Digital Maturity Strategy

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Digital Transformation Strategy (145-slide PowerPoint presentation). Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations across most industries, as the role of technology shifts from being a business enabler to a business driver. This has only been accelerated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Thus, to remain competitive and outcompete in today's fast paced, [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Digital Transformation, take a look at Flevy's Digital Transformation Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

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Go digital or go home.  To survive in the Digital Age, organizations must pursue Digital Transformation to not only support strategies and reach customers, but also to modernize and achieve excellence in their internal operations and processes.  The pursuit of Digital Maturity is quickly becoming a necessity.

Yet, most organizations are unable to properly strategize their transition to Digital Maturity.  Nevertheless, there are organizations that are digitally mature or are leaping towards that state with ease.  Research into the Strategy of such organizations reveals that digitally mature organizations apply following 5 practices that make them leaders in this race:

1. Digital Organization
2. Digital Strategy
3. Digital Experimentation
4. Digital Talent
5. Digital Leadership

These 5 best practices provide the foundation to Digital Maturity Strategy.  Let us delve into a little more detail of some of these best practices.

Digital Organization

Conventional Organizational Structures arranged in functional silos do not cut it in the dynamic and rapidly changing markets.  Fresh approach to Organizational Structures has brought forward cross-functional team structures.  Customary command and control systems hinging on functional silos are hindering the agility necessary in the current market scenarios.

A research survey categorized Digital Maturity of organizations into early-stage, developing, and maturing organizations.  Nearly 60% of the respondents from the early-stage deemed the management structure and practices in their organizations as an impediment to engaging in Digital business successfully.  Digitally Maturing companies, on the other hand, had 80% of the respondents saying that their leaders had adequate understanding and capability to lead the organization’s Digital Strategy. 

Digital Strategy

Effective Digital Strategies are not merely implementation of technologies for the purpose of becoming more Digital, rather they are purposed to identify opportunities for greatest business impact.

Research consistently indicates that Strategy is the most formidable differentiator of Digitally Maturing companies.  Digital Strategies lay out how the organization conducts business distinctively, given the changes brought about in the market by new Digital technologies.

When asked about actions needed by the company to increase Digital Maturity, 40% of respondents in a survey, felt the need for improvement in Digital Strategy and Innovation.  Percentage-wise, research found that 80% of the Digitally Mature companies had, or were likely to have, a well-defined and coherent Strategy as compared to 19% of Early-stage companies.  Research concluded that Digitally Mature organizations are 2 times more likely to Strategize for 5 years or more.

Successfully executing Digital Strategy demands concentrating on Organizational Change and building flexibility so as to attune to swiftly changing Digital environments. 

Digital Experimentation

Almost every organization indulges in experimentation with technology.  But the scope and scale of experiments sometimes do not provide outcomes that may have an enterprise-wide effect.  Digitally Maturing companies have the capability to escalate Digital Experiments.

Key to effective experimentation is to think of experiments for urgent business problems—that will push enterprise-wide Innovation—then conduct smaller experiments that can be ramped up once successful.

Digitally Maturing organizations are 2.5 times more apt at conducting small experiments and scaling enterprise-wide Innovation, compared to Early-stage companies.  Open-mindedness towards failures and the capacity to learn from them strengthens the ability to scale up small experiments.

Interested in learning more about Digital Maturity Strategy?  You can download an editable PowerPoint on Digital Maturity Strategy here on the Flevy documents marketplace.

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Want to Achieve Excellence in Digital Transformation?

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Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations of all sizes across most industries. In the Digital Age today, technology creates new opportunities and fundamentally transforms businesses in all aspects—operations, business models, strategies. It not only enables the business, but also drives its growth and can be a source of Competitive Advantage.

For many industries, COVID-19 has accelerated the timeline for Digital Transformation Programs by multiple years. Digital Transformation has become a necessity. Now, to survive in the Low Touch Economy—characterized by social distancing and a minimization of in-person activities—organizations must go digital. This includes offering digital solutions for both employees (e.g. Remote Work, Virtual Teams, Enterprise Cloud, etc.) and customers (e.g. E-commerce, Social Media, Mobile Apps, etc.).

Learn about our Digital Transformation Best Practice Frameworks here.