According to research from the Harvard Business Review for Microsoft, we are facing a digital disruption milestone by 2020, for which most organisations are unprepared.
There is a lot of market discussion about digital transformation, says Aisling Curtis, commercial director for small medium corporate solutions and partners, Microsoft Ireland, but still a lot of confusion about exactly what digital transformation is and how to go about it.
We are facing a digital disruption milestone by 2020, she said, but our leaders are not prepared for it. She said that 80% of global business leaders interviewed in the HBR survey believed their industry would be transformed, but far less than that have a plan to handle it.
Market share
For those that do not believe that digital disruption is happening here, Curtis cites the examples of Hailo and MyTaxi, who arrived I the Irish market and quickly took significant market share.
“This is because they have the technology and the customer insights to disrupt existing industries, and yet they have very little sectoral experience.”
“We hear people say that digital transformation is some kind of buzzword, but it’s not. In simple, terms it is the next business evolution. It is using technology to transform the business model to gain competitive advantage,” she said.
“We did research with Amarach here in Ireland to understand the digital trends a bit better,” said Curtis. “The results are pretty sobering.”
The time to act is now, she warns.
“We have less than two years to digitally transform.”
Business evolution
Half of those surveyed believe that digital disruption will disrupt their organisation in the next two years. Some 40% saw that threat coming from new agile competitors, driven by technology.
“Irish organisations need to see this as a business evolution,” said Curtis.
Perhaps the most worrying result, she said, was that nearly a third (32%) will carry on unaware of the disruption.
“I am keen to get across to partners and customers, that the time is now and doing nothing will be costlier,” said Curtis.
Organisations believe they are further ahead than they actually are, she reports. Nearly two thirds (60%) see themselves as digital disruptors, with 80% seeing themselves as ahead of the competition. However, Curtis said that further examination reveals that 44% admit they are only just keeping up, while less than half actually have digital transformation strategies in place.
These misconceptions need to be tackled in a coherent way, said Curtis, and quickly.
“We need to bring clarity,” said Curtis, “and that is what Microsoft is doing.
Multi-layered
Reiterating Microsoft’s multi-layered approach, Curtis said this must extend across customers, employees, operations and products, to be not just a technology transformation, but a cultural one.
“It is about change management,” she said, and inclusiveness change is required.
Another aspect of the confusion is that people do not think it affects all organisations, she warned, but all organisations are affected.
“We are well placed to be able to help companies, large and small.”
“All organisations have an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Smaller companies can be the disruptors, but larger companies, if they do not evolve and take the next steps, they will be disrupted,” said Curtis.
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