Resolve to Digitally Transform
"Digital transformation is a more caterpillar to butterfly transformation." - George Westerman of the MIT Sloan Initiative on Digital Economy
When Nokia and RIM (Blackberry) dismissed the wildfire that was the Apple iPhone, having become comfortable and complacent with a wide market share, they were left so far behind in the marketplace they became obsolete. Apple introduced the iPhone 4 in 2007, which was one of the product's more significant upgrades to date, featuring a redesigned case made out of glass and stainless steel and for the first time, the phone featured a web browser and allowed users to download music, videos and maps from the Internet. Citing the low battery life, keyboard flaws and higher price in the iPhone, Blackberry failed to innovate or create a Digital Transformation.
Digital Transformation (DT) is currently a hot topic in the marketing world, but what does it actually mean?
Digital Transformation is a term that captures the evolution a business makes when it embraces new digital technologies, operations, products or innovation to challenge the status quo or experiment with the current market to rise above its competition. Put another way, digital transformation is like a "rewiring" of a business that was enforced when they've experienced a disruption that forces them to either sink or swim.
We may view the relationship between innovation, disruption and digital transformation as a cycle. In this cycle, innovators disrupt the market by applying new technology or creating new products and services.
RIM faced slow growth and struggles with innovation and the ability to keep up with competition. RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis resigned in 2012 after the company’s first report of net loss after several years. The two entrepreneurs were replaced by new leadership in 2013, but it was too little too late. The BlackBerry phone line was discontinued in 2016, only four years after Lazaridis’ resignation, with the phone’s services being officially decommissioned in 2022.
Some claim that Apple's marketing machine is what killed RIM and Nokia. They built a cult-like following around their products against which it was hard to compete. What remains undisputed is the iPhone leapt so far ahead of all cell phones in so many different technologies at once and truly transformed the industry - and revenue followed.
"Battery life didn’t matter. Cost didn’t matter. That’s their genius. We had to respond in a way that was completely different than what people expected.” — Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s founder
A few key points regarding Digital Transformation:
Simply investing in technology is not enough to truly transform.
DT demands revolutionary changes to key business systems.
Reskilling employees will be crucial.
Needs to be driven by the CEO or president but is typically housed with the CMO or marketing function of an organization.
Is a process that will never be complete.
The gap to the digital frontier remains large across industries.
McKinsey Global Institute
"Successful firms disrupt themselves." -Thomas Siebel
Join us for the next three newsletters as we further explore the building blocks of digital transformation from a marketing perspective:
Big data
IOT (the Internet of Things)
AI (artificial intelligence)
As we head into 2024, we're working with clients of various sizes and industries as they seek to better understand which of these macro concepts to prioritize first and refine them into real world, right-sized strategies to position the business for long-term growth success.
