Where Is Your Company in Digital Transformation?

Digital technology concepts such as social media, mobility, big data analytics, industry 4.0, and the internet of things continue to be on the agenda of individuals and institutions more and more. 

The 2022 indicators of the annual Global Digital survey by We Are Social and Hootsuite are striking.

• The number of internet users has approached 5 billion.
• 5.3 billion people use mobile phones, mostly smartphones
• 76% of social media users, whose number is approaching 4.7 billion, do their product/brand research on social media.

62% of the world's population is online now, and two out of every three people have a mobile phone. Just last year, +98 million people got their first mobile phones. People spend an average of 7 hours a day on internet-connected devices and services. Even these numbers alone are an indicator of the expansion we have experienced in digitalization in recent years.

This means that our customers and even our employees are rapidly digitalizing. Most employees lead a more digitalized life in their homes and private spaces compared to the technology they use in their workplaces. Customers are often more technological than companies trying to sell them goods and services.

In the examples given on digitalization, examples such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook, which we can call digital natives from birth, come to the fore, but the situations in other traditional sectors and companies can be ignored.

There is a concept called Digirati. This word, which consists of the combination of the words Digital + Literati and was previously used for individuals, is the "Elite of Digitalization". According to Wikipedia, these people are the elite of social media, digital content, IT industry and online communities consisting of famous scientists working mostly on informatics, informatics magazine writers and editors, consultants serving in the digital field, bloggers, and veterans of the informatics world with their long years of experience and background.

Digirati has started to be used as a categorization for companies that have reached full maturity in digitalization in the business world.

In their joint study, Capgemini Consulting and MIT Center for Digital Business examine Digitalization in two aspects and divide companies into 4 categories in the Digitalization journey according to their maturity in these two directions.

_{Source: Capgemini – MIT Sloan “How digital leaders outperform their peers in every industry”} 

Digirati: Companies that are aware of how digital transformation adds value to their business, have made it a corporate vision, and have managed to make digital culture an integral part of the business while investing in digital technologies. They continuously increase their competitive advantage with digitalization. High-tech companies, banks, telecom companies and retailers are concentrated in this category.

Fashionistas: Companies that have gone a long way in purchasing digital products, solutions and services, but some of these applications are well-implemented and usable, while others cannot get enough efficiency. Although they are highly motivated to change, their digital transformation strategies do not sufficiently cover the basic knowledge and culture change to maximize their real commercial gains. Since their applications are disconnected from each other, they cannot create enough synergy in digitalization. Although the rate of digitalization and culture is high in some business units, they are in this section when looking at the corporate as a whole. Examples of businesses in this category are companies in the travel and hospitality industry.

Digital Beginners: Although their digital capabilities are not yet developed enough, they can be mature companies that have invested in traditional technologies such as ERP or e-commerce. Some companies consciously choose to be in this position rather than accidentally being here. Those who prefer to experience digital transformation step by step with cautious and small investments, instead of doing an effective cultural change management, can also be included in this category. However, this category also includes companies that are unaware of the concept of digitalization and its components. Companies selling medical products, FMCG and manufacturing companies are more concentrated in this category.

Digital Conservatives: Although they have the necessary governance power, corporate culture and vision to ensure that digital investments are well managed, they may prefer to be cautious about innovation. They focus on the possible damage that digital trends can bring as well as the value they can bring. Although they aim to spend wisely, this careful approach can also cause them to lose many digital innovations and the competitive opportunity they will gain. Insurance companies, public service institutions can be given as examples for this category.

Although different sectors are mentioned in the definitions above, in general, regardless of the digital competence of the sector, each sector has its own Digirati, and digital leaders continue to be one step ahead of their competitors by reaping the fruits of this transformation. Yes, digital transformation, especially the establishment of digital transformation culture and management depth, is not something that happens in a day, it is a process that may take years. However, when you look at your competitors who have realized this and started to see the benefits, the digital transformation experienced by your customers and the digitalization skills of your employees, you can see that even today is too late to start.

The following statements are directly the results of a 2-year research study on 400 businesses by Capgemini and MIT Sloan. It's worth listening to.

• Digital maturity is important. Digirati are much more profitable than their competitors and the market rewards them.
• No business is directly immune to digital transformation. Every business has to deal with Digirati competitors in their own industry.
• Digital maturity is a time-consuming process. That's why managers in every industry urgently need to think about and take action on the opportunities and threats posed by digital transformation.
• Finally, if you have decided to take action on digital transformation, you can determine a strategy map based on general digital transformation models.

Click if you want to examine the digital transformation models and case studies as a whole..