Digital Maturity

The world has transformed itself during the 2020 pandemic outbreak and concepts like "digital transformation", "workforce of the future", "alternative channels", "virtual advisory", “online onboarding” etc. have become part of our day-to-day conversations. But how ready are the organizations for this new age of remote interactions? How truly digital are companies? Can they survive in the current context?

We have all been thrown into a new global paradigm and we can make this into a “Titanic story” or we can make it into a “U-boat story”. The way to respond to such a change implies knowing our strengths and empowering them, while being aware of our weaknesses and mending them. Being blindsided and trying to navigate a perfect storm while at sea is hardly the recipe for success. So how does a company become aware of their readiness to adopt, execute, and harness digital capabilities? Like everything in life, the answer resides in a proper and thorough assessment. But not every company might be aware of the full scale of digital capabilities required to survive this perfect storm. How to remain afloat then?

Deloitte wants to help companies evaluate their digital maturity and guide them towards an enhanced set of digital skills. This can be achieved through the “Digital DNA”, an initiative that we can co-execute with interested companies in a fast, accurate, structured and targeted manner. It helps answer three questions:

-          How digital are you today?

-          How digital do you want to become?

-          How do you get there?

It all starts from setting an ample perspective, looking at how a company is organized, how it operates and how it behaves. Across these dimensions, several sub-dimensions emerge:

-          what is the structure?

-          is there a geographical delivery model?

-          what are the capabilities in terms of products and services it offers?

-          are these supported by proper processes?

-          how is talent identified and engaged?

-          what is the governance?

-          what technology resides below the surface?

-          what is the leadership culture?

-          and so much more...

In order to structure all these concepts, the digital capabilities haven been grouped into a set of 23 skills, resulting into the backbone of being digital. And it is for good reason why we say “being digital”, as this is the highest maturity level a company can reach.

-          It begins with “exploring digital”, where traditional technologies are leveraged to automate existing capabilities.

-          It continues with “doing digital”, when traditional technologies are leveraged to expand existing capabilities, in an endless illusion loop of doing digital things, but without actual significant changes – and this is where most companies get stuck.

-          It follows through towards “becoming digital”, where changes are noticeable within business, operating and customer interaction models.

-          And it ends with “being digital” as the ultimate goal, where the prior mentioned models are optimized for digital and are profoundly different from prior way-of-working.

Coming back to the 23 digital skills, these are as chromosomes deeply embedded within the DNA of an organization. They define the company, containing specific instructions that make it a unique living entity. One would think that DNA is something that we inherit, something that is a given and nothing can change it. But if we take into account discoveries from last decade, this is no longer the truth: genome editing has begun its controversial way towards the future at-scale applicability. Why then could we not consider changing the less-controversial DNA of an organization? The tools are here, under the “Digital DNA”, companies just need to try it out.

Are you inclined to change your company’s DNA? Do you want to be truly digital? Then let Deloitte’s team help you achieve all that.