As more companies look to technology to solve problems and boost competitiveness, many wonder why tangible results seem so elusive.Digitization is one of the most talked about topics in the apparel and footwear industries. The pandemic has driven more companies to go beyond talk and take steps to digitize more of their processes.However, beyond easy-to-implement processes such as 3D sampling and digital printing, not a lot has changed.It’s not, as people like to claim, that the apparel sector is a technology laggard. According to Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman, digital transformation is very difficult and few companies actually get it right.“Digital transformation is our current generation’s attempt to transform in the face of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, the sad truth is that 70 percent of all digital transformations still fail today… a shocking number, given the extremely high stakes,” according to Tony Saldanha, Co-Founder at Inixia Inc. and former VP, Global Business Services at Procter & Gamble.What Went Wrong?“The surprising answer to why digital transformations fail is a lack of discipline in defining and executing the right steps for digital transformations to take off and stay ahead,” notes Mr. Saldanha, adding that “It is possible to apply the proven checklist methodology from the airline and medical fields to improve the 70 percent failure rate,” he writes in his recently published book Why Digital Transformations Fail.Mr. Saldanha points out that 99.999999% of aircraft takeoffs and landings are successful compared with only 30% of digital transformations.“A ton of hard work went in over the decades to structure what were judgment-based tasks [in aviation] into simpler routines. Various technologies were applied to automate many of those tasks. And what was not automated has been check-listed to deliver predictable execution,” he writes.“Success requires bringing together and coordinating a far greater range of effort than most leaders appreciate. Weakness in any one of four inter-related domains — technology, data, process, or organizational change capability can result in the failure of an otherwise well-conceived transformation, they said in Harvard Business Review.As much as we look to technology to be the transformative part of the equation, it is actually the people who are the most critical component, according to Mr. Davenport and Mr. Redman.In most companies departments are siloed and that makes it difficult to get the consensus and collaboration necessary for effective digital transformation.Adapting Technology to Your BusinessThe list of available technologies continues to grow and many of these technologies are becoming more user friendly. The challenge is understanding the right application for each technology.“Understanding how any particular technology contributes to transformational opportunity, adapting that technology to the specific needs of the business, and integrating it with existing systems is extremely complex,” according to Mr. Davenport and Mr. Redman.They add that most companies are held back by legacy technology that is difficult to decouple from. It takes a person who is very skilled in technology but also has a deep understanding of the company’s overall business and its goals to be able to help cross this barrier and integrate new technology.Great Expectations - FastDigital transformation requires a sizable investment from companies and the greater the expense the bigger the demand from C-suite executives for definitive return on investment (ROI). And for public companies, that return needs to come sooner rather than later, according to Andres Angelani, Chief Executive Officer of Cognizant Softvision.Many companies fail because they set goals that are too ambitious. Others expect their results too soon. Being able to structure your digital transformation so that you are working at a pace of investment and change that is comfortable for your company is one of the keys to success.“The technology is here. The change models exist. The conviction and mindset to thrive in this era will belong to individual leaders, as has always been the case throughout history,” observes Mr. Saldanha.