Leadership for Digital Transformation
Transformational leadership is a leadership style in which leaders encourage, inspire and motivate their employees to innovate and create change that will help grow and shape the future success of the company. This is achieved when company leaders lead by example and foster a strong sense of corporate culture and independence in the workplace.
In a changing and dynamic business environment, the key to success may be to find a leader who dares to take risks and thinks ahead. This is what transformational leadership is all about.
- It fosters motivation and positive development of its followers.
- Exemplifies moral standards within the organisation and encourages the same in others.
- It fosters an ethical working environment, with clear values, priorities and standards.
- It develops the culture of the company by encouraging employees to move from an attitude of self-interest to a mindset of working for the common good.
- It emphasises authenticity, cooperation and open communication.
- It provides advice and guidance, but allows employees to make decisions and take ownership of tasks.
Although the concept of transformational leadership can be applied to any type of business, it is particularly important in companies involved in digital transformation. Adapting to rapidly advancing technology requires constant innovation and strong leadership to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60O2OH7mHys
According to a study by Gartner, 40% of CIOs are leaders in their company's digital transformation, while 34% say they are responsible for technology innovation. Inspiring and motivating employees is an important part of digital transformation planning.
However, not all parts of ICT can benefit from transformational leadership. The development of some projects requires more structure, consistency and security. This style of leadership is referred to as transactional leadership.
Leadership style matters
Transactional leadership is the exact opposite of transformational leadership, i.e. it relies on inspiring and motivating employees through incentives and punishments. This style requires supervision, organisation and constant performance monitoring. The transactional leadership model does not try to innovate.
Instead, it is based on keeping things constant and predictable over time. Possible errors are thoroughly investigated and the ultimate goal is to create efficient working routines.
The transactional leadership style is best suited to departments that require routine and solid structure, especially in areas where it is essential to minimise inefficiency and chaos. As a consequence, there is no room for innovation in this leadership model.
While transformational leadership allows employees to come up with new ideas and look to the future, transactional leadership aims to maintain consistent and secure processes over time.
Examples of transformational leaders include the following:
- Jeff Bezos, Amazon: As someone who jumped from the world of finance, he brought a fresh perspective to e-commerce through years of experience in a different industry.
- Reed Hastings, Netflix: Coming from a software company, he was unfamiliar with established procedures in the television industry.
- Tim Cook, Apple: Tim has always maintained a focus on innovation, software development and brand loyalty.
¿Cómo definir un Presupuesto adecuado para la Transformación Digital?
Definir el presupuesto de actividades de una empresa siempre es complicado, y más aún para las empresas que emprenden proyectos de transformación digital.
Con tantas partes móviles diferentes, los proyectos de transformación digital requieren una base sólida desde la cual comenzar a construir, incluido un presupuesto que refleje con precisión la escala y la complejidad de la iniciativa, sin dejar de ser alcanzable y realista. Sin embargo, definir dicho presupuesto puede ser un desafío.
Definir el presupuesto de actividades de una empresa siempre es complicado, y más aún para las empresas que emprenden proyectos de transformación digital. Con tantas partes móviles diferentes, los proyectos de transformación digital requieren una base sólida desde la cual comenzar a construir, incluido un presupuesto que refleje con precisión la escala y la complejidad de la iniciativa, sin dejar de ser alcanzable y realista. Sin embargo, definir dicho presupuesto puede ser un desafío.Fuente: https://live.staticflickr.com/2947/33887741275_22bc30a37a_b.jpg
Las siguientes son consideraciones clave que deben abordarse para garantizar que el presupuesto dedicado a la transformación digital respalde los requisitos organizacionales y los objetivos estratégicos.
1. Involucrar a todos
Obviamente, es imposible involucrar a todos los individuos de la empresa en el proceso de elaboración del presupuesto. Sin embargo, cuando se trata de la transformación digital, es importante considerar alternativas a los métodos de elaboración de presupuestos tradicionales que generalmente se administran a nivel departamental. Este modelo no es viable cuando la transformación digital se extiende a través de múltiples departamentos, roles y ubicaciones. En su lugar, se necesita un enfoque de colaboración que facilite la comprensión de los procesos comerciales centrales para garantizar que cada elemento del negocio se tenga en cuenta en el presupuesto. Sin esta imagen holística, existe el riesgo de crear cuellos de botella.
