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Leadership Crisis in Digital Transformation: What Studies Tell Us

Written by Matricia | Sep 03, 2019

WiPro has launched a new study that shows that leadership in digital transformation is in crisis. The study analyzed 400 companies in the United States to draw the following conclusions that give us food for thought:

  1. There is a general understanding, at the company level, about what digital transformation means only on a theoretical level, but not in practice: 91% of managers surveyed believe that the whole company understands what it means digital transformation. And yet, 1 in 4 managers say that the digital transformation in their organizations is failing due to a lack of organizational alignment with what ‘digital transformation’ really means. Moreover, the lack of a clear digital transformation strategy was cited by 35% of managers as the main obstacle in the race to the true digital potential.
  2. There is a hidden doubt about it: 1 in 5 executives acknowledge that they see digital transformation projects as a waste of time. We would have some arguments… and some numbers… and a few dozen testimonials that can prove the opposite.
  3. Mindset and leadership skills change: CEOs, CTOs and CIOs have almost equal chances of being the main driver of digital transformation in the organization, and they are about twice as likely to take it on. function compared to the other management positions. However, 40% of those responsible feel overwhelmed by digital complexity, and 39% oppose new ways of working, which is why digital transformation projects fail.
  4. Focus more on backstage benefits than product innovation and growth: Departments such as operations and IT are by far the biggest beneficiaries of digital transformation projects, and in combination with the finance department and procurement they account for 60% of digital transformation projects, according to the study. We rarely hear about the benefits to product development (15%), marketing (13%) or sales (10%).
  5. Investment vs. Involvement: Between 2 and 12% of the people responsible for the idea of ​​bringing digital transformation to the organization get involved in the process of implementing and creating the transformation. For this reason, 1 in 4 managers claim that the main reason why projects of this type fail is that the structure and processes of the organization have not changed with the implementation of new systems.

We concluded that most people do not really understand what digital transformation means, believing that by simply implementing an IT system the company has ‘digitally transformed’. This lack of terminological clarity often hinders organizations when it comes to implementing a digital transformation strategy. There is no panic, that is why we exist, to clarify these things.

We invite you to find out more in the Digital Transformation Newspaper or to contact us so that we can become your partners in the digital transformation.