Every enterprise is in some stage of “Digital transformation”
today. The new ones are born digital anyway. But, is transforming the
enterprise digitally enough to maintain their competitive advantage? Does this
automatically bring the organizations closer to the business? The answer is NO.
Today’s digital world is shaping the way customers, markets
and even employees think, write, share ideas, experience the world leading to
changed buying behaviour. The options, before the stakeholders, are vast.
Customers change their needs fast even building up some en route. How
efficiently can the enterprises understand these changes? The key to success is
whether they can make use of this digital transformation into delivering “Personalized
experiences or realities” on time. An example is the Japanese e-commerce site
Zozotown. Its mobile app is paired with Zozosuits to take customer’s body
measurements. They can then order individualized clothes online.
Whilst this is on the customer side, what about employees?
Employees should become more like “Human + workers” ready to embrace and apply
digital technologies to enhance the way they work and deliver products or
services. Both the entire organization and
the employees must keep pace with digital maturity. If either one is incompatible, it may pull down the enterprise ability to differentiate.
The markets are no longer fixed or in a single location.
They may not even exist today. Welcome to the world of “digital”, “on-demand”, “At
the moment” multi-market scenario. Some may last for a while. Others may not.
Enterprises must act keeping this in mind. The underlying processes and
structure can be monolithic but the entire firm must be nimble and ready to
shape-shift in a moment’s notice. For this, the organizations can and should
use appropriate AI tools that help predict preferences and changes in the
customers’ thinking.
The essence lies in how the enterprises can effectively use
the digital technologies to harness the virtual markets simultaneously building “Trust”
with customers, employees and business partners.
