After Covid: Why Digital Transformation is both the answer and the challenge.

By Lewise Hiltz

 

Throughout the pandemic, one thing was clear: to address immediate concerns such as declining revenues and disrupted supply chains, and to build competitiveness and resiliency over the longer term, not only did the company need to invest in technology, but it needed to adopt a digital mindset, or it would not survive.

Many companies invested heavily in technology and failed, but others adopted a digital mindset and invested in their people and succeeded. Because digital transformation is less of a digital problem and more of a transformation problem, leadership, vision, adoption, and change management are where the focus should be.

Digitally led organizations were able to pivot quickly and withstand the impact of the pandemic, so they should now be much more agile on the road to recovery.

The magnitude of the pandemic has forced a dramatic acceleration, not only in the speed of change and the investment required for transformation, but also in finding the skills and leaders with the right mindset to succeed. The pandemic taught us a lot about digital disruption and will go down in history as one of the most significant digital disruptors of our time. What does this mean now for the future and the “next normal”?