Regardless of the response organizations chose for the slowdown, their future rebound can be rebooted through digital transformation. Here are five reasons – urgent and essential.

1. Five Reasons why Digital Transformation is Essential for
Business Growth
Since early 2020, organizations and industries have been dealt with a Hobson’s choice (a free
choice where only one thing is offered). They had to embrace digital as overnight transactions
and interactions went online.
Most executives concur that their companies experienced accelerated digitization of their
internal operations and customer and supply-chain interactions by two to four years. As the
uncertainty reduces, new growth is a business imperative two years on. An HBR study classifies
four distinct approaches for companies to roar out of recession – prevention, promotion,
pragmatic, and progressive. Regardless of the response organizations chose for the slowdown,

2. their future rebound can be rebooted through digital transformation. Here are five reasons –
urgent and essential.
1. Clear trends that reflect digital maturity: Most companies across sectors list customer-facing
initiatives (for instance, digital marketing) among their top goals. This is a perspective C-Suite
leaders have nurtured over months now, primarily because they believe digital technologies are
fundamentally disruptive to their (or their competitors’) business models. The behavior can be
seen in two pieces of evidence: More business functions (rather than CIO or CTO organizations)
are sponsoring transformation budgets, and secondly, the rapid appointments of Chief Digital
Officers. Finally, there is the associated mindset shift – Digital transformations today are more
about revenue generation and increasing customer intimacy than the traditional focus on cost-
cutting. For example, Frito-Lay ramped its digital and data-driven programs during the pandemic,
fast-tracking five years of digital plans into six months.
2. Correlation between digital transformation and revenue growth: An influential survey of 1400
companies worldwide elaborates on how digital influences financials. Companies that report 70%
completion also show twice the revenue growth compared to ones just getting started. Led by
firms in Healthcare, Aerospace, Financial institutions, High Tech., and Communications,
companies across North and Latin America are ahead of the rest of the world. Another layer of
insights can be gleaned from the top three motivations: increasing market share and accelerating
speed to market, improving brand reputation, and boosting employee retention and
productivity. When it comes to departments closer to transformation journeys, the order works
out as IT, Marketing & Sales, Product and Services Innovation, Customer service, and Operations.
3. Digital is the new way of responding to customers: More than thinking of it as implementing
technology, digital transformation should be seen as a response to how technology changes the
business landscape amid the shifting customer expectations. Consider how the innovators –
Amazon and Netflix, for instance – seized the megatrends on the horizon (mobiles, social media,
IoT, and cloud computing) to reinvent business models (ecommerce and electronic delivery) and
optimize processes (supply chain and new features). Admittedly, digital transformations dare to
go where no one else does. From automating processes to creating a disruption-moat, or even

3. enabling friction-less access to new features – digital – after all, is an organization’s way to catch
up to the ever-escalating customer expectations.
4. Workforce Virtualization: As hybrid models and work from home (or anywhere) become a
permanent option across companies, not to talk of ‘the great resignation,’ companies have to
rely urgently on digital capabilities to select, hire, train, and manage talent. Most sectors tread
carefully as their economic recovery models primarily depend on how quickly remote working
can be scaled, made more seamless, and replicate the face-to-face texture essential to
collaboration and innovation. With virtual learning, businesses contend with an overnight shift –
a ‘great digital divide.’ 76% of workers, as per a global report, do not feel ready to perform in a
digital-first world. Most gaps showed up in preparedness, access to learning resources, skill
levels, and training participation. Organizations are girding up significant digital learning
investments to close this hole, which will only grow if left unattended.
5. Every company must become a technology company: The COVID-19 has undoubtedly been a
great leveler. Countries across borders have been affected equally, but the eye-opening lessons
are also being felt with equal force. One insight that stares right back at the business community
is that, regardless of a company’s distinctive products, services, or operations, every one of them
must think (and behave) like a technology company. The reasons are not far to find. Evaluating
various companies across industries on basic performance parameters (like creating new revenue
streams, improving existing streams, and reducing costs) highlights the considerable edge
technology brings through automation, scale, agility, and flexibility. So, be it digitizing end-user
experience, modernizing IT infrastructure, scaling data and analytics, or redesigning the delivery
model, companies can learn from the number one rule in the tech playbook: A tech-forward
business strategy must integrate business and technology management across strategy and
execution.
The final analysis that digital transformations are a lever to a robust economic recovery is not in
doubt. The focus, therefore, has to be on an approach that combines leadership commitment up
top to a clear, integrated strategy built on a business-led tech. And data platform
Original Source: https://maveric-systems.com/blog/five-reasons-why-digital-transformation-is-essential-for-
business-growth/