Do Not Put a Digital Expert in Charge of Your Digital Transformation

I strongly agree with the author that putting a digital expert in charge of a digital transformation is not advisable. This is because such individuals have little knowledge of organizational politics and culture despite their rich background in technological knowledge. A digital transformation is not all about creating new platforms for a company. It further encompasses the synchronization of the established platform with business operations. The IT gurus tend to focus on one edge at the expense of other organizational aspects. For this reason, their projects end up failing, as already demonstrated in the article. It is recommendable to place the specialists under the supervision of an insider who has depicted success and resilience over the years. Unlike the digital guru who dives in from a different job, an insider has indispensable business knowledge. The guru has no exposure to the company’s operations and thus can rarely spot flaws and inefficiencies with team members (Sebastian et al., 2017).

Insiders are also better due to their extensive knowledge of the customers, having stayed in business for extended periods (Furr, Gaarlandt & Shipilov, 2019). They understand why clients remain loyal to the business and what they can do to maintain the loyalty. Besides, they are aware of the competitors and the best mechanisms to counterattack their effect. E-commerce is a delicate sector as the clients have unique demands that might not be clear to the digital guru. Besides, unlike the digital gurus, the insiders have adequate knowledge of the company’s culture. In case the digital gurus are not willing to learn, they can hardly provide a meaningful contribution to the company. Considering a wide array of factors, I agree with the articles that digital experts should not steer digital transformations.

References

Furr, N., Gaarlandt, J., & Shipilov, A. (2019). Don’t put a digital expert in charge of your digital transformation. Harvard Business Review.

Sebastian, I., Ross, J., Beath, C., Mocker, M., Moloney, K., & Fonstad, N. (2017). How big old companies navigate digital transformation.

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