Talking Transformation: Digital Strategies and Impact

In the second episode of our new video series, sharing insights and advice directly from those at the forefront of business change, Senior Partner Corrina Jorgensen asks Afiniti Digital Strategy & Transformation Director Jamie Campbell about the close relationship between digital strategy and business change, and how tying these together is essential for successful execution.

Corrina
So let’s delve a little bit deeper into digital strategy and transformation. I know that’s your absolute sweet spot, if you will. And I know that you want to be able to really highlight the possibilities that are now around us because of the digital elements. Do you want to just expand on that a little bit for us?

Jamie
Sharing a little bit also, I have a technology background and a business background. And why I’m really passionate about digital is it’s the first true time in the last decade—or ever—that technology and business are colliding together. You can’t do the technology separately anymore.

Corrina
So there’s something around how you get something from that strategy, and you have your programme, your ability to take it through, but to operationalise and build the capability within the organisation. Is that something that you see as different now?

Jamie
I see it as being an essential ingredient. But I think we have to look back to how strategies were originally created. Strategies were oftentimes done in a corner room with business and consultants. We were guilty of that at times, where a whole bunch of market analysis and strategy was being done, and then they were flipped over to the project team to go execute. In other times, that was okay, because it was perhaps contained to one business unit or one group, or it was a back-office activity.

But now, the rules are changing, and I think what’s fundamentally missing in most digital strategies today is talking about the change component and really how to operationalise that. And I think there’s a confusion between strategy, change, and execution. Actually, a good strategy should have all of those elements together.

Corrina
Yeah, definitely. And there’s also something there around the impact—the impact on the organisation but also the impact on people, I guess. Maybe historically, when some strategy work was done, the impact was far fewer. Whereas now, we all have access to digital but are all being asked to innovate, ideate, come up with ideas, or use the tools that are available to us. It’s not so much of a specialism, so the impact is broader, but the potential opportunities are surely higher.

Jamie
Yeah, absolutely, it’s huge. And I think that’s what leaders need to be thinking differently about. Digital strategies and operationalising them impact everybody. What are the behaviours that are needed? How do you adopt the technologies and the changes and have everybody working in unison?

On top of that, what you implement today will be redundant in six months or changing radically. And I think a whole new mindset is needed.

Corrina
How do we create the habit of the continuum that we now know? Before, change might have been, for some, a little bit one-and-done. You know, ‘we’ve thought about it, we’ve done it, that’s it.’ Actually, what we’re really looking to properly embed is that habit, that mindset of continuous improvement where we’re seeking out opportunities to do things better, drive more value, and have a healthier team aspect to it as well.

Jamie
I think you touched on one of the keywords there—it’s mindset. Leaders need to have the mindset to realise that it’s not about getting the strategy done, assigning it to the team, and then forgetting about it. Now the leader must be advocating and catalysing that change from now until the end and beyond.

And also, that continuous learning improvement that you mentioned—that has to happen all the time. And I think, unfortunately for leaders, that is a whole new skill that traditionally may not have been needed.

Corrina
Yeah, I definitely think that leading and landing change calls on different characteristics and attributes than perhaps a business functional leader may need to draw upon.

Jamie
And notice, through your words, we didn’t talk about technology at all. The technology is actually the easy part. And I think this is where, in organisations, unfortunately, concepts like people and change have been relegated to HR departments or seen as just change management. But it’s not—now business change is everywhere. And I think this is the most fundamentally important concept that leaders today in the digital age need to be shepherding.

Corrina
Okay. You make it sound so simple, Jamie.

Jamie
It could be.

Corrina
More on that to come.