Digital Transformation – with Head, Heart and Hand

Digital Transformation – with Optimum Support

Down-to-earth and visio­na­ry: Mid­si­ze com­pa­nies need prag­ma­tic digi­tal solu­ti­ons and inno­va­ti­ve con­cepts in order to posi­ti­on them­sel­ves best for the digi­tal age. h&z sup­ports them with head, heart and hand.

As our expe­ri­ence shows, chan­ge isn’t simp­le. For the digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on in par­ti­cu­lar we requi­re a gre­at deal of know­ledge about the tech­no­lo­gies to be used. It’s also important to pro­vi­de clo­se sup­port in imple­men­ting the pro­po­sals for bet­ter ope­ra­ti­ve pro­ces­ses, per­fect custo­mer expe­ri­en­ces, or ent­i­re­ly new busi­ness models. Beau­ti­ful and abs­tract visi­ons or con­cepts alo­ne don’t help mana­ge the com­pa­ny. It’s the imple­men­ta­ti­on that makes a trans­for­ma­ti­on suc­cess­ful.

Digi­tal stra­te­gy: Trans­for­ma­ti­on begins in the mind (head)

Digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on is a top prio­ri­ty for the manage­ment of Ger­man com­pa­nies of any size. Howe­ver, most trans­for­ma­ti­on pro­jects begin with a dis­co­very pha­se that invol­ves cla­ri­fy­ing the fol­lo­wing points:

• Can tools or pro­ces­ses help the com­pa­ny increa­se its pro­duc­tivi­ty or sales?
• Does my pro­cess chain pro­fit at all from new deve­lop­ments such as robotics or arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence?
• Are vir­tu­al rea­li­ty or block chains just expen­si­ve games, or do they have con­cre­te app­li­ca­ti­ons for me?

If a com­pa­ny can ans­wer the­se star­ting ques­ti­ons affir­ma­tively, it should pur­sue digi­ta­li­za­ti­on in an orga­ni­zed man­ner. It is important ther­e­by to ensu­re that the com­pa­ny goals remain in view and that imple­men­ta­ti­on doesn’t exceed inter­nal com­pe­ten­ci­es. In order to make inno­va­ti­ve ide­as pos­si­ble at all, howe­ver, the­re must be no bounda­ries set for ide­as on the topic of “digi­tal stra­te­gy.” Final­ly, the con­cepts must then be tested using pro­to­ty­pes to ensu­re a good fit bet­ween tech­no­lo­gies and the com­pa­ny.

Digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on: Invol­ve custo­mers and employees (heart)

If the digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on pro­ves to be use­ful for the com­pa­ny, we make sure that employees and custo­mers also sup­port this step. Moti­va­ti­on is the key. Ques­ti­ons inclu­de:

• How do I pre­pa­re my custo­mers and employees for the tran­si­ti­on to digi­tal?
• Is my custo­mer base ready to use inno­va­ti­ve tech­no­lo­gies?
• How does the orga­ni­za­tio­nal struc­tu­re need to chan­ge to make the trans­for­ma­ti­on suc­cess­ful?
• What abi­li­ties and com­pe­ten­ci­es will be most important in the future?

Let’s take the lar­ger topic of the “Smart Fac­to­ry” as an examp­le. As a mul­ti­fa­ce­ted ele­ment of the “Indus­try 4.0” future pro­ject, the Smart Fac­to­ry rep­res­ents a future sce­n­a­rio in which pro­duc­tion lines and logistics sys­tems com­mu­ni­ca­te with one ano­t­her in order to orga­ni­ze them­sel­ves and replace human inter­ven­ti­on in the manu­fac­tu­ring chain. In such an envi­ron­ment it is essen­ti­al that employees are sup­por­ted in gro­wing into the new are­as of activi­ty that ari­se and that a cor­re­spon­ding digi­tal mind­set is pro­pa­ga­ted throug­hout the com­pa­ny. Custo­mers also need to be able to work with tech­no­lo­gies such as deli­very tracking using QR codes.

Digi­tal app­li­ca­ti­ons: Imple­men­ta­ti­on and first results (hand)

What final­ly counts is imple­men­ta­ti­on with ans­wers to con­cre­te ques­ti­ons, a func­tio­nal per­spec­tive, and fast and noti­ce­ab­le results in par­ti­cu­lar. Five cri­ti­cal suc­cess fac­tors lead to noti­ce­ab­le results:

1. A clear visi­on, con­sis­tent com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on regar­ding the chan­ge, and a sen­se of urgen­cy sha­red by ever­yo­ne invol­ved
2. A gro­wing team cul­tu­re and brea­king away from silo men­ta­li­ty through agi­le pro­ject methods, guar­ded by a high tole­ran­ce for error
3. The examp­le of mana­gers who con­ti­nuous­ly live the chan­ge
4. A spe­ci­fic awa­re­ness and proac­tive hand­ling of resis­tan­ce among employees
5. Sustain­ab­ly ancho­ring the chan­ge in the com­pa­ny cul­tu­re

Sin­ce no com­pa­ny can afford to throw away an invest­ment of this magnitu­de, it is important for us to sup­port the imple­men­ta­ti­on pha­se with our know­ledge from pre­vious pro­jects and our func­tio­nal exper­ti­se in ope­ra­ti­ve are­as. We stand by our cli­ent firms through their digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on. Only by com­bi­ning bril­li­ant ide­as (head), the enthu­si­asm of employees and custo­mers (heart), and con­ti­nuous imple­men­ta­ti­on sup­port (hand) can a digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on be suc­cess­ful.

More infor­ma­ti­on on digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on can be found here.