In recent times, every industry across the globe has experienced changes in their day-to-day business functions due to the pandemic. Being adaptable to the ever-changing environment has become the key to move forward.
Although some businesses faced challenges in regards to lack of investment in digital processes, many others took this as an opportunity to increase their focus on new-age technologies like AI and edge. With these new investments, bringing the continuity of their business back on track became an easier task to accomplish. Moreover, with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, businesses in India are confident of bouncing back to normal and expect the economy of our country to move rapidly on the path to recovery. The year 2020 was definitely a year for change for many however even amidst this uncertainty; India remained the most digitally matured country in the world[1]. In fact, digital adopters in India, ones who have a mature digital plan, investments, and innovations in place, grew to 55.3% in 2020 from 33.5% in 2018. This is a testimony to the impact that technology transformation has on the future and success of a business regardless of the circumstances.
The message for enterprises is clear: adapt or fall behind
Adapting is exactly what many midsize and enterprise companies are doing. The report also shows that 94.7% of businesses in India have fast-tracked some digital transformation programs this year, and 92.3% are reinventing their business model. The implications of which are wide-ranging. These companies would need flexible providers, a supply chain that can cope with a sudden ramp-up, and internal resources to manage these unexpected changes to routine business processes.
Additionally, midsize to enterprise companies need to vanquish some embedded foes, as most businesses have faced barriers to digitization. The big hurdles here include data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, the inability to extract useful information from data, and lastly, the lack of economic growth in the country.
Given the many pressures on today’s leaders, it is critical to consider support measures. Here’s how your business can alleviate barriers to adaptability:
- Create a consistent company-wide culture without silos. Strong digital leadership is essential to identify timely solutions to get enterprises firmly on the path to digitization. Given that less than a third of leaders surveyed for the same report communicate with the C-suite to select suitable projects, the need for ownership for the process is apparent. Having strong digital leadership alone is not enough. Silos, even in the C-suite, need to be addressed so that the responsibilities of digital transformation do not rest solely with a chief data officer.
- Commit to reinforcing agile practices. While the move to remote work has rebooted this conversation, it’s now time to really focus efforts on collaborative and quick solutions to challenges. Senior business leaders should be able to lean on scalable IT infrastructure that can respond to uncertain events—ranging from pandemics to natural disasters and outages.
- Focus on AI and Edge computing. Greater focus on digital investment will help companies corral and process the data they are gathering and uncover key insights. Being mired in data is no longer an option.
Every enterprise of tomorrow undeniably needs to be prepared for the uncertain. While sudden disruptions can’t be avoided, they can be planned for. During the process of preparing a disaster plan, it is also important to upgrade/adopt newer technologies that will support the rapid growth of your business in case of disruptions. Hence, it is not wrong to say that the growth of a business is directly proportional to the pace of technology advancement. It becomes necessary for businesses to upgrade their IT infrastructure with the changing business needs and landscape. One thing that is for sure is that digital transformation ensures an adaptable competitive advantage now and in the future.
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