The secrets of digital transformation success - shared

Successful digital transformation requires three things: a clear transformation vision, solid alignment of technology with the business, and a powerful effort to bring your staff on the change journey with you. These are the main themes of the first “Top 20 Digital Transformation Innovators: Europe, 2021” report, launched by Contino, a leading digital transformation consultancy, and Tech London Advocates, the UK’s largest independent tech network.

The report is based on a series of conversations with twenty senior leaders representing a diverse range of businesses, from O2 to Compass Group, Nationwide to Green Flag, and Sainsbury’s to Best Food Logistics. These individuals each made the list due to their expertise, commitment to, and success in driving real digital transformation in their organisations – not just settling for the status quo. They have made crucial strategic contributions, helping to change mindsets, introduce new processes, and redefine their business’s digital capabilities for the better, building the resiliency and agility that will continue to be critical in 2021.

Contino and TLA gathered valuable insights into the drivers of digital transformation, the approaches the twenty leaders took, and the challenges they overcame to deliver positive and decisive business outcomes. The three most cited critical success factors for digital transformation across all twenty organisations were:

1. Aligning transformation with the business and not taking a siloed approach – resulting in fancy technology which contributes very little to concrete business outcomes
2. Having a clear future-orientated strategy to win over the hearts and minds of staff and help them understand why the change is needed
3. The people are the key drivers to succeed in transforming a business - almost all participants mentioned the need to bring people with you on the journey.

There were also three common approaches many nominees took as part of their digital transformation process: the public cloud, automation and data.

The public cloud is widely acknowledged to be the workhorse of modern digital transformation. It provides the scale, power and flexibility required to rapidly add capabilities, deliver services and create products. Debra Bailey, CIO at O2, for example, strategically aligned cloud-focused technology with business outcomes, creating a new operating model that focuses on people and processes as it does technology. Within a year, O2 reached its 10% targeted lift in speed-to-value and expects to hit 25% and 75% by the end of 2022 and 2024, respectively.

The ability to automate and standardise processes before scaling them across a business is the bread and butter of digital transformation. Chris Zissis, Global Chief Information & Technology Officer for the capital markets division of JLL, a global commercial real estate company, integrated and automated core business processes from end-to-end across 40 markets, which laid the foundation for peerless digital capability and sophisticated, data-driven product development.

The most common method of generating additional revenue streams was to turn to data. Paul Whyte helped turn Best Food Logistics, a previously loss-making food logistics company operating the supply chains for some of the UK’s best-loved chain restaurants, into a powerful data aggregator, sharing supplier performance data to offer them a strategic advantage. The company subsequently returned to profit and was acquired by Booker Group, a Tesco subsidiary.

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the difference in flexibility and resilience between those companies that are digitally capable and those that are not. In 2021, many expect digital transformation to accelerate as the ability to pivot and stay flexible in an unpredictable world become business priorities.

“We are very excited to be launching this list of innovators in digital transformation”, commented Michael Chalmers, EMEA MD at Contino. “Doing real digital transformation is incredibly difficult. With this list we wanted to celebrate those individuals who are committed to truly transforming their organisations. The report really showcases the breadth and depth of transformation strategies there are out there and the importance of not taking a one-size-fits-all approach. At the same time, it highlights the problems that are common to all businesses, regardless of industry. We hope this report helps to inspire anyone who is mid-way through their own transformation to dig deep and stay the course.”

Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates, commented: “Getting digital transformation right presents challenges for businesses across industries, but equally considerable opportunities. It has arguably never been more important in what is an era of significant change for the majority of public or private organisations.

“This new report from Contino with Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, showcases pioneers of digital transformation across Europe – those that are driving not only their own organisations but pathing the way for others. The ambition is that this new report will support the wider economy in realising the potential of digitally-driven solutions to all aspects of an organisation and to share best-practice for the tech ecosystem at large."