Written by Lori Schmidt, AWE Bold Leadership Program Lead.
Leaders are the driving force behind their business’ digital transformation efforts. It’s important for you as a leader to have a forward-thinking mindset and adopt habits that allow you to adapt quickly to the changing times. It is never too late to pick up a new habit, especially when those habits lead to business success, including increased revenue and growth. Here are five habits that successful digital leaders should considering adopting:
1. Focusing on customers first and foremost
“The customer is always right” is an age-old business mantra that stresses the importance of good customer service. Technology is only amplifying this principle. Customers today not only have higher expectations, but also have access to a much wider range of products, services, companies, and brands to choose from. Good customer service is no longer a business differentiator – it is a business fundamental. This radical customer centricity is a core element of leading digital in your business.
It’s also no surprise that meeting customers’ changing demands is the number-one objective for companies that are transforming, even before other critical factors such as increasing revenue and meeting profit goals.
Customers dictate the speed at which organizations must move, and the customer journey must always prevail over established business processes. This is the definition of a human-centric approach, and leading companies put customer demands at the top of their list of priorities.
2. Driving innovation through ecosystems and partnerships
Customers today demand personalization, convenience and great experiences, and companies are realizing they can’t meet all of these demands alone. They will need to forge partnerships, but they must also challenge sector boundaries to become nimbler and more able to innovate at scale. We see this in online retailers partnering with brick-and-mortar stores to offer customers a more convenient experience. We also see this in global technology companies tapping into ecosystems of start-ups to fuel technology development. Leaders can outpace their competitors by partnering strategically.
3. Nurturing talent with new incentives and strategies
The skills gap is real and prevalent: 59% of companies surveyed last year believe there’s an industry-wide shortage of the type of skills that would help accelerate their digital transformation efforts. This starts with building up the skills of the leader and then identifying skills needed to move the digital business strategy forward and building out those skills within the organization. It also entails contracting the right skills to enhance the gaps of specific expertise while keeping your organization vision and mission in mind. Successful leaders invest in upskilling their people and are focused on creating cultures of innovation and continuous learning. After customer-centric, learner centric is the most important quality to have as a business leader.
4. Activating governance plans for emerging technology applications
Developing and deploying innovative digital technology at scale today is crucial to business success. It allows companies to be nimbler, to challenge sector boundaries, and deliver better customer outcomes. But even the best, most innovative technology won’t scale unless it’s governed properly and ethically. Trust is at the heart of ethical governance. If consumers and businesses don’t trust technology or companies, they simply won’t use them. So the concept of trust by design, which is a methodology that ensures that trust is considered and embedded into services and products from the outset – will be even more critical into the future. Leaders who look at every technological application through the trust and governance lens, build greater and trusted relationships with their customers.
5. Powering innovation by leveraging data and being agile
Working at speed is a key priority for businesses, we regard rapidly deploying technology to better meet customer expectations as a core value driver. But while companies understand the need to be quicker and more agile, many are less certain about how that can be done – and they’re turning to data for answers. The most competitive companies use data to learn by the second, and they get smarter by the second. This has all kinds of implications in terms of efficiency, cost savings and customer experience. It’s the only way to move forward. In today’s world, you can’t really survive as a business without using data.
Consider how insurers use claims data to detect fraud and act earlier, manufacturers use data to detect and predict failure points to minimize costly downtime, and retailers use historical customer purchase and search data to target them more efficiently with relevant products. Almost all businesses can use data to optimize operations, and it has been found that almost three-quarters (71%) of businesses surveyed in the US are using insights from data and analytics to speed innovation.
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