2. Considere los costos ocultos
En empresas donde hay diferentes unidades de negocio, es probable que haya áreas adicionales dentro de la empresa que deban incluirse en el presupuesto de transformación digital.
3. Visión compartida
Definir el presupuesto es solo una parte de la batalla. Es crucial crear una conciencia colectiva de la necesidad y los beneficios de la transformación digital desde una etapa temprana. Esta es la razón por la cual una fase temprana de 'descubrimiento' puede ayudar a articular más claramente objetivos e ideas que brinden mayor confianza y ayuden a asegurar la aceptación. La creación de prototipos o la prueba de concepto son buenas herramientas para presentar ideas de una manera muy visual.
4. Valor
El impulsor clave detrás de cualquier proyecto de transformación digital debe ser la entrega de valor. Si se enfoca solo en las funciones que desea cumplir sin pensar en cómo satisfarán la visión general, es poco probable que el proyecto logre los resultados propuestos. A la hora de definir el presupuesto, ten en cuenta las razones precisas por las que quieres emprender proyectos de transformación digital.
5. Agilidad
¿Es el presupuesto lo suficientemente flexible para capitalizar las nuevas tendencias y condiciones del mercado de manera oportuna? Los elementos comerciales de un proyecto generalmente siguen enfoques muy tradicionales y, como tales, a menudo se enfocan en costos fijos. Entregar una transformación digital requiere un cambio de mentalidad para ofrecer el mayor valor posible de las iniciativas de transformación.
Pero, ¿realmente las empresas están invirtiendo en la transformación digital?
A nivel mundial, las empresas están dedicando una gran parte de su capital a la transformación digital, ya que existe una clara tendencia a que empresas de todos los tamaños emprendan proyectos de transformación digital. Esta tendencia también se caracteriza por una menor inversión en proyectos relacionados con el análisis de datos y un mayor enfoque en el desarrollo de aplicaciones comerciales, nuevos servicios y ciberseguridad. Sin embargo, las empresas exitosas con altos márgenes operativos generalmente invierten más en innovaciones tecnológicas para transformar el negocio y mantenerse al día.
En la Unión Europea, y según el Índice de Economía y Sociedad Digital, la tendencia es de crecimiento para todos los indicadores de uso de las diferentes tecnologías. Esto se puede ver en el siguiente gráfico, que también muestra que los servicios en la nube y la Inteligencia Artificial son los proyectos de mayor crecimiento:
En lo que se refiere al negocio online, también es evidente que está creciendo de forma sostenida. En el siguiente gráfico podemos ver cómo, a pesar de las diferencias entre grandes, medianas y pequeñas empresas, el crecimiento de la facturación procedente del comercio electrónico es constante:
¿Quiere explorar por sí mismo los indicadores relevantes sobre el rendimiento digital en la UE y sus Estados miembros, en cinco dimensiones diferentes (Conectividad, Capital humano, Uso de Internet, Integración de tecnología digital y Servicios públicos digitales)? Acceda a la herramienta de visualización de datos e indicadores digitales de la UE.
Putting the customer at the centre
As markets around the world go digital, companies no longer have a small group of competitors, which they face on price and quality.
Today they compete globally, and the difference between them is the level of customer satisfaction they can deliver.
Thus, hand in hand with digital transformation, a traditional product-centric strategy has given way to a more customer-centric strategy. We can say that the most prominent objective of digital transformation is customer satisfaction and customer experience.
Customer Centricity
Investing the necessary resources to make the customer's experience with your brand the best possible is what makes a company "Customer Centric".
The main characteristic of a Customer Centric company is that all its strategic planning is focused on the customer. In other words, everything that is carried out within the organisation is aimed at providing the customer with a satisfactory experience.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_EXavzcV50
It no longer makes sense to group all customers into a single global segment, and to use the same communication, engagement, sales and CRM strategy with all of them.
Instead, customer-centric companies strive to listen to the customer, provide answers and ensure customer engagement, especially in the early stages.
