Going digital is good and all. But what if your organization has not begun to take action. How does one convince their senior management to adopt digital solutions? What happens when pushback comes your way?
Change does not come easily to everyone. Especially so if a business has been operating profitably for a number of years. In particular, the staff who are used to the existing process will be unlikely to want to change their manual way of handling things.
However, business owners and senior management recognize that to stay competitive, companies must grow and cannot remain static. Therefore, the catalyst for change must start with the upper tiers of management and their buy-in is necessary.
Selling the Vision
When presenting the idea of digital transformation, start with the ‘why’.
In the case of A*Star Research Support Centre (RSC), their vision was not just to support the agencies under A*Star but to serve the entire research ecosystem in Singapore. Physical space limitations prevented the expansion of the RSC facility. It could only cater to a fixed number of products and services. However, digitally transforming RSC allowed it to link up like-minded research facilities beyond its physical boundaries. Sourcing products and lab services were made more accessible to the research community through a virtually connected ‘online marketplace’ where expertise could be tapped and prices for services easily ascertained via a standardized pricing system.
In short, adopting digital solutions allowed RSC to unlock its potential of serving a wider audience. The system was also able to better meet the accountability requirements demanded by the pharmaceutical and biotech community. With digital solutions, everything can be tracked and traced, and this ensured accountability while giving management an aerial perspective of who its users were and exactly when and what they wanted.
Handling pushback
Presenting the business in perspective is an excellent place to start when handling pushback from the Board. An analysis of the current market and a description of the best practices that competitors are employing can help give a better perspective of how digital transformation can step up your game. Concurrently, “the powers above” need to know that manual processes which are tied to manpower will impede growth. The business is just not going to be able to scale and compete!
Companies who wish to start their Digital Transformation journey to convert their manual processes to cloud-based digital solutions can contact us at sales@zooloo.asia. We would be happy to hear from you.
Explore more
- MUST READ: Conceptualization | The What, Why & How for Business Owners
- More about Digital Transformation Journey
- Learn more about our “Digital Backbones”
- Learn more from our eBook series on Digital Transformation for Wholesale Trade
