The trap that many corporations fall into is the belief that digital transformation is mostly a technological thing. They think that they can hire a bunch of software engineers or outsource to development companies and that’ll solve their digital transformation woes. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as there’s a human side to digital transformation.
Some companies aspire to be a Silicon Valley-type tech company that is a mix of entrepreneurship, agility and speed. In the end, this causes them believe that tech is the end-all, be-all solution. And while technology is disruptive to the business, it is not disruptive innovation.
Disruptive innovation is a purposeful re-imagining of how you structure and manage your work. It’s recognizing that the real disruptions are external to the company, mostly in the form of pandemics, ransomware attacks, supply shocks, energy grid collapses, the big quit, etc.
What the COVID pandemic should have taught us is that disruption is the new norm. These disruptions are going to continue to ripple across our economies, as well as our businesses. Organizations sitting around waiting to return to normal will fail. Companies that continue to attempt top-down transformations or reorganizations will continue to just shift — essentially moving around deck chairs on the Titanic.
So the question becomes, how do you start exploring in the core?