When recently attending an online seminar on Digital Transformation, I noticed the audience in large part consisted of ‘believers’, those actively involved in the topic and already convinced of the necessity to invest in it. All too often renowned speakers on seminars are spreading their findings and ideas to an audience of like-minded souls, not reaching all those that are concerned or even impacted by the topic. This phenomenon can be referred to as ‘preaching to the converted’ as ideas are only acknowledged and reinforced within a select group of people, already experienced in the subject at hand.
So the challenge is to spread the benefits of Digital Transformation to a broader public of business executives to whom this information remained hidden or even distorted through the respective management layers. As technology is an ever expanding universe with increasing velocity, it becomes harder for less technology savvy managers to fully assess the benefits it can bring to their respective organisations. Who would have thought some time back, for instance, that apps could help in tracing the source of virus contamination while by now many of us have it installed on our smartphones.
Artificial Intelligence is just one of these topics that are hard to fully grasp as it seems to evolve at warp speed. It has become ubiquitous in our daily lives, not just when using social media or buying online but just as well when shopping at your hometown grocery store or watching your favorite movies. Capturing and interpreting large amounts of data provides organisations with the insights to offer customers, civilians, members, etc with better services, more suited to their personal needs and increasingly matching their expectations.
That crucial outside-in view to executive management is evermore important as many challenges lay ahead. Seasoned experts can provide executives with the extra bandwidth not only to stay informed on emerging technologies but also to identify and exploit digital opportunities that are less apparent and often residing just beneath the surface.
There is one drawback however… executives will no longer be able to claim being laymen when it comes to Digital Transformation.
Jan Verbruggen – Managing Partner at Xperian
