Almost every company is looking to build digital capabilities that drive customer centricity and productivity. Overwhelming evidence shows that successful digital transformations drive performance and competitive advantage. The goal is easy to understand, however the implementation is difficult. While every industry is different, and companies within those industries also differ, there are common structures that can help bring about a successful digital transformation. BCG points to three core questions that every company needs ask itself before its starts a major digital transformation: <b>Why are we doing this?</b> Do we need to become more responsive to rapidly shifting customer needs? Does our productivity need a step change improvement? Is our ability to innovate lagging? <b>What should we do?</b> The scope of digital transformations varies widely, from focusing on people (for example, agile at scale) to overhauling technology and infrastructure, replacing legacy IT platforms, and moving to the cloud. Many companies focus on specific business outcomes, such as personalization and digital marketing, end-to-end customer journeys, digital supply chains, and digital shared services. <b>How do we implement the transformation?</b> There are many questions around leadership, governance, resourcing, focus, approach (such as using pilots, incubators, or lighthouses), and sequencing. How do we make sure that product, channels, and support functions work in unison with the technology function, and how do we get middle management on board? From Gartner’s perspective, “the transformation journey is taking large enterprises especially at least twice as long and costing twice as much as they originally anticipated.” <strong>The research firm suggests that we ask three simple questions:</strong> <ol> <li aria-level="1">Is your digital ambition to optimize or transform?</li> <li aria-level="1">What are the key stages and activities?</li> <li aria-level="1">Which leaders and teams need to be involved?</li> </ol> The key stages of digital transformation, according to Gartner, include ‘ambition’, where you define your goals and strategy - and generate excitement for the project. Next is ‘design’, where the company maps out a development plan, including evaluating market and technology disruptions and innovations, identifying new business and revenue models, and seeking out strategic partnerships that align with your transformation vision, and increase the speed and quality of your initiatives. This is followed by delivering a minimum viable proof of concept that’s been executed and communicated. From there, the plan is scaled - commercialized and rolled out within the enterprise. Going forward the plan is continually assessed, optimized and reevaluated. Digitization relies on a major initial disruption and transformation of current processes, but the best in class companies continue tweak, fine tune and adapt so that they remain ahead of the market. BCG has identified <strong>six essential factors that shift the odds of success from a mere 30 percent to an impressive 80 percent</strong>. <ul> <li aria-level="1">An Integrated Strategy with Clear Transformation Goals. The strategy describes the why, the what, and the how, which are tied to specific, quantified business outcomes.</li> <li aria-level="1">Leadership Commitment from CEO Through Middle Management. The company has high leadership engagement and alignment, including often-overlooked middle-management ownership and accountability.</li> <li aria-level="1">Deploying High-Caliber Talent. Management identifies and frees up the most capable resources to drive the transformation program.</li> <li aria-level="1">An Agile Governance Mindset That Drives Broader Adoption. Leaders address roadblocks quickly, adapt to changing contexts, and drive cross-functional, mission-oriented, “fail-fast-learn” behavioral change into the wider organization. They deal with individual challenges without losing sight of the broader goals.</li> <li aria-level="1">Effective Monitoring of Progress Toward Defined Outcomes. The company establishes clear metrics and targets around processes and outcomes, with sufficient data availability and quality.</li> <li aria-level="1">Business-Led Modular Technology and Data Platform. The company puts in place a fit-for-purpose, modern technology architecture driven by business needs to enable secure, scalable performance, rapid change deployment, and seamless ecosystem integration.</li> </ul> Most consultants agree that successful transformation starts with clearly identifying goals and getting all departments on board with a change-driven mindset. They also point out that by asking the right questions and developing the right roadmap, a company can increase their chances of successfully making that all-important digital transformation.