GoKawiilDigital transformation projects have traditionally been associated with multi-year strategies. Here, CIOs have worked with their peers to consider how technology might help their organizations react to the threat of digital disruption. They've then created a long-term business strategy that uses technology to help the organization meet its aims.
The problem with many of those long-term strategies is that they've taken too long to deliver results. IT teams are good at creating spot digitalization projects, such as moving systems to the cloud or creating new channels to market, but struggle to transform the whole business to support new operating models.
In an age where fleet-of-foot digital challengers can move into a new sector almost overnight, multi-year digital strategies are too slow. The multiple challenges associated with technological change, new geopolitical tensions, and macroeconomic pressures have shown that flexibility and agility are the watchwords for modern digital strategies.
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McKinsey suggested that most companies' adoption of digital technologies sped up from years to months during the pandemic. That increase in pace has had a lasting impact. The consultant said what was considered best-in-class speed for business change four or five years ago is now seen as slower than average.
This need for speed has affected digital transformation strategies. Instead of talking about five-year plans, boards demand constant iteration. That increase in pace has required a new agile way of working in many organizations, with flexible plans the norm rather than multi-year strategies.
That's an approach that resonated with Segro's Corbridge, who is using a range of technologies to transform business operations. "We have a digital plan rather than a strategy, and the plan is to focus on priorities we can distil down to quite simple sentences," he told ZDNET. "What I want to try and do, though, is get to the end of 2026 and understand what our objective is that takes us into 2027 and as far as the middle of 2028."