By Jérôme CANNAFERINA, Digital Consultant at Micropole Digital Grand Ouest.
Micropole Ouest organized, with the MEDEF 44 and Pays de la Loire, a day of acculturation to digital transformation during the Web2day (digital festival), for managers of non-digital SMEs & ETIs. The interest for the guests was to exchange, listen and learn about digital transformation in a startup environment. Because beyond this Learning Expedition, the question arises of how to initiate this transformation in certain managers.
According to Syntec in 2017, only 38% of industrial players have implemented a digital transition strategy. While there are many more or less legitimate explanations for procrastinating the subject, such as lack of visibility, ROI (return on investment), skills... it goes without saying that many of these reasons are related to the risks inherent in all innovations: hindsight does not exist. Thus, it is difficult for some departments to commit to gauge the relevance of new solutions.
Is this innovation scary?
Digital-driven innovation is not new, it is perpetual and has been accelerating for the last decade. For some managers, beyond the elements mentioned above, digital innovation also rhymes with acronyms, marketing and fashion. As a result, innovation, even disruptive innovation, becomes a "simple tool", and is no longer necessarily considered strategic due to a lack of credibility, mastery and knowledge. This loss of confidence among decision-makers results in the crystallization of transformations. However, digital innovations carry powerful disruptive currents that can be brutal for companies that ignore them. Without talking about "uberization", who could question the impact of IT, internet and mobile today? It is therefore necessary for companies that management acculturate to integrate these innovations in the management of the strategy.
How to adapt and regain confidence?
How, from these observations, can we bring about change and acculturate managers who are resistant to change? Without being the messenger of the "startup nation", startups bring a lot to the table because of their DNA. Born in a digitalized and globalized world, they have an interesting relationship with digital technology, because they view it with less mistrust than so-called "traditional" companies. For them, digital technology is a vast field of opportunities. So, without wanting to systematically plagiarize startups, there are certain elements that can be easily applied by management to help them regain confidence in digital.
Act as an entrepreneur. The current era requires management to limit their financial approach to their business (margin, occupancy rate, tax exemption, etc.) in favor of a more instinctive approach to strategy, in order to be more adaptable and initiate the necessary changes more quickly.
Monitoring and acculturation. Companies have always watched their competitors in the same territory and sector. Management must look further afield, not only in other countries, but also beyond their own sectors and businesses. It is by opening up to different digital experiences and uses that we understand and even imagine the uses and benefits for our own business.
Test and Learn. Even if IT is a cost center, it has never been easier to test innovation in a low-impact environment. Between hosting costs, cloud services and open source solutions associated with Agile approaches (in project management), it has never been easier for teams to realize a POC (proof of concept). Indeed, these tests allow the company to easily experiment with prototypes in order to validate; or not, strategic orientations.
Change management and trust. Freeing up the company's energies by encouraging intrapreneurship, smoothing out the managerial layers or simply by trusting people, are plausible ways to bring about innovative ideas that are accepted by the teams and consistent. This so-called "liberated" company approach should not be understood by management as a managerial disengagement, on the contrary, trust does not exclude in any way the control and involvement of the hierarchy.
Become an expert in quantum mechanics. Humor! It is absurd for a management to know how to talk about Bloch's sphere and qubit states. However, quantum computing, like blockchain technologies, voice assistants, A.I. and additive manufacturing can impact our reference frame in a very variable time scale (tomorrow, 5 years, 30 years and maybe never). It is therefore time to integrate digital technology as a general culture.
The digital transition is an essential issue for the sustainability of the company. Of course, it raises questions about emerging technologies, plausible directions, and possible futures, without any certainty and in a variable time frame. But for all that, these questions are central in order to face our time impacted by strong economic, societal and ecological stakes.
