There's no denying it: too many companies are still failing with their digital projects. What are the blocking factors? How can you make a success of your digital transformation? The book The New Horizon of digital transformationwritten by three specialists in the field, provides a roadmap and tools for effectively deploying a data-driven strategy and finally taking action.
Many books are surfing the digital transformation trend. A hot topic for the last twenty years, it continues to preoccupy companies seeking to modernise their digital tools and practices.
But one book stands out from the rest: The New Horizon of digital transformation. This work is not content, like so many others, to simply describe the digital transformation; it dissects it. Like three doctors, the authors, all eminent practitioners of the subject, put their experience in the field to work in their analysis, from diagnosing the sticking points to delivering a prescription roadmap.
Pejman Gohari is chief data & analytics officer at Bpifrance, Naoumane Cherkaoui is director of transformation at BPCE Solutions informatiques, a BPCE group company, while Jean Barrère, a specialist in AI and data-driven transformations, is a partner at Accurracy, a French financial consultancy.
Their diagnosis is clear: companies sometimes fail in their technological projects because they graft new systems onto an old culture. With their noses to the grindstone and their sights set on the short term, they struggle to adapt. Because, according to the authors, before any metamorphosis can take place, companies need to switch to a data-driven culture.
This highly structured book is divided into three sections: diagnosis, the nine principles of successful transformation and implementation.
1. Diagnosis
The authors identify three main pitfalls in digital transformation projects:
- structural and technical barriers
The oldest companies are faced with a technical debt and a complexity of information systems that handicaps them. This ranges from the multiplicity of platforms and solutions to a lack of control over data, not to mention a lack of skills.
- organisational barriers
Departmental silos, organisational silos, discord between business and IT, inertia, risk aversion, lack of decision-making and difficulty in scaling up undermine the organisation and decision-making processes.
- behavioural barriers
"A strong aversion to change and the short-term imperative are formidable reasons for doing nothing," warns Jean Barrère. The authors also warn against an all-communication, all-technology approach: it is not by recruiting a chief data officer or buying a technological brick that digital transformation will magically take place.
2. Solutions: the nine pillars for developing a data-driven strategy
This section is the subtitle of the book and its heart. The authors have highlighted nine pillars that underpin companies that have succeeded in their transformation.
- Pillar #1: Corporate culture
A strong sense of belonging rooted in a strong entrepreneurial culture, with non-negotiable values and principles.
- Pillar #2: makers in charge
Inspirational leaders at the helm, with a wealth of experience in the field.
- Pillar #3: talent with a data mindset
Excellence through diversity of talent and autonomy.
- Pillar #4 : a strategy focused on innovation
A strategy massively focused on innovation, particularly digital innovation
- Pillar #5 : data, the new social capital
Governed and secured, data becomes an asset and the main lever for growth.
- Pillar #6: customer obsession
Customer satisfaction as the compass for the business model
- Pillar #7 : decision-making informed by data and AI
Decision-making processes are changing radically with the introduction of AI and the systematic use of data.
- Pillar #8 : technology as a catalyst for transformation
The information system (IS) must be totally open (thanks in particular to APIs) and organised to evolve continuously and at a high rate. The IS is based on an event-driven architecture (EDA) to ensure that it is "open". scalability In addition, the company has developed a "Kafka-type" platform for centralising data flows.
- Pillar #9: Velocity in all strategic choices
Speed of execution is crucial, because the longer a process takes, the more inefficient and costly it is. So it's important to simplify and eliminate unnecessary actions, inefficient procedures and waste of all kinds by lean approach and Agile.
Of course, this model needs to be adapted to each organisation.
3. Transformation into action
In this final section, the authors finally turn to practice. The implementation of the transformation is divided into three phases, each referring to three pillars of the target model.
- Phase #1: embodying and uniting (Culture, Makers and Talents pillars)
There are three changes to be made: encourage the adoption of behaviours and practices that are essential to transformation, help makers to emerge, and align your employer promise and your practices to attract new talent.
- Phase #2: Decide and act (Strategy, Data and Customer pillars)
You need to deploy a strategy geared towards digital innovation, securing, managing and leveraging your data assets, and refocusing your efforts on creating value for your customers and partners.
- Phase #3: iterative transformation (Decision, Technology, Velocity pillars)
This final phase involves deploying an IT architecture that is urbanised, open, scalable and resilient. You need to put the potential of AI and analytical solutions at the heart of your decision-making processes. And, above all, make your business faster by combining agility and simplification.
This section on taking action is packed with practical examples to help readers understand and implement the transformation.
A book that will go down in history
Sculpted like a top-level sportsman, this book, without fat or frills, is full of practical examples drawn from real-life experience. Like a recipe, the sentences are short, punchy and clear, punctuated by infographics and summary tables.
On the whole, the book gives pride of place to accounts of company experiences. Fortunately, the hundred or so companies quoted are not all American multinationals, which is the case with far too many books on digital transformation. Even so, the commonplaces about Apple, Google and Uber - and the anglicisms - cannot be avoided.
Our only regret is the lack of examples of French SMEs that have succeeded in their digital transformation. This organisational and strategic upheaval does not only concern SMEs and large companies.
Ultimately, the authors' operational experience has enabled them to produce a brilliant, practical summary of the failures and successes of digital transformation. In 197 rich and dense pages, they have succeeded in their challenge. This landmark book is a must-have for all company directors, IT managers and executives.
After reading it, all you want to do is implement the proposed solutions and get the training you need to effectively roll out the transformation within your company.
About the book
The New Horizon for Digital Transformation - 9 pillars for developing a data-driven strategyby Pejman Gohari, Naoumane Cherkaoui and Jean Barrère, Éditions Dunod, 197 p., €24.
