Consulting | Digital transformation
The digital challenge
- Digitalisation poses major challenges for many companies.
- Are you also feeling the effects of digital transformation on your organisation?
- Are you unsure how well your company is prepared for the digital transformation?
Digitalisation is changing society and the economy for good. But digitalisation is not the same as digital transformation. Many companies are therefore still struggling with the changes that go far beyond the technical application and affect the entire organisation. The success factors of digital transformation do not necessarily lie in technology alone.
We support and advise you in the digital transformation of your organisation
Digital transformation is more than just technology
Digital transformation is more than just information technology, IT, big data, robots or artificial intelligence (AI). Although the origin of digital transformation comes from the technical field, it has an impact on the entire organisation. The new technology enables new flexible forms of work and decentralised communication channels.New job profiles are emerging or being added. New qualifications are required. Collaboration within the team, between employees and managers, as well as the function and roles of management are changing. Existing business processes need to be adapted to changing conditions or developed from scratch. New digital products are being developed and need to be integrated. The digital transformation is based on a revolution in work (see White Paper Work 4.0). The aim is to shape digital change in a sustainable way and to see it as a lever for transforming the economy and society (see WBGU/Towards our Common Digital Future).
- But what does the digital transformation mean for your organisation?
- What are the opportunities and risks?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses in the digital transformation?
- What are the success factors for your digital transformation?
- Where are the levers of change for your organisation and where do obstacles need to be overcome?
- We advise and support you in your digital transformation.
Experimenting and learning in joint dialogue
Digital transformation usually involves a complex environment. A Change approach of ‘productive unrest’ should be chosen for this. This is best achieved with an iterative approach. Seeking joint dialogue becomes more important than the ‘clear announcement’. This includes frequent feedback loops and the recognition of opportunities. Change happens in this process not only for employees, or via a participation-oriented approach with employees, but above all through employees. The commitment of managers and employees to change is thus the focus.
Three cornerstones of digital transformation
Digital transformation does not reinvent everything. The moments of order of an organization continue to exist: Culture, strategy and structure. They are given a “digital touch” and change considerably as a result.
Digital strategy, structure and culture
A “digital strategy” requires the business model to be aligned with changing economic conditions. In fast-moving times it is advisable to be able to react immediately to new conditions. Projects planned for the foreseeable future are much more adaptable than multi-year plans. The business model should take up the technically opened possibilities to get in direct contact with customers, to work more closely with suppliers, or to be able to offer products and services in small quantities at a “mass production price”.
With a “digital structure”, the structural and procedural organization becomes more “agile”. In our understanding “agile” stands for “structured-flexible”. The more flexible the culture and strategy of the organization are, the clearer the structure must be. The aims, plans and resources are adapted, changed, thrown overboard, revised or newly created depending on the location of the work. This is flexibility within the structured framework.
“Digital culture” is more than working with many new apps. The culture of a successful digital transformation requires the attitude of one’s own doing to constantly expand. The biggest challenge here is not the economic safeguarding of uncertainty, but rather the acceptance and endurance of mental uncertainty.
Making your organization future-proof
When determining the maturity level for “digital organization”, we clarify to what extent your organization has adjusted to the digitally changed world with regard to the following six topics:
- The power of persuasion of the organizational purpose serving as the guiding principle
- Taking up the opportunities opened up by digitalisation in the business model
- The degree of innovation of an appropriate digital infrastructure
- Form and adaptability of work coordination
- The attitude to digital transformation, its challenges and opportunities, chances and risks
- The role and function of leadership in the internal and external relationship of the organization.
This gives you an overview of the relevant construction sites. Furthermore, we will work with you to clarify the interrelationships and interactions of these construction sites. On the basis of this analysis, we will work with you to develop a package of measures that will help you to make your organisation future-proof.
Typical contents of such bundles of measures are:
- Adaptable personnel planning approaches
- Working time models
- Introduction of agile forms of work in defined organizational areas (Scrum, Holacracy, Sociocracy, etc.)
- Introduction of quality levels at relevant interfaces
- Remuneration principles including grading models
- ERP systems
- Forms of behaviour assessment and feedback concepts
- Leadership competencies 4.0
- Health promotion and management
- Contents of data protection concepts
- IT concepts
- Moderation of different “value worlds” in the organization
- New Work concepts including Activity Based Working
- On-the-Job variants of personnel development (Rotation, Enlargement, Enrichment)
- Process conversions to Kanban or other principles
As you can see, digital transformation is giving rise to a wide variety of themes. These are often topics that were already on the agenda before the 4.0 debates. But now such topics are coming around the corner with a different force (technology-driven), different speed (competitive) and in a different form (“agile”).
With our comprehensive understanding of “digital transformation”, with our approach to maturity assessment, with our cooperation partners (architecture, health management, law, time recording, etc.) and our strong experience in the transformation of organizations, we offer you orientation and practical implementation. So that you can be, remain or become structured and flexible.
We describe our change management approach on this page.
