Digital Transformation- Building a Brand out of a Business

The object of importance to any business is its product or service that it provides. But what is more important to a business than what it started for in the first place? It’s to make sure that the potential customer/consumer is aware of them as a company and their product; this is where BRAND comes in.  

Digital Transformation takes Digital Literacy to a whole new level. But is it the next big thing for brand building?  

Why is a brand important in the first place?

Firstly it helps people relate to your organization. Secondly it leads to increase customer leads. It also increases the first time customers. 

According to study conducted by the MIT Center for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting, “customer services can be enhanced significantly by digital initiatives”.  This for a business implies:-

·         Quicker solution to consumer faced problems.

·         Ability to know what the customer wants and provide them a better customer experience. 

·         Better communication with your consumers and employees.                   In fact according to study by Deloitte 93% employees want digital transformation. 

     

What are the advantages of Digital Transformation for a business? 

It will give access to new markets, and increase opportunities of business expansion. In most organizations CIOs will lead digital transformation. The boon of digital transformation is that now the CIO is closer to the customer and the market through ‘paperless’ , organised and analytical record of the market, sales, and customer management.

     

What does digital transformation mean for a brand?

According to the study by the MIT Center for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting  “Companies with a strong brand are able to leverage it in related offerings. Through mobile web, social media, new digital businesses and other digital initiatives these companies can extend and strengthen their brands, building additional points of contact with customers”.

Additionally even if the brand is not a strong one, such digital initiatives can empower it.

How to get Digital Transformation?

According to an article by Mckinsey there are nine basic questions you must know to get grasp of it:

1.     How well do you know where change is occurring?

2.    Do you know which customer journeys matter?

3.    Are your teams collaborating across functions?

4.     Do you have a disciplined ‘Test and Learn’ approach?

5.     Are your budgets tied to progress?

6.     Do you have mechanisms to challenge ideas?

7.    Are your people empowered to act?

8.    Is your IT operating at two speeds?

9.    Are you coordinating a portfolio of initiatives?

Based on this article in my opinion these are the major question you must know answer to for a digital transformation of a business to a brand:

1.     Do you have a plan for the digital initiative?

There is no guarantee that a plan will always work even if it is well thought of. Which is it is important to be well aware of the market and sectors with revolutionary changes, so as to seek the opportunity. It also helps to have a team of Digital and business professionals to help mould a successful initiative.

2.    Do you have the budget?

From the inception of a digital initiative to its execution, the expected investment will often exceed the realized investment. Thus a thorough analytical study of data must be done to ensure that the return on investment of the initiative is plausible.

3.    Do you have the IT skill set?

According to the MIT Center for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting, 50% firms have ineffective IT for digital transformation. This organizational skill gap is barring several companies to opt for digital transformation.

Digital Transformation is the Future for Brand Building

According to a study conducted by Deloitte 45% feel that their organization has gained ‘digital maturity’ with digital transformation.

Another study by Accenture suggests that customer experience is the heart of digital transformation, creating more aware products and services. With 40% organizations believing that they are ready for Digital transformation.

With a more educated approach available for product awareness, customer experience among several other advantages, digital transformation is going to take brand building to a whole new pedestal.

Disruptive Technology: Reshaping Business Excellence

With the steep rise in the advancement of the technology entrepreneurs are also trying to incorporate these technologies to reshape their business top excellence. Now the question arises How? the answer to this question is “Disruptive Technology”. What is Disruptive technology? It is a new way of doing things that disrupts or overturn the traditional business model, methods and practices. It starts with innovation, an innovation that will generate a new market and a value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leaders and alliances. Don’t get confused between disruption and innovation think of it this way: Disruptors are innovators but not all innovators are disruptors.

How to attain Disruptive technology?

For reshaping your Business to excellence you need to know how to attain disruptive technology. It is attainable by following these simple steps: First step is the disruption itself which includes the introduction of the product with a fresh point of view. Second step involves the Evolution which include innovation which will go hand in hand with this new trajectory. Third step is about convergence which is about a thorough value proposition of the product with relativity to the legacy and the Final step is Re-imagination in this you have to re-think the entire category to look at the underlying assumptions and essentially rethinking all of them.

Boon of Disruptive Technology:

Disruptive technology is all about thinking out of the box and have some innovation for Business to prosper various benefits of disruptive technology are it helps organizations to expand their markets through innovation with new and existing products or services.

It helps to expose the current operations to the light of urgency to identify the area for structural improvement.

Opportunities from the future will present themselves because by adapting to disruptive technology you opened the door for the possibility of something new which will lead to the growth of the organization.

Barriers to Disruptive Technology. 

1.     Organizational Barrier:

Disruptive technology is very hard to incorporate without the support of the organization. The organizational barrier can be termed as entire set of activities of organization like processes, policies, management, culture, capabilities and orientation which hinder the adoption of the disruptive technology.

2.     Technological Barrier:

Technology is something which serve the user on a dimension of performance. Technology barriers are the existing products or technology that serve mainstream market causing barrier to adapt disruptive technology.

3.     Market Barrier:

It is a hardship to identify the emerging marketing experiences. Serving to less profitable customers and less attractive markets hinders the disruptive technology

Prediction on the Disruptive technology:

According to forbes 15% of U.S. tech leaders see biotech/digital health/healthcare IT as the most disruptive consumer-driven technology in the next three years.

Global tech leaders predict cloud computing (11%), mobile platforms and apps (9%), Internet of Things (IoT)/machine-to-machine (M2M) (9%) and data and analytics (9%) will be the most disruptive technologies over the next three years.

The three most disruptive technologies predicted to drive business transformation in enterprises over the next three years in the U.S. include cloud computing (13%), data and analytics (13%), and cyber security (10%).

Business leaders should keep their organizational strategies updated in the face of continually evolving technologies, ensure that their organizations continue to look ahead, and use technologies to improve internal performance