Its GITEX Week in Dubai. GITEX is a bit like ‘Toys R Us’ for Digital Transformation people – all kinds of toys, from the practical and educational to the latest season’s fads.
Some companies are quick to implement technology like AI, Machine Learning and various kinds of automation enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT), however the vast majority of companies are not ready to be transformed.
But you might not get to choose when you need to change. The question is not will your industry be disrupted by a smarter, more agile, data driven, technology embracing company or business model. The question is when.
While that sounds dramatic, it doesn’t mean you need to go out and invest in flying autonomous vehicles or chess master level artificial intelligences – unless of course your customers demand it and your competitors already have.
Because digital transformation is not an end in itself. It is a process that enables you to deliver a better customer experience and return on investment and technology is only part of the solution.
Digital Transformation is not about technology at all. It is about people. Specifically, it’s about people who are strong enough or ’empowered’ enough to ask the question – Why are we doing it like this? How could we make this 10 times better?
Without those people at every level of the organisation, there is no point in investing in Chatbots or recommendation engines or internet connected devices. Without those people, the old processes and thinking is just engineered into a different delivery mechanism.
Of course there are other people to consider – customers.
Unfortunately, in 2018, the term customer-centric is still seen by many as something novel rather than a business imperative. It’s actually quite shocking to see how often, supposed leaders turn up at conferences or tweet something along the lines of ‘we need to focus more on the customer’ as if it was a revelation.
But you need ‘good customers’. You need customers that will push you, that will ask you ‘why are you doing it this way?’ If your customers are telling you ‘this doesn’t make sense, then it probably doesn’t.
So as you walk around the halls of GITEX this week and talk to very clever techies who live and breathe code, who build the robots who will replace you, who revel in the complexity of millions of sensors determining your AI’s next move – think about how you explain to your people why it is a good idea. Who really benefits? How?