isn't enough

The 'fail fast, fail often' mantra have often been espoused by tech and traditional companies. However, there is a fine line between accepting a certain amount of productive failure and making failure a goal in its own right. Successful transformation requires the former approach , which leverages failure as part of a broader learning and organizational growth process.

5) It's not only the people and culture

So much in transformation depends on the organization's people, and creating an internal culture that fosters dynamic, productive interactions. However, another common mistake seen is concentrating on the organizational aspects of transformation, without first laying the technological foundations or ensuring that people have access to the right resources and tools to enable transformation.

6) Responsive doesn't mean responding to everything

Lastly, becoming a more adaptable, responsive organization should not be confused with doing everything based on customer feedback or data insights. While data analysis is being used more than ever to power organizational decision-making, an over-eagerness to put the data to use without the relevant investments to boost technological and digital capabilities, will only lead to superficial surface-level change, or worse, take away resources from the processes that really impact the business.

In the most simplest terms, the main question for any organization faced with constant change during its transformation journey is no longer how it should transform in response but rather, can it continue to evolve at the pace that's required to keep up? Successful transformation is all dependent on individual companies and their unique "DNA". Rather than setting out to 'transform,' a change-ready organization engages in constant analysis, examining the data around existing processes and offerings to establish where these can be tightened or enhanced by the effective application of technology - even jettisoned if necessary. The core mission and values may stay the same, but organizational and technological infrastructure is developed and evolved accordingly to advance the ability to recognize and keep pace with change.