What's Digital Upvolution and why it matters?
We need to stop talking about Digital Transformation
We need to stop talking about Digital Transformation
The bot-com era started in 1990's and reached its peak on Friday, March 10, 2000.
In 2013, Accenture coined the phrase: every business is a digital business.
Going digital, has been an imperative for businesses to seize the opportunities offered by new disruptivetechnologies to bring either massive efficiency gains (cloud, automation, AI) or new revenue streams such as new engagement channels (web, mobile, social).
It has given opportunities to new business models to emerge and grow at exponential speed: Meta, Airbnb, Uber, Amazon, Grab, etc. None of them could have made it without these technologies, which in turn they contributed to develop and enhance.
Digital has changed the what and how of the business, the when and the where in dramatic proportion
What is my business about and how to organize so it can operate, sell and service customers anywhere anytime?
Gartner estimates that 91% of businesses are already digital in 2024. So, aren’t we done yet?
Transformation, from Latin transformare "change in shape, metamorphose," from trans "across, beyond" (see trans-) and formare "to form". It implies a process that starts and ends to achieve a fixed and definitive state. The term seems to apply best in the case of an abrupt, disruptive change.
So why talk about transformation as a one off event when it’s not?
In other words, how to best define what organizations have to do to accomodate continuous, incremental change?
The biggest challenges faced by businesses to embrace digital opportunities can be defined by market structure (winner takes all), access (infrastructure readiness), adaptability (ability to absorb change).
The above creates massive inequalities:
Market structure: lack of competition, loose regulations, new business models (SaaS, platforms) have allowed companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Uber etc. to scale at unbelievable pace practically undisputed for years, erasing competition and entire sectors.
Access: connectivity, talents, affordability are as many barriers to grow digital in many places. ITU reported that 2.7 billion people – roughly one-third of the global population – remain unconnected to the Internet today.
Adaptability: how much change and how fast an organization is able to change will dictate its ability to compete in the market.
Of course new technologies will continue to emerge, some providing opportunities for incremental change and some for disruptive change in the future.
But it's truly the organizations' ability to adapt that will set them apart and their ability to embrace change continuously.
We use the term Upvolution to define the process of evolving while constantly updating and upgrading the business at the right pace.
Three aspects are needed to accommodate change continuously:
Set the direction needed to evolve the business
Define the updates and the upgrades as the roadmap for the years to come to achieve the vision
Establish the pace of change for the organization
In particular, pace matters; there is so much change an organization can take. Pacing change is key to achieve meaningful results.
Being able to accelerate change when the conditions are right or when needed while being able to slow down to let everyone catch their breadth are equally important to keep everyone engaged and motivated.
Celebrating milestones are key to keep reminding people of the trajectory and the accomplishment to date.
Embracing continuous change is hard but necessary to make any business sustainable. Consider these:
it took 7 years for Apple to become the first largest music retailer
it took 18 months for Google Maps to erase 85% of the GPS companies market cap
it took 9 months for Alibaba to become the world's 4th largest money market fund
it took 5 days for ChatGPT to get 1 million users
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change (C. Darwin)
Change is non-negotiable. Building a culture that can embrace it throughout the organization is paramount. Every business needs a Digital Upvolution strategy.
Do you have one? What do you think?
Hit reply and let's chat!
Damien Kopp