Talking Transformation: Digital Change Challenges

In our new video series, get insights and advice directly from those at the forefront of business change. In this episode, Senior Partner Corrina Jorgensen sits down with Afiniti Digital Strategy & Transformation Director Jamie Campbell to explore the challenges faced by business leaders in a time of continuous digital transformation.

Corrina
Hey Jamie, it’s so lovely to have you on board. Thank you so much for being here—finally, it’s been a little time.

Jamie
It has been a little bit of time. We’ve known each other for, what, almost five years now? I was in the customer role, and then—yeah, I’m just super excited to have joined.

Corrina
And of course, we’ve refreshed, or we’re refreshing, our vision to 2028, which is very, very exciting and energising. So we are igniting that passion in people and capability, and that’s really important, isn’t it? That people lens is right at the heart of being able to deliver business change. And we’re going to help clients to double the value of business change, and that’s going to be a really interesting approach. At the same time, we’re going to help them materially reduce their costs. So, let me hear what you think about that.

Jamie
It’s bold, it’s exciting, and I think it’s an excellent challenge to put out there—not only for ourselves as consultants, because we should be living and breathing that ourselves, but I think, equally important, with all the change happening because of digital and all the disruption that companies are facing. I think that it captures a lot of the challenges and struggles that companies are having—how do they see the value when costs are increasing, not decreasing? So I really love that vision.

Corrina
You know, I guess we’ve heard several quotes about the amount of change that we are experiencing and will continue to experience. And the pace of that change is going to be more in the next ten years than it has been in the last hundred.

Jamie
That’s right.

Corrina
So as consultants, that’s surely an opportunity?

Jamie
It’s a wake-up call for consultants to really sharpen our pencils and focus on thought leadership and value-add for our customers. I also think it’s a challenge—an open challenge for every company, every person, every leader out there—that this change is just happening in waves. It’s not this binary, ‘we get this done and then we’re done’ type thing like in the past. Now, this change is just ever coming. So we really need to be focused on how we build resilience. How do we control the stress levels of the people changing?

Corrina
And that ability to really, as you say, build resilience but also be purposeful around the internal capability so our clients are more equipped to cope with that continuum as it happens.

Jamie
Yes, absolutely.

Corrina
What are we seeing, or what are you seeing, as some of those key challenges that are faced by our clients?

Jamie
There are a lot. In fact, one of the percentages that’s common out there is that 70% of transformations or change projects fail. That’s a huge number. And looking at the challenges, a lot of it goes back to an organisation’s inability to translate a strategy and operationalise it. Or people adoption. Or, you know, keeping up with all the change. So instead of having so many projects—digital or otherwise—it becomes almost analysis paralysis.

With so many things going on now, and with digital being required to be combined with business decisions, a business leader is no longer just contained within decision-making and prioritisation for their vertical or their area of expertise or responsibility. Now it’s digital, it’s technology, it’s business, it’s customer requirements. So the decision-making and prioritisation multiply. Digital strategies absolutely require system-wide thinking.

So many of the technologies and digital strategies need interdependencies across the organisation and value chain. The problem is, when the leader doesn’t have experience with that or the right mindset, it becomes fractured and siloed, and the individual projects begin to fail.

Corrina
And that’s so important, isn’t it? To have that alignment across the leaders, but equally, being able to surface any misalignment quickly so you can get to the heart of the matter.

Jamie
That’s right. And I think if the leader isn’t there, then how are the people going to be? It starts from the very top and works its way down so that everybody’s understanding, buying in, and all moving together in unison. And I know that’s easier said than done. Having said that, though, that’s instrumentally important and one of the key success criteria for digital transformations.