Digital Transformation: A door to involuting the organisation

According to Observatorio.digital.com, the progressive and increasing use of the digital transformation models in Spanish organisations could increase the value of the Spanish economy in 120 000 million by year 2025 and reduce the costs by 10% to 20%.

The data of 2019 do not show, indeed, a positive valorisation, and not even optimistic: Spain is in place 45 of the ranking of the most digitised economies of the world. Surprisingly, the indicators show a worrying situation, especially if we consider the clearly negative and threatening factor in the upcoming months, the multiplier effect of the Covid-19.

Polling results in companies showed that a 62% of them didn’t have, at the present time, a digital strategy, and barely a 26% do not have among their priorities, a responsible person for digital strategies, a CDO (Chief Data Officer) in the organisation.

However, it is even more worrying that 20% of the companies have not staff being trained for essential aspects such as digitalisation and new technologies.

Scaring or even terrifying is the fact of knowing that the competitiveness of the Spanish companies in the following months and years will be really under the international average. This situation will reduce our capacity for negotiation, prevent us from competing in highly technical automated and digitised markets, and that we are really far from economies such as the Chinese one, the North-American one, or the Finish one, which are the leaders of technological innovation.

If we add to this bleak picture, the dependency on Tourism, which is unavoidable, and the dependency on the domestic consumption for growing, the situation is going to be really tough for the Spanish companies. If we add to this slump of negativity, the lack of real and practical actions, which should also be quick and effective, and that the governments should be taking, this cocktail is at least highly explosive. Basically, the fuse has been lit, the explosion is imminent and its effects will be devastating.

Can the situation be changed?

Is it possible to reverse the situation?The quick answer would be: of course it is!

The main disadvantage is the lack of knowledge, the lack of leadership and, mainly, the suspicion that this crisis, due to the low use of innovative technologies, could turn out into an opportunity.

Opportunity which the entrepreneurs are already taking, almost as extreme adventurers. At this moment, they are taking the innovation, the creativity and the digital transformation as the main aspects of their current strategy, but also of their future one.

In summary: the change we need in the Spanish companies must begin to be managed now. Changes at all levels: perception of productivity, need of improving the training of employees, directives and shareholders of the companies, incorporation of new tools to improve in a clear and practical way the processes, the procedures and the professional roles, and, finally, a new way of thinking.

If something good may have come out of this crisis, among all this terrible situation, it has been the belief that things must change in companies, and better sooner than later. The experts all around the world have pointed out that 10 to 15 million businesses could disappear in 2020. And even those estimations could be low…

It is important to highlight that the companies in Spain have access to the Fundae credits to train their employees. I am still attending some introductory courses to Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote… nothing against them, of course, but I still have the feeling that the idea of digital transformation is still a dream, something that has not found its way in the companies. Companies that still continue to ignore (or even almost rejecting) the idea that things will not come back to the previous situation. The customer is unique, highly competitive and nowadays more and more difficult to find, monetize and bind

We can take as an example of that, the situation of a company with millions of customers, which has filed for bankruptcy because of the current situation. I am talking about Avianca, the almighty flight company that controlled the skies in Latin-America some years ago.

The lack of manoeuvrability, because of one-way business models, may be the cause of the current, and future, mortality of thousands of businesses. The lack of vision, of focus, and above all, the lack of innovation and capacity for change, does not offer an ideal scenario.

We will see in the coming months, which companies change their minds. Ah, I forgot it. I think it is not necessary to say that companies are trademarks and business assets. Behind them, there are only people deciding, some of them, much better than others…

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