Complement in-house expertise to embed digital model
A definitive recent change has been the greatly increased regional consumer adoption of digital channels for almost all products and services, broadly driven by Covid-19 accelerating an existing trend.
This has led to companies having to better digitise their offerings front-to-back to keep up, based on a better, first-hand understanding of the material advantages a proper digitisation and datacentric approach provides, whether in new customer offerings or optimised internal processes. This has been a strong driver in putting digital transformation even further at the top of Leaders’ agendas, and crystalised the important role digital plays at the core of organisations’ continuing viability and resilience.
The rising digital transformation mandate has heightened the focus on internal gaps and customer pain-points across organisations’ processes and operations, and has driven renewed attention to the importance of putting technology and data, in concert with human interaction, at the centre of the organisation.
The rise in digital transformation has renewed attention to putting technology and data in concert with human interaction
Thus, a transformation is needed towards what we at BCG call the Bionic Company, one that seamlessly connects strategy, operating model, and offerings in an agile, platform-focused, and customer-centric way, leading to further outcomes in new business growth, additional capabilities, and enhanced offerings.
While there are some variations in technology priorities, for example across sectors and between SMEs and large multinationals, a common set of new digital-driven capabilities is key for any company aspiring to be Bionic. These include revised automated customer-facing processes and channels, enhanced internal technology-driven platforms with embedded artificial intelligence, and advanced data analytics, and new design and development skills across key teams.
Across sectors, a common set of new digital-driven capabilities is key for any company aspiring to be Bionic
There are still viable opportunities for partnerships, the aim there should be to complement, and not replace, sufficient in-house capabilities to properly drive the transformation and embed the new digital operating model.
Complement in-house capabilities to drive transformation and embed the new digital operating model
For top leadership: first, directing a rapid assessment of where the organisation stands in the digital transformation journey overall, identifying key capability gaps and major pain-points; and second, agreeing a strategic activation roadmap to accelerate the digital transformation in a phased Bionic approach that ties technology, data and human skills, and which deploys pilots to test, refine and build momentum with emerging results.
Top leadership must agree on a strategic activation roadmap to accelerate digital transformation in a phased Bionic approach
For technology leadership: it is imperative that a vision be developed for the target platform landscape that underpins the new digital operating model, aiming to streamline technology and data foundations for key offerings, processes and channels, end-to-end.
However, the criticality of sustainability as an organisation’s collective responsibility means that independent cross-cutting initiatives are still needed to coordinate and ensure impact holistically.
Embedding digital at the core of the organisation contributes to sustainability leading to less physical waste and decreased need for travel.
