Both our business world and our social lives changed dramatically with the pandemic. Digital transformation began to show itself everywhere. Companies rushed headlong after digital transformation. While some companies said their corporate culture and their employees' skills were not yet ready for this transformation, others realized it was impossible to survive without digital transformation and got to work right away.
Research shows that more than 70% of projects do not achieve their goals and fail. There are many reasons for failure. But today I will talk only about what I see as the most important one: “management support.” Technology and software are at the center of digital transformation. It is an effort that requires both people and financial resources. When management is not fully convinced, the resources needed for digital transformation are not provided sufficiently and projects fail. Things get done halfway.
Even when the steps to be taken are clear, resources are provided only partially. Looking at the project from the outside, you can see that it has been left half-finished and that a system that does not fully meet the requirements is being cobbled together somehow. The company becomes truly exhausted and burned out. Once burnout starts, it quickly takes hold of the entire company. It completely destroys the ability to change.
What I find most interesting is that companies often say, “we didn't set aside a budget for digital transformation this year, we'll look at it next year.” In a world that has become fully digital, how does saying “we don't plan to take part in this process” affect a company's future? I leave that for you to judge. For digital transformation, you should have an action plan covering at least 5 years and a fully authorized committee working on it. You should set aside a budget for it regularly every year.
Digital transformation should be at the center of the company, and change should be part of its corporate culture. Even though the world and consultants say that companies will not survive in the future without digital transformation, why is there still this resistance?
In fact, one of the things I find most interesting is that digital transformation is seen as a chore, is not taken seriously enough by management, and the project is handed over to people who do not have enough authority to drive change.
Since our topic is digital transformation, technology is at the heart of it. Where does the information technology or digital transformation directorate stand in all this? Do they have enough authority? Are they part of the management team? The core problem actually lies behind these questions. When you look at successful companies, the directorates I mentioned above are represented at the C-level, that is, at least at the deputy general manager level. A digital perspective needs to evaluate the business across all of the company's ways of working and set the vision for the company as a whole. This is complex work that demands a high degree of coordination and effort.
Given this, do you think it is possible for companies that do not give the people managing this work enough authority and resources to succeed in digital transformation?
Sources
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/3425959
https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/digitally-transforming-microsoft-our-it-journey/
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/beyder/article/1163107
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