Digital Technologies, Initiatives & Leadership
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Industry is gripped in the tentacles of digitisation. Any article I read, edit or write seems to be about disruptive technologies, innovative solutions, IT-OT integration, and cybersecurity. According to an article that I read in Forbes magazine, those born before 1990 are digital immigrants, and those born after are digital natives. For the digital immigrants use of technology (smartphone, tablet, social media, etc), doesn’t come naturally – it’s like adapting to a foreign culture; for the digital natives, it is an environment they are born into. So leaders must recognise this digital divide and bridge the gap, to drive digital transformation in the organisation. MIT Sloan Management Review’s digital leadership initiative explores the growing use of digital technologies in the business landscape, examining the opportunities and risks. The way plants and facilities are structured has undergone a sea change; it has to be first time right. And for this technologies like 3D simulation and OTS (operator training simulator) have to be deployed. It sure is a digital world!
Leaders in the Digital Workplace
As more companies go digital we are seeing significant changes in organisational culture, strategy, and talent management. So the approach of today’s business leaders has to undergo a radical transformation. The hierarchical layers no longer follow strict diktats; organisational structures are flatter and more collaborative. The boss (even the word is becoming defunct) who said “that it’s my way or the highway”, is almost extinct. The approach of digital leaders is different, they ask “Do you have any suggestions to improve our processes?” Because they know that in a digital workplace communication, connectivity, and convergence are vital components; and to compete on a global playing field everyone in the organisation needs to scale up. Previously, IT teams deployed software and systems in the organisation and employees were gradually trained to use it. Now, IT teams deploy new systems only after understanding the business strategies, pain points, and objectives of the operations personnel – this ensures improvement along the entire value chain.
How Digital Leadership Works
ARC does a lot of research on digital transformation across industry verticals and how it is altering the market dynamics. A few years ago, the IIoT seemed like a nebulous concept, literally floating way above, in the cloud. Leaders were wary about adopting new technologies, until it was tested and proven by their peers. Now, they want to be ahead of the pack and are ready to scout the market and select appropriate solutions. Digital leadership is about guiding the implementation of new technologies, providing appropriate training, and creating collaborative networks. A digital leader should be able to connect technology with strategy, processes, data, and perhaps the most important link in the chain – people and their ideas. All this set me thinking about what qualities digital leaders need to possess to create competitive advantage:
- Vision to nurture an innovation-oriented digital team
- Ability to simplify and integrate processes (bridge the IT-OT divide)
- Ensure data transparency and accessibility
- Provide direction, but empower teams to deliver
- Encourage creativity
- Willingness to explore new ways and reinvent business models
- See failure as a learning opportunity, and
- Effectively manage talent and upgrade skills.
ARC has launched a Digital Transformation Council to enable industry, energy, and public sector professionals driving or impacted by digital transformation to keep abreast of the many emerging technologies and business trends, to learn from others on similar journeys, and to leverage these trends and technologies to achieve transformational growth. Next year the Digital Leaders Week is being hosted in the UK to showcase, share and inspire digital transformation across public, private, and non-profit sectors. While it is important to have a leader with a clearcut digital strategy, we must remember that everyone in the digital thread is connected and moving along the same path. There is no fixed destination, but the objectives are the same: agility, flexibility, quality, and productivity – all leading to operational excellence.
Digital Leaders Week 2019
Digital Leaders Week (June 17-21, 2019 at London) is the most inspirational week in the Digital Transformation calendar. Digital Leaders Week celebrates, showcases, shares, and inspires the best digital transformation across the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Digital Leaders Week is a national celebration of opportunities, challenges and support for the digital transformation of Britain’s businesses, public services and society. Listing over 120 events with 10,000 free places we will share, inspire, inform and build the UK’s Digital Confidence.
Global Digital Transformation Market Size Estimate
According to recent report summary released by Reportbuyer, a leading industry intelligence solution firm that provides all market research reports from top publishers, the global digital transformation market is expected to grow from US$ 445.4 Bn in 2017 to US$ 2,279.4 Bn by 2025 at a CAGR of 24.3% between 2018 and 2025.
Digital transformation is the change associated with the application of the digital technology in all the aspects of the human society. This enables new types of innovations and creativity in specific domains rather than simply enhancing and supporting traditional methods.
Digital transformation solutions helping the companies to reach out to large masses is one of the major factor that will drive the growth of the market. Also, constantly evolving customer experiences encourage the companies to adopt digital solutions.
However, issues related to the security and privacy affects the adoption of the digital solutions by major industry verticals. Moreover, factors such as Space for implementation across SMEs provides significant opportunity to the players in the value chain, and Increasing adoption of digital solutions by different industry verticals offers huge scope to the market to expand is expected to generate remarkable opportunities to the industry players in the future.
Currently, digital transformation is being highly adopted by different industry verticals in all the regions. Especially, in North America, the adoption or shifting of the industry verticals towards digital transformation is very high as compared to every other region.
The global market for digital transformation has been segmented on the basis of component, which include solution and services. Solution segment is further divided into mobility, big data & analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, and others, and the services segment is further divided into professional services and managed services.
On the basis of deployment type, the market is categorised into cloud and on-premise deployment. On the basis of end-user, the market is categorised into BFSI, healthcare, education, retail, IT & Telecom, logistics & transportation, manufacturing, and others.
North America is one of the prominent regions in digital transformation market which will contribute highest revenue globally most of the companies in the region have already shifted to the digital transformation for competing effectively in the global market.