In a recent Flexera survey of CIOs and other senior IT leaders, more than half of respondents listed digital transformation as their top priority, followed by cybersecurity, cloud first/cloud migration, and improved customer experience, all of which are heavily dependent on digital transformation.

Digital transformation is no longer just a buzzword; Companies have realised that digital transformation is necessary for success. Despite investing more than a trillion dollars in transformation efforts, there is still a chance of failure.

About 70% of digital transformation projects fail to achieve their goals, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group. Some still think digital transformation is all about infrastructure and IT, ignoring the company’s culture, DNA and business model. The failure of the project may have something to do with it.

Is your team facing a digital transition failure? According to Kristin Moyer, Gartner CEO and Distinguished Vice President analyst at the Digital Business Leadership Practice, there are three broad categories of digital transition failures: backsliding, underperformance, and new digital initiatives failing.

  • Backsliding, or “transformational cleansing,” is when a brand makes a move it has previously failed to implement.
  • When the enterprise is not satisfied with the project, there will be the problem of poor performance. Although there may still be some small gains, the real purpose of the project has not been fully achieved.
  • The failure of a new digital product or service is a complete failure, with all the resources deployed for the project gone. In this case, the only viable option is to terminate the project.

To ensure that digital transformation initiatives do not fail, it is important to understand the potential causes of failure and how to avoid them in the first place.

1. No high-quality digital transformation strategy

In a Constellation Research & WalkMe survey of 100 Fortune 500 CIOs, 77% of respondents listed digital transformation as their top priority for 2021. With a high-quality digital transformation plan, there is no fear of backsliding, underperformance, or outright failure.

How to reposition your team in the digital economy? What’s the action plan?

Digital transformation is not just about adopting a new technology, but about integrating innovation, leveraging emerging technologies and seeking new operational and business models. To succeed in digital transformation, you need to find ways to radically reshape your business along the way, with the ultimate goal of improving productivity and customer experience as you go along.

If a transformation strategy is desirable, the programme should take into account the nature of the challenges to be addressed and identify the key aspects of the challenges. There must be guidelines for meeting the challenges. You should clearly state how you want to overcome the problem you have identified. The team must know which actions are important and when to take them.

Without a clear explanation, they may have to rely on intuition, which can easily lead to backsliding. Teams working on piecemeal projects and aimless technology injection that add no business value must be avoided.

2. Your aversion to change

A lot of times, we find a lot of people who resent any kind of change in culture and the way things are done. This is the number one reason for backsliding, underperformance, or total failure. Is change an absolute evil? Why do we have to break the rules?

The mindset of all involved in the programme must be positive. While the CEO’s role is the most important to establishing the right mindset, the leadership experience must run from the CEO all the way down to middle management.

When the CEO is passionate about transformation, and the body language consistently shows that passion, that spirit is contagious to other employees. The CEO’s support for the plan greatly influenced the funding of the project.

Since ciOs are responsible for most digital transformation initiatives, they can be more than just ordinary implementation partners. They must act as the fulcrum of transformation and be willing to train others.

3. Not hiring quality people

If you don’t master the right skill set for a transformation project, the process is a recipe for failure. It is possible to make the false assumption that you have every talent you need to execute a successful digital transformation.

There must be a serious focus on transformational leadership positions. You need digital expertise and some broader skills. Traits such as determination, pragmatism, flexibility, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, adaptability and learning agility do have a very positive impact.

Know exactly what areas are lacking so you can find the right people. Where they cannot be hired directly, they can be filled by outsourcing.

Areas like ARTIFICIAL intelligence and cybersecurity don’t have to be tackled fundamentally. Bring in people who are knowledgeable enough about digitization and experienced in making such transitions.

4. Lack of necessary culture

Organizational culture can be a stumbling block to organizational transformation plans. To succeed in digital transformation, everyone in the organization must embrace a culture of collaboration.

These initiatives go beyond departments and everyone needs to work as a unit to increase productivity. No matter what your goals are, from improving productivity to enhancing a better customer experience, they must be fully committed.

Success in a digital transformation plan can only be achieved by building a culture of collaboration among employees, across functions and across departments.

Transformational management must be at its best so that it can quickly identify those who are resistant to cultural change. Through education and training, they can participate in transformation programs and may even become transformational influencers.

conclusion

While the above points may not be all factors contributing to the failure of digital transformation, they will greatly contribute to the success of our transformation plan. No one wants to throw their money down the drain, but digital transformation is hard work. Digital transformation is not a casual success. It requires consistency, careful analysis, and all available data to fully understand what is being achieved.