Business culture shock in the face of digital transformation
I read in Cinco Días that according to a report prepared by GoDaddy 70% of SMEs in Spain lack websites, and it seems that the challenge of digitization affects mainly small companies. But after more than 20 years of working in communication, media and brand management agencies for international advertisers, I have come to the conclusion that, in terms of digital tools and platforms, there is still a long way to go also in important and consolidated companies.
Needs of the graphic chain sector
Digital processes are advancing and improving by leaps and bounds, compared to not so long ago (especially before the pandemic), although the needs of some departments are still in the process of change or evolution that have to be settled. In the graphic chain sector, which has to do with the processes of creation and management of labels and graphic materials, some examples of these departmental needs that I have been able to see are the following:
IT departments have more resources and decision-making capacity to include in their systems plans those platforms or tools that help other departments to be more efficient in time and cost.
Purchasing departments see these systems as a way to avoid errors, minimize unnecessary expenses and therefore improve indirect costs.
Quality departments have more resources, fast and reliable, to ensure that the entire labeling circuit is carried out correctly.
Marketing departments can control the time-to-market of projects, which is key to aligning all advertising, commercial and promotional actions that normally accompany product launches, improvements, etc.
The production and/or in-house design departments are, ultimately, where the most stress is generated to get the graphic documents done correctly in collaboration with their design, pre-press and printing agencies.
Finally, the management and general management areas are increasingly clear that in order to compete more efficiently, it is necessary to redouble the commitment to the digital transition, and if they are the first to fly the flag of digitalization, this purpose will permeate all areas of the organization.
Within all these needs, it is often said that in order to meet them, it is not only a question of resources, but also of being aligned with the corporate culture, and that is when the doubts and uncertainty begin. In digital transformation, what is relevant is the word "transformation".
The main business culture shocks in the face of digitalization
Corporate culture is the link between what the company wants the way employees behave and act at work and what the employees themselves contribute to this way of behaving. Sometimes there are discrepancies between what is desired and what is done: the clash of corporate culture, which causes paralysis and does not allow companies to advance in competitiveness.
The main culture shocks and possible actions at the corporate level are:
Resistance to change: it is a reality that certain people are perceived or have openly expressed their resistance to adopting certain technological improvements (as there was at the time to the use of cell phones, computers, software, e-mail, or videoconferencing or messaging software, which we now see as essential). If these people lead key departments, the process will be even more complicated, although we must include, train and educate these people so that they understand the improvements and do not feel left out, but become part of the solution.
The perception of resistance to change: sometimes it is the managers themselves who underestimate their team's capacity for change, when in fact they are capable of taking it on if it is done correctly. Confidence in the team's capabilities.
Expenditure vs. investment: the purchase of fixed assets in a company is generally understood as an investment (a new packaging machine, a warehouse, ...) and wrongly not understood as intangible investments such as training, data management, branding or management platforms. Anything that improves the productivity of equipment should be considered an investment, not a cost.
"It will give us more work": yes, indeed, everything that allows us to improve costs, clarify objectives, control and monitor their status, requires an input of information that, in the short term, will avoid duplication, errors, time and costs. In the same way that happens when we fill in meeting reports, online annotations of changes or automated emails. It is a minor effort that gets exponential results.
The reluctance of some management levels: Whether by remaining in a comfort zone, out of disinterest or ignorance, some key profiles of the organization ignore the departmental needs, that while the tasks can continue to be done manually as before, which is also not being done badly..... There is no need to take this step towards digitalization. Here it is necessary a lot of evangelization and demonstration via success stories to transmit the competitive advantages and achieve the change of chip at management level.
To conclude, we believe that the best way to deal with this culture shock in the face of digitalization is through training, awareness, clarification of competitive advantages and betting on platforms that, like MyMediaConnect (in the case of brand management platforms) as well as many other platforms in other areas of the company, are already helping thousands of companies to manage themselves more efficiently.
As in everything in life, selecting the right partner (and I'm talking about partner, not supplier), is vital for success, as it facilitates this culture shock management: trial and error with several platforms for the same function is what can lead to failure in the digitization of your company. Choose wisely.
Eugenio Gómez-Acebo
