Digital transformation is nothing without a strong culture, new report finds
It’s the leaders at the top who are responsible for driving the cultural change needed to implement digital transformation, according to a new report.
Digital Transformation: Aligning Internal Structures For the Future
The report, Digital Transformation: Aligning Internal Structures For the Future, in association with MMT Digital, brought together industry luminaries at a roundtable to discuss how they are preparing their organisations for digital transformation. It found that while keeping up to date with new technologies is essential; organisational structure and culture form a huge part of the transformation process.
But finding the balance between culture and the changing role of the marketer is not easy. As noted by Ben Rudman, CEO at MMT Digital in the report: “The organisational structure has a significant impact on how possible it is for marketing to actually deliver what the business wants and what it thinks the customer wants as well.”
One of the findings highlighted in the report describes the influence of technology startups on corporate mentality and how leaders are learning from them. Increasingly, brands are testing the waters by partnering up with startups to learn how they approach technology and taking this knowledge back to their leaders to convince them to invest.
Another key area highlighted in the report is the blurring of lines between chief technology officers (CTOs) and chief marketing officers (CMOs). The latter are expected to understand technology on a granular level while CTOs are tasked with aligning the business strategic vision. This often leads to being both a source of conflict and innovation.
The report contains contributions from: Jon Davies, head of digital at Vodafone; Duncan Robertson, managing director at Busabout; David Morris, head of marketing and PR at Bang Olufsen; Joydeep Bhattacharya, managing director at Accenture Interactive; John Godwin, director of digital innovation at Travis Perkins; and Ben Rudman, CEO at MMT Digital.