SOIL’s Annual Digital Conference 2020

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SOIL’s Annual Digital Conference 2020: Responsible Leadership in Challenging Times

28 Sep 2020
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1 Year MBA, Admissions, Leaders speak
Insights from Session 1: Digital Transformation

Digital transformation – the process of using digital technologies to create new business models, processes, and customer journeys, or revamp existing models, processes, and journeys – is one of the topmost priorities (and concerns) of business leaders today. An HBR study revealed that $900 billion of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on digital transformations during last year, went to waste. McKinsey research also shows that fewer than 33% of DT efforts succeed in creating a long-term impact on the organization’s performance. Looking at these statistics, it is not difficult to understand why business leaders, across sectors and industries, are both excited and nervous about this transformational wave.

Broadly, the digital transformation journey can be broken down into two parts, the first one being finding new digital growth, i.e., transforming business models (products, services, markets, market segments etc.), and the second, digitizing the core business i.e., improving and disrupting business processes to enhance the customer experience. Companies may choose to pursue either one of the above, or sometimes, even both simultaneously. The light that guides this decision should be the organization’s strategy – what value creation can be achieved by pursuing each of these components of digital growth? Another critical question that companies must ask themselves relates to the role of its people and culture – is it an enabler or will it prove to be a hindrance? What will be the impact of the transformation on the organization’s employees? These are some of the topics discussed in the 90-minute conference, insights from which are summarised below.

Mr. Manoj Kohli, Country Head, Softbank India, kicked-off the conversation by highlighting the role of the biggest transformative force in the last 20 years – mobile internet. 4G networks, high-quality mobile applications, and ease of usage were cited as the three catalysts for Digital Transformation. Furthermore, he emphasized the role of the pandemic in accelerating the pace of transformation, touting the growth that took place in the past 6 months to be equivalent to the cumulative growth in the past decade.

In the first segment of the discussion, the leaders gave specific examples of how their organizations are investing in new digital growth. Consumer behaviour and preferences, they say, should be at the heart of any DT initiative. They also talk about how technology can, and should, be an equalizer. Mr. Manish Sharma, President and CEO of Panasonic India & South Asia, described Panasonic founder, Kōnosuke Matsushita’s philosophy, in the following words: “As industrialists, we need to understand our responsibility and allocate resources for the benefit of the society, and the progress and development of people.” Technology, he said, should be like tap water – available in abundance and at affordable prices. Both the leaders revealed how their organizations are promoting inclusivity through technology, albeit in very different ways.

Softbank has invested heavily in Unacademy, an Indian ed-tech company, that helps students prepare for competitive examinations. It overcomes the problem of lack of physical infrastructure in remote areas, giving students direct access to top educators, thereby democratizing education. The Unacademy story also reiterates how digital journeys need to have customer needs and behaviour at their core.

Panasonic Life Solutions India (formerly, Anchor Electricals), is an excellent example of how existing capabilities and products can be used to create novel customer experiences. Using technologies such as Cloud connectivity and IoT, Panasonic Life Solutions has managed to create comfortable, efficient, and safer living spaces. On how they are promoting technological inclusivity, Mr. Sharma revealed that Panasonic’s inclusivity strategy is two-fold. To make hardware (air conditioners, for example), more affordable, they have made all the ACs in their portfolio “connected”, or IoT-enabled. This will create economies of scale, bringing down the overall cost of ownership. On the software front, the platform MirAIe, to which Panasonic’s smart appliances are connected, is an open platform – protocol and brand-agnostic, enabling the sharing of technology and making it more “democratic”.

The second segment of the conversation was centered around digitizing of the organization’s core business, particularly, process improvement. Mr. Rabi Chowdhury, Managing Director (Generation) at CESC Limited, shared his experience of process digitization at a 120-year-old legacy company.

The difficulty here lies in making people completely shed old processes and adopt newer ones. Mr. Chowdhury believes that the key to process improvement is end-to-end digitization; partial digitization may do more harm than good. However, he advised against getting carried away by the sheer variety of cutting-edge technologies. Choosing technology first, and then applying it to business processes is like putting the horse before the cart. He asserted that the process should choose the technology, not the other way round. When technology is customized to ensure a perfect fit for the process, it helps employees understand how digitization can make their jobs easier, hence reducing apprehensions and speeding up adoption.

