What does it mean to undergo digital transformation (DX)? Is it just a one-time project or a whole process that might take months, if not years? Everyone defines digital transformation differently. For some, it’s about going paperless; for others, it involves switching to a new stack of technologies. It might be different for you and your business, but I am sure your digital transformation is progressing much slower than it could be.
Around 70% of businesses will attempt to undergo digital transformation in the next decade. According to the prediction, only 30% of them will succeed.
Why is this percentage so small, and why might your digital transformation be lacking? Let’s discuss.
Cross-Functional Collaborations Are Much More Meaningful Than You Imagine
Even in the most progressive companies, people often hesitate to contact other departments and offer collaboration. It goes even further: business leaders and tech experts are usually more resistant to working together. In many companies, businesspeople and tech people are just two species living side by side but rarely crossing paths. And it often happens because both sides don’t see why they should work with each other: for some, it feels too tacky, others find it time-wasting, and the rest just have other things to think about.
At first, the scenario described might not seem too harmful; after all, it’s just two groups of people working on what they are best at. After all, we are hired to do our jobs, right? This is where I believe everything might go downhill for your digital transformation. Such an attitude seriously affects your company’s technological progress, slowing down new tech deployment.
Here is a thing: how can an IT team build an AI-powered solution if they don’t understand the business goals behind it? How can business leaders attain their goals and build strategies if they don’t know why they need all the new technologies and fancy software or how to implement them? Combining efforts, knowledge, and experience can and will drive progress and enable digital transformation.
Finding ways to foster such collaboration at your company, both within teams and across functions, is crucial. Here are some ways to improve cross-functional collaboration:
Educate on Responsibilities
Regardless of their role and department, everyone has their share of responsibility that aligns with the company’s success. In companies where most teams are siloed, many resort to blaming others for failure, especially if it is so easy to draw the line between us and them. Instead of endorsing such a mentality, focus on bringing teams together by creating a sense of shared responsibility.
Don’t Micromanage
It can be hard to avoid micromanaging, but in most cases, it is best to trust your team to do their work while staying in touch for when they truly need your assistance. Even though it often seems harmless, micromanaging can negatively impact the team’s morale and lower overall productivity.
Support Innovative Initiatives and Approaches
Digital transformation heavily relies on innovation and readiness to experiment and work with new tech that has not yet been fully explored. When employees hesitate to experiment, they also hesitate to get out of their comfort zone, which includes cross-functional collaboration. Inspire your colleagues and whole teams to be innovative, and always remain open to working with others, even if your fields of expertise seem unrelated.
Encourage Clear Communication
Countless issues stem from simple miscommunication, but many still don’t pay enough attention to this topic.
58% of workers work from home (WFH) at least once per week, and many people are switching to a hybrid work style.
This fact alone makes communication even more important, as coordinating with each other and staying on the same page has become quite a hard task for many due to all the software we use these days to communicate.
Unhealthy Competition Stifles Technological Progress
At first glance, it seems like strong or weak competition cannot influence internal workflows. After all, what does it have to do with how any company deals with digital transformation challenges? However, many don’t see how discouraging unhealthy competition can be. To be more precise, I am talking about the outcomes of larger businesses exerting their influence over other companies:
The Market is Ruled by Just a Handful of Companies
When new agencies, small businesses, and startups can’t grow and evolve, the market slowly becomes occupied by those who drove those firms out of competition, typically the big companies with decades of market presence under their belts. It does not mean they will immediately push smaller businesses out of the picture. Still, as I have seen it happen countless times already, they will inevitably influence the availability of growth opportunities, creating bottlenecks for growth and development.
Technological Progress is Significantly Slowed Down
Smaller companies are losing ownership of the digital transformation process if someone “big” dictates the rules for the whole industry. They no longer have the power to explore digital solutions independently, and the bigger players in the industry often dictate the tech stack. It might sound strange until we face reality, which is something one too many pharmaceutical companies face these days.
Companies are Waiting Instead of Acting
Many find it easier to take a backseat and wait it out, hoping the playing field will just level out and things will improve one day. But will they? If everyone stays silent, no one will push the industry giants to make room for smaller vendors. Under conditions like these, technological progress is being held back, impacting the speed at which businesses adopt new tech and adjust to trends.
Fewer Collaborations
In many industries, large agencies often restrict smaller vendors from collaborating with other small businesses, and even if they do permit some types of cooperation, they usually come with strict limitations. It might be hard to imagine a situation where companies would be adamant about preventing collaborations. But here is one thing: for larger companies, it is much easier to use their influence to control the playing field, and by offering assistance and protection to smaller companies, they also get to control who they can work with. This might sound cruel, but it is the reality for many businesses, so now it is high time to speak up and start promoting healthy competition.
There is no ultimate way to battle such competition, which makes it an even greater ordeal for many small and medium-sized businesses. The best solution is to show open support and respect for a multi-vendor ecosystem where everyone can compete without other businesses influencing their contributions and collaborations. As a result, companies not only in the pharma sector but in other industries will have nothing stopping them from innovating and evolving into digitally mature companies that are free to collaborate with each other and foster digital transformation.
Navigating the Digital Journey
The first step in making your digital transformation effective is realizing that it is a never-ending process. As long as you create an environment where your teams can easily collaborate and innovate, your digital transformation will take the right course. Pharma 4.0 is already here, and to fully embrace digital transformation, it’s time for our whole industry to leave unnecessary quarrels and unhealthy competition behind and focus on technological advancement and how we can incorporate them into our companies’ processes.
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