So, if I want to focus my attention on the customer, how do I do it? Here are some tips to get you on the right track:
- Customer-oriented leadership
We have already discussed leadership above. Focusing on the customer will mean making decisions that put the customer above all other factors. It will be necessary to train or recruit leaders who think about the customer first and make decisions accordingly.
- Get to know your customers
The Customer Centric company must know its customers' tastes, challenges, and goals, and of course their online behavioural parameters. This is the only way to offer the best possible experience.
Only if we know what they are looking for will we be able to adapt our strategy to them and personalise our product or service offer. The implementation of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, which we will talk about later, can make this task much easier.
- Customer contact channels
Today's customer is connected to one or more digital devices and serves a variety of channels. Therefore, the optimal solution is to have an omni-channel or multi-channel service, which allows contact through the customer's preferred channel, whatever it may be.
In fact, the customer may perceive very positively the availability of various channels for contact with the company.
- Decentralise
Companies that give freedom to their different departments or work teams eliminate intermediate processes that are not always necessary. In addition, by having greater autonomy at a level close to the customer, they can offer more agile responses and make decisions that improve the customer experience.
- Use the comments to improve
Keep up to date with the feedback provided by customers.
It is imperative to respond to their comments as the image of the company will be greatly damaged if this is not done properly.
It is a very valuable source of information, which can enable constant improvements to be made to products and services.
- Monitor, monitor and monitor
We do not want the customer to visit us only once, and we already know that to achieve this it is necessary to listen to them and get to know them. How do I assess whether my strategy is working to retain my customers? There are several indicators that can be used to carry out this monitoring. It will be necessary to define which are the most appropriate in each case and to monitor them while testing different customer relationship strategies. Some of these indicators are as follows:
Lifetime Value (LTV)
Measures your company's profits in relation to a specific customer. That is, what were the profits generated for the business from the moment it became a customer of the company.
Churn Rate
Measures the number of customers or subscribers who have stopped following a company each month. There is no point in acquiring new customers if you are losing many others.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Have you ever been asked how likely you are to recommend a product or service to a family member or friend? That question is used to measure NPS. It is an indicator that measures customer loyalty.
It works by subtracting the detractors from the promoters, then this result is divided by the total number of responses obtained and multiplied by 100. An NPS above 0 is perceived as good and an NPS of 50 is excellent.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
It is the result of the sum of the investments made in marketing and sales divided by the number of customers won in the same period. It indicates how much is invested in marketing and sales to close each sale.
It should always remain lower than the LTV. If it is too close to, or even exceeds the lifetime value, the financial health of the business is in serious jeopardy.
Average ticket
It is the result of dividing the total value of sales by the number of orders.
It indicates how much money each customer is putting into a company over a certain period of time.
Knowing it will allow you to take actions that can increase it more and more. Increasing the variety of products, creatively associating less sold products with the most popular ones, or reminding the customer of products he/she has bought on another occasion, are some of the strategies that serve to increase the average Ticket.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is software that can comprise various functionalities focused on managing a company's sales and customers.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlhESAKF1Tk
These systems can greatly help companies to focus on customers. However, as you might expect, technology alone can only do so much. In fact, although it has been shown that the use of CRM can increase revenue by 41% on average, it is estimated that 43% of companies that use CRM do not use it correctly.
But then... What is the right way to use CRM?
A winning CRM strategy needs to be developed. To do so, the company must:
- Set objectives and plan the steps to achieve them, setting smaller, achievable intermediate goals.
- Prioritise customers: Not all customers are the same. Returning customers are often much more valuable, and spend on average almost twice as much as new customers. So we must be willing to prioritise customers who are more profitable and we must identify the traits that matter most to us in a buyer, in order to segment customers and increase effectiveness.
- Involve employees: A CRM is designed to handle large amounts of data and facilitate communication between various groups, but it is up to the employees to determine whether this communication actually takes place.
- Synchronise everything with the CRM: A CRM may have built-in proprietary programs that mimic the functionality of other applications. However, if this is not the case, and it is necessary to use external applications, it is important that they are synchronised with the CRM. Synchronising everything together ensures that the CRM can be used to its full capacity.
At the end of the day, a CRM is just a tool. On its own, it is incapable of helping the business achieve its objectives. But when combined with a detailed business strategy, CRM can help put the customer in the company's focus.