The world has experienced a series of successive crises, all labeled as "major" from the Subprime crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, or the banking crisis triggered in California a few weeks ago. This accumulation of crises is compounded by all the needs for business and institutional transformation (digital, cybersecurity, CSR, etc.). And as if to confirm the trend, cascading waves of transformation are looming, triggered by the digital tsunami of AI.
The advent of accessible AI is disrupting everything, and the methodologies and tools currently used to manage business transformation are no longer sufficient in the face of this acceleration.
Accessible and "user-friendly" AI allows anyone to create business, content, and projects, and multiply their productivity as never before in human history, "turning the table" and forcing business leaders to reconsider (yet again) things in depth.
We have become accustomed to evaluating digital maturity scores that predict a company's ability to adapt and survive successive waves of digital innovation, but this no longer seems sufficient given the multiplicity of transformation themes. An approach seems to be emerging: that of a global transformation capacity score.
CONTINUOUS TRANSFORMATION IS THE NEW NORM FOR BUSINESS
The pace of transformations has accelerated like never before, and clearly, this permanent transformative state, with new strategic subjects that regularly emerge, has become a constant concern. Transformation is now a permanent concern for companies.
In essence, digital transformation should not be seen as a destination, but rather as a constant journey. How to organize it? This kind of journey requires guides, and in reality, it is no longer even a journey, but a normal way of operating. "Change, is the new normal".
Clearly, the need for transformation managers and consultants, and the expectations of companies regarding the performance of transformation projects, will explode in 2023.
Indeed, CSR, digital, cybersecurity, Web 3, and other dematerialization standards add unprecedented pressure. Companies must now find ways, methods, and tools to continuously absorb these increasingly rapid cycles of change, of which public AI (Google Bard, Chat GPT, etc.) is the new episode.
An episode that could be the true turning point of digital transformation.
THE NEXT BUSINESS CRISIS WILL BE RELATED TO AI
The arrival of public AI as a tool is disrupting companies, professions, productivity, and competitiveness suddenly and globally, unlike other waves of transformation such as smartphone-related transformation, which took several years to establish. AI can offer considerable advantages to companies, but it can also create an irreparable gap between those who use it and those who cannot even imagine its uses.
For many companies, it will be necessary to (again) modify transformation plans to remain competitive. For some, such as marketing agencies, content creation activities, and many others, the challenge is even more existential in the face of GPT 4.
Latecomers risk being left behind without even understanding why they are losing market share. The widespread adoption of AI has the potential to create a major crisis for companies. Wait... another crisis, now?
Yes, and it is probably a crisis that will give rise to several other types of transformations that are difficult to anticipate.
AFTER THE DIGITAL MATURITY SCORE? THE TRANSFORMATION CAPACITY SCORE
Attempts to place a moratorium on AI (wait! We weren't ready!) or to block GPT 4 by the Italian government (to negotiate) only underscore the importance of a company's digital maturity or "Digital Readiness." The ability to absorb transformation requirements in a general way is becoming an absolutely vital quality for the company.
This means that the company's digital maturity score, if it is carried out according to perfectly adapted criteria for its sector of activity, and above all observed continuously, becomes a direct indicator of its survival capacity.
But the digital maturity score is no longer sufficient to assess a company's transformation capacity. Transformation has become a discipline in its own right, just as human resources services in companies gradually became a vital service in the 80s and 90s, bringing together many professions around it to eventually become much more than a simple administrative activity (payroll), but an indispensable service for the proper functioning of the company.
The transformation capacity score goes beyond digital maturity alone and must take into account skills, corporate culture, governance, resilience, and organizational agility to adapt to constant change on a range of themes, as already outlined earlier in this article.
We could almost adopt the data-driven approach to digital transformation developed by Pejman Gohari, Jean Barrere, and Nouamane Cherkaoui in their book "Le nouvel horizon de la transformation digitale," or David Rogers' book "The digital Transformation Playbook" to develop transformation maturity analysis and generalized transformation strategies, and apply them to several types of transformation projects. The goal: to overcome the dangerous transformation projects silos caused by the multiplication of seemingly separate themes.
The move toward a truly holistic approach to transformation, including all themes or at least "desiloed" ones, should be achievable through a work environment and tools that enable it.
This score of transformation capacity must also include relevant and readable indicators for the various dimensions of transformation, such as cybersecurity, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and energy management, even in many cases (ISO 50,001).
Companies must therefore develop a holistic approach to transformation, implementing strategies and structures adapted to manage and drive the multiple facets of transformation. This involves rethinking the way they approach and evaluate their transformation projects, integrating agile and comparative approaches to track and measure progress in real-time. To support this approach, it is essential to have next-generation transformation management tools and software that enable managers and consultants to effectively drive transformation projects, identify opportunities and risks, and allocate resources optimally.
These tools should provide dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs) to help decision-makers monitor and analyze transformation progress throughout the organization. They should also facilitate communication and collaboration between different stakeholders, enabling the sharing of information and informed decision-making. Here, governance via frameworks (maturity analysis reference models), their modeling for easier use, and their updating are essential.
In summary, the transformation capacity score has become essential for companies to better anticipate, manage, and succeed in the multiple challenges and transformations they face. It is time for organizations to rethink how they approach transformation and adopt a holistic and agile approach, supported by next-generation management tools and software. This will not only increase their resilience in the face of crises but also ensure their competitiveness and sustainability in a constantly evolving world.
In conclusion, a brand new way of managing transformation in a multi thematic (digital, cybersecurity, CSR, etc.), agile, and comparative manner is indispensable to meet the current context. The digital maturity score alone is no longer sufficient to evaluate all the necessary transformations and their impacts. A new generation of enterprise transformation management and scoring software must equip transformation managers and consultants and help business leaders meet these unprecedented challenges.
