general manager, Global change. Leading authority entrepreneur C-suite leadership. Listed Global 100 CIO, 100 Women to Watch, CREA Global Award List.
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Along with ensuring that technology functions smoothly, digitizing business is a key technology issue across all industries. Boardroom expects technology operations to meet service standards and cyber security protocols.
However, technology-based businesses are dependent on the next phase of digitization to realize their business strategy and drive value through improved customer experience and streamlined operations. What they don’t focus enough on is the impact of digitization in terms of society, lifestyle and societal impact.
Digitize carefully
Success in digitization requires technological know-how, product knowledge and customer insight.
The ability to quickly digitize interactions is, of course, one indicator of effective digitization. The illusion of speed, however, is often seen when digitalization removes key customer interactions where the customer prefers to have a conversation. Digitizing this opportunity to strengthen customer relationships and other equally important revenue generation opportunities can be lost due to the lack of these direct conversations.
Customer-focused areas of the organization are looking for ways to create customer-to-customer interactions. In a virtual environment, this is changing the norm on how to build the strength of relationships with customers and redefining loyalty. In other words, the reality of ensuring connectivity in corporate digitization is changing companies’ business models.
Boardrooms recognize the fact that their technology companies are implementing solutions with a focus on speed of execution. In addition to affecting the organization’s modus operandi, some technology practices are also distancing the organization from market advantage.
We often hear, for example, “a better technological solution is being implemented.” This is a reminder of the history of Betamax. Betamax was a consumer-grade analog recording format based on magnetic tape for videocassette recorders. Betamax became obsolete when consumers adopted VHS. This was not a need for mainstream technology, but rather a difference in adoption. The parallels with today’s digitized world are striking.
CEO Perspectives in a Technology-Based World
CEOs of technology-based organizations are realizing the importance of focusing on operational-savvy technology, which will lead to a digital renewal of technology leadership. As a result, the technology teams of the future have a very different question in their day job. Updating to the next generation of code is only part of the story.
For technology leaders, however, the reality is that there is hope that keeps lagging organizations in awe. The good news is that this is a great opportunity to grow and nurture talent in the technology function. Moreover, as the next generation of CEOs become increasingly technologically savvy, the impact of digitization is having a profound impact on the marketplace of successful organizations.
Social Influence: The Law of Unintended Consequences
Even deeper, the effects of digitization are taking place at the societal level.
As more activities are digitized, the requirements for social interaction in daily activities are limited. They have removed the ability to speak to a service center for customers who need a chat, such as an organization. This emphasizes both the requirement to process customer requests in a digital process for the first time, but also for organizations to understand the impact on communities and the importance of reusing social skills in a digitalized world.
While this may have beneficial effects in terms of allowing more time for other activities, it also raises awareness of the impact of digitization on societal well-being as connections are directed to websites, applications and portals. Both factors must be taken into account in order to build the digital future of the next generation.
The main position of the technology leader
As leaders digitize businesses, the digitization movement is shaping customer experiences, improving lifestyles, and reshaping how time is spent in everyday life. This re-emphasises the requirement for digitization to ensure quality, cyber security and seamless customer experience.
Similarly, the focus on changes in everyday life remains central to the societal impact of inclusive digital implementation. As experiences are designed, it is important to consider the implications for everyday life and surrounding interventions to ensure sustainable lifestyles, well-being and the implications for designing the lives of the next generation of society.
Digitization holds many positives as it simplifies daily life, streamlines processing and timely action of customer and customer inquiries. However, it is important to maintain a healthy balance and ensure its implications in a digitized world, where hybrids work and the need to travel for face-to-face interactions diminishes.
As organizational leaders, it is critical to ensure that society supports the capacity to maximize the benefits of digitization while minimizing unintended consequences. Across the boardroom there is a scale of digitization to ensure that the company delivers at a local, organizational and societal level.
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