Next, Mr. Ajay Srinivasan, CEO, Aditya Birla Capital Limited, shared his learnings from a process improvement initiative at a financial services company. About 18 months ago, ABCL launched an initiative to completely re-engineer customer and distributor journeys. From their experience, the process can be divided into the following steps:
- Seek outside-in perspective (Senior leaders across functions were sent to visit other companies across the world, to discover the latest thinking on the subject)
- Formulate a framework (Using the information gathered in step 1, and their business knowledge, they developed a framework for customer journey re-engineering)
- Map as-is customer journeys (Over 100 as-is customer journeys were mapped to identify opportunities for improvement)
- Prioritize (Realizing that focusing on all 100 would be impossible, they prioritized and chose 2 sets of customer journeys – Onboarding and Purchase, and Customer Service)
- Identify and develop the technologies (Biometrics, Facial Recognition, Intelligent OCR for Onboarding and Purchase; Chatbots, Google Assistant, etc. for Customer Service)
- Train employees (ABCL inducted the employees and trained them in the new technologies and processes; made them understand the criticality of moving from “as-is” to “to-be”)
- Measure results (ABCL found that there was an average reduction in TAT of about 60-80% in Onboarding and Purchase and 80-90% in Customer Service.)
As a result of this initiative, customers, employees, distributors, and the business, all benefited.

Mr. Srinivasan talked about trust being a critical factor, even a competitive advantage, in his line of business. As digital often dehumanizes processes and reduces the trust factor, he emphasized on the importance of “mixing and matching”, explaining that when needed, they provide human interaction as well, especially when the customers are parting with money.

The third leg of the session dealt with one of the most crucial enablers for Digital Transformation: people and culture. No technology, however disruptive, can produce sustainable results if its implementation is not aligned with the organization’s culture. Just like in any other change initiative, unless all the stakeholders are able to see “what’s in it for me”, the intervention cannot yield the desired result. Mr. Rajeshwar Tripathi, CHRO, Mahindra and Mahindra, reminds us to not forget the fundamentals of human nature. On similar lines, Mr. Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra, emphasised that technology should act as an enabler for creating a better human experience, be it for customers or employees. In his own words, “DT is imperative, not just to gain digital dividends, but also to build organizational resilience.” This tenet has been tested rigorously during the pandemic, as the immediate need to go digital has not only changed the way of working but has also exponentially accelerated the pace of growth.

The objective of a digital change intervention should be drawn from the company’s strategic direction; the link to the company’s vision and mission should be crystal clear. Another aspect that needs to be at the core of any digitization effort should be the user. Users may include customers, end consumers, partners, or employees. Keeping that in mind, it is critical to differentiate between digital natives and immigrants. Any product/ process/ interface that is designed should be intuitive, not just for the native but also for the digital newbie.

Derived from the collective wisdom of the panel, the following steps can serve as a good recipe for a digital transformation initiative:
- Identify clear goal, ensure link to the organization’s mission, vision, purpose and strategy
- Judge level of preparedness of the organization and its employees
- Identify capabilities that are needed, analyse existing capabilities, bridge the gaps by reskilling/ retraining the workforce
- Create a desire in the workforce to upskill themselves
- Ensure engagement of leadership at each level
- Communicate “What’s in it for me”
- Build a culture that is suitable for an agile way of working: Change paradigm of leadership from command and control to inspiring and empowering, reverse the pyramid if required, build a network of digital champions to act as change agents, and link KPIs to the adoption of the initiative and incentivize people for the same.
But, what about the downsides? The apprehensions of people regarding loss of jobs and opportunities? With the advent of digital, are we staring at jobless growth? The answer, once again, lies in being agile and taking the driver’s seat when it comes to one’s own career growth. At the national level, the need is to recalibrate the education system, move away from traditional paradigms of skilling and training.

Mr. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Chief, HR and IT, at Phillips Carbon Black Limited, offers an alternative way of looking at it. Giving the example of engineers who sit in control centers 24*7, he talked about how the routine activities performed by them could be delegated to machine learning algorithms. What then, will the engineers do? Their role would be two-fold:
- Training the algorithms
- Dealing with non-routine, high priority issues.
The solution, hence, lies in relooking at existing roles and re-engineering them into collaborative efforts between humans and machines.

The last few months are proof that we are capable of embracing digital change occurring at an incredible pace. The question then remains, how do we do it in a mindful manner, such that it is both effective and sustainable?

Written by Prachi Kapoor
Consultant,
SOIL Consulting and Executive Education

SOIL Consulting and Executive Education, in partnership with Microsoft, offers customizable programs in Digital Transformation for mid to senior-level managers. To know more, write to us at prachi.kapoor@soilindia.net.

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