Living through the shift: how to survive and thrive in the age of digital transformation

I have been significantly involved in transformation at Vodafone for five years. Even in that short period, the landscape has changed dramatically and we have begun a process of digital transformation that has involved a complete rethink of how we do things.

At the outset it’s natural to feel overwhelmed at the scale of change required throughout the organisation. But, by shifting the mindset from “How do we react to the threat?” to “How do we harness technology for the good of our customers?” transformation can be achieved in a way that brings interest, fulfilment and purpose for the company and its people.

Before you begin the journey, it’s crucial to break the process down into three aspects: the ‘why’, the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.

The why: good will come

Don’t fall into the trap of making it about cost reduction. At Vodafone we had numerous conversations to the effect that we must not start with this as the ultimate aim, otherwise we knew the company would never break out of current ways of thinking. Your organisational DNA may be about reducing costs, but when thinking about digital transformation you have to start with the idea that it’s all about making a positive impact for customers. You need to cling to the belief that, through a pure focus on customer-centricity, good will come for the organisation. Hence the primary ‘why’ is about serving customers better; whether that is the experience they have or the solutions you deliver to them.

But of course ‘why’ is also about productivity and efficiency: how to do things better and save money to reinvest in the things we need to do for the future. And it’s about making work more fulfilling and more interesting for employees, giving them some new ‘hooks’ in the world of work, because there is great apprehension about what the future holds. So the message is: “This is interesting and exciting for us as individuals.” This is a big part of the ‘why’.

The what: make it purpose-built

The ‘what’ can also be categorised into three areas. At Vodafone, and probably for many companies of our size, these are: the commercial work we’re doing; the technology work; and the work we’re doing internally, namely our operations in terms of processes. For us, it was important to ensure that all workstreams fitted into one of these categories.

Once these have been identified, you can start to narrow the focus to look at, for example, people practices. This could begin with looking at the brand and refreshing it.

For us, this consisted of sending out the message that we want to be a partner with people on their digital journey. Another decision we took was not merely to refresh the external brand, but to make sure that the internal brand aligned with the external, so they were exactly the same. The future is exciting. Ready?

You need to step back and consider: What is the actual purpose of your brand? We already had a very compelling purpose to ours – to help people live a better today and build a better tomorrow. But this begs the question: How do we wrap that up and make it more meaningful in everything we are doing? How do you increase the volume? If you look at Vodafone, you see a huge focus on purpose: why are we doing it? What is the real purpose of the company?