bdullah Sultan Al-Rashdi Head of Digital Strategy & Integration at Petroleum Development Oman

Many organizations around the world are either starting or have already started to use digital technologies. While the journey differs from one organization to another, wide adoption and scaling of digital initiatives remain the main challenge. Even successful deployment of digital technologies often faces the “value” question (i.e. how much value one could generate from adopting digital technologies). Adopting digital is not about using digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or Robotics, but rather embedding digital technologies in the DNA of the organization to run its business successfully.

Different perspectives

Over the past few years, I reviewed how companies approached digital adoption. In my opinion, there are three main approaches emerged:

1. Technology Focused: In this approach, organizations are aiming to modernize their technology landscape to faster respond to changing business requirements. This is more of a reactive approach and can be overwhelming to IT departments within organizations.

2. Process Focused: In this approach, organizations are aiming to optimize their business processes through the use of digital technologies.

3. Business Model Focused: In this approach, organizations are re-inventing their business model and attempting to do so by using digital technologies to create new value chains.

What will determine which approach is good for an organization is merely dependent on the organizational maturity and its readiness for change? Organizations with lower digital maturity tend to focus on digital technologies while mature ones are trying to re-invent themselves. While there are multiple digital maturity models and assessment tools, they often focus on the level of digital maturity rather than how the organization should go about adopting digital. Hence, one must be careful how to use such models and tools. Nevertheless, it is important for an organization to baseline its digital maturity before embarking on the digital journey. 

 While there are multiple digital maturity models and assessment tools, they often focus on the level of digital maturity rather than how the organization should go about adopting digital 

The Adoption Dilemma

Many leaders wanted to see their organizations adopting digital technologies. In 2015, a survey conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte highlighted that more than 70% of participants of global executives stated that digital technologies are important to their organizations. On the other hand, 70% of digital initiatives fail (according to McKinsey). While there are different reasons for such failure, I would argue that successful digital adoption requires the following five elements:

1. Clarity of vision and strategy: Different industries adopt digital technologies at a different paces. Looking at 5 years horizon, it is important to have a clear strategy on how to utilize digital to excel in your business 

2. Digital Leadership: Digital technologies mandate a new type of leadership skills. Experimentation and a Risk-taking mindset are examples of such skills. Digital technologies can be used to differentiate an organization's offering and generates value for its customers.

3. Digital Competency Development: The war on digital talents is at its peak. Acquiring digital talents and developing them can be challenging. Organizations need to have a clear strategy for how digital knowledge acquisition and retention will be managed. 

4. Digital Change Management: Culture can play a significant barrier to digital adoption. Clear communication and change management are important ingredients for successful adoption of digital technologies

Digital Governance: clarity of governance structure within digital projects will enable faster decisions making and lower the rate of failure.