What Is Digital Transformation?

visionary marketing zThe word "strategy", like that of "innovation", is often used and barely understood. Our vision of strategy is related to field implemention, rather than mere philosophy. In our eyes, digital transformation projects can only be successful once that implementation dimension has been taken into account… Right from the beginning of your project.

Digital media, and especially the Social Web, as explained in our new opus "Mastering Digital Marketing Like A Boss", is a set of tools and tactics, which can be implemented within the framework of a proper marketing strategy. Logically, as a result, expressions like "social media strategy" are an oxymoron; there is no such thing as a "social media strategy".

Three Main Options for Your Digital Transformation

> option number one also appears to be the easiest one, even though appearances may often prove to be deceptive. It consists in supporting the core business in synergy with online marketing tools which are then used to develop and enhance existing business possesses. In this category, one will find concepts like "ubiquitous commerce" (aka "e-commerce") for instance or in-store digital marketing implications,

> option number two is about extending one's core business with the help of digital marketing and its tools in order to broaden the scope of one's offering (therefore adding value to one's core business),

> the third and last available option for digital transformation is that which consists of an entirely new business position outside of one's core business, therefore extending the core business of an established business with the help of digital and social media. With this kind of choice, fundamental branding issues (creating a new brand, extending an existing brand…) are always associated with broader positioning issues with regard to the main brand (online/off-line/hybrid) of a particular business.

3 options and levels for digital transformation for businessesA Three Tiered Approach… Not Necessarily In That Order

Our approach is based on three main stages… Nothing revolutionary so far. Except that the way we implement them is voluntary not the one you may expect.

Whereas, most of the time, starting from scratch maybe an option, either beginning with a new brand, a new original project starting with a benchmark of your digital assets against those of others, it is also possible for you to start from the execution of your current strategy, redefining your goals, repositioning and overhauling your digital assets entirely, via a strategic assessment, which will let you start afresh without having to wipe the slate clean.

> Stage one, the digital transformation assessment phase will make it possible for you to evaluate the current situation. We take care of that stage in order to prepare diagnosis and build a set of assumptions which we will then validate or contradict over an assessment meeting.

> Stage two is the digital transformation phase (see below diagram). This phase enables our Visionary Marketing experts to put our assumptions in writing, evaluate how much or how little, depending on circumstances, your decisions makers are already in agreement with each other on each of those items. This will make it easier to lay the foundations of your future project, therefore paving the way for success (and avoiding pitfalls). Right from that stage, we picture the implementation phase and imagine what key success factors will be the ones in which the project could be hinging on. This is what makes it possible for us to better predict the success of the future digital transformation implementation, i.e. avoid the most dangerous pitfalls and ensure that all the criteria are met for a successful project.

> The third and final phase of this type of engagement is execution itself. Our support role is essential. We apply our long-standing field experience in agile project implementation to support our clients; a method we were using even before the word “agile” has been coined.

The Projective Survey Approach

Digital Transformation and the projective survey method

Projective surveys is one of our key tools with regard to the roll-out of such projects: we start from the assessment phase and therefore establish a diagnosis – some sort of a snapshot of the current situation – in which we will be able to project the audience: managing directors, executive committee members, top decision-makers. This will not only give them an idea of where the company is at at the very moment, it will also help them project themselves into the future and what the business is heading towards.

The projective survey makes it possible for such decision makers to picture (and face) the current situation and imagine what things could look like for the company "tomorrow" (establishing milestones for "tomorrow" and adding dates on the schedule will be best performed in a subsequent phase). This shows the decision-makers a clear depiction of the move from A to B, a mental yet obvious representation of digital transformation and what it can bring to them and their business as a whole.

This methodology has been tried and tested at various occasions in Britain (where we first designed it) and other countries.

 

update date Aug 28, 2014