3 Common Characteristics of Digital Leaders

Experienced managers of the business world know that we are in a new era in digital consumption and that this consumption has accelerated due to COVID-19. The last few years have shown us that we need to be ready to act quickly in order to keep up with the pace of change. That's why many marketing teams have become familiar with a new term; digital transformation.

When companies can scale digital solutions quickly, they can derive value from digital transformation.

During this period, digital transformation has become a necessity for businesses rather than a relatively new concept. We recently conducted a collaborative study to better understand why some companies are gaining significant value from digital solutions while others are falling behind.

For this, we researched the digital competence and maturity levels of 2,000 global companies. Through our research, we found that the value companies derive from digital solutions is directly linked to how successful they are at quickly scaling these solutions. For digital pilot programs to stop being interesting experiments and start providing significant value, they need to be scaled successfully. Companies that manage to do this faster than their competitors in the market gain a great advantage.

Scaling has been an important part of our research. This is what differentiated the “digital leaders” (approximately 30% of companies that derive significant value from digital solutions) from the rest. Our research shows that digital leaders achieve 3x greater revenue growth and cost savings, and twice the amount of time-to-market reductions compared to companies that fail to capture value from digital solutions.

When we take a closer look at digital leaders, we see that there are three main factors that enable them to scale their digital solutions successfully. Let's share what you need to know:

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1. Compliance with C-level executives

Efforts to become a digital leader should start at the top level. For companies to be successful, digital transformation must not be the decision of just one executive, but rather all C-level executives must agree on a common strategy and roadmap. Once the goal is determined, C-level executives must work together and mobilize the entire organization, from top to bottom, to realize their vision. According to our research, 72% of digital leaders say that ongoing collaboration among C-level executives is very important,2 and 82% say they have reached agreement with executives on the digital solution vision, investment and other resources to advance their plans together.

To do this successfully, leaders need to adopt agile working methods. In order to quickly transfer strategies and targets to local business units, it is important that managers do not work independently of each other. It is very important that the planning and budgeting processes are flexible. In order to successfully follow the digital roadmap, all C-level executives need to pay closer attention to technology, data privacy and analysis.

2. Developing corporate capabilities

Once alignment is established among C-level executives, digital leaders should invest in areas that will help their businesses derive value from digital solutions. In order to understand this issue more effectively, companies need to benefit from first-party data from their customers and the company.

To gain insight by examining data, it is important to have access to the same high quality data across the organization. More than 90% of digital leaders have succeeded in connecting digital solutions to their technology stacks by leveraging APIs and microservices.4 By ensuring proper data management procedures, high-quality data can be consistently obtained that teams can use appropriately and consistently.

Digital leaders are also focusing on creating agile work environments powered by productivity apps and AI analytics. Such work environments attract high-performance employees and contribute to employee recruitment. Supporting the formation of a competent workforce and ensuring that the business environment is more inclusive and diverse also helps digital leaders create more resilient business models in the long term.

3. “Always on” mindset

Instead of considering digital transformation as a one-time project, digital leaders manage their businesses with an "always on" mindset that can adapt to innovations, improve and scale pilot projects as the environment changes, and gain returns from their investments. Just as technology, markets, and consumer behavior are constantly changing, digital transformation approaches must too. In order to adapt to constant changes, the company culture must change from top to bottom.

Digital leaders constantly learn by testing, invest in flexible planning and budgeting processes, and create teams that collaborate with each other, starting with C-level executives. Our research clearly shows that digital leaders make these behaviors part of the company culture. While C-level executives are investing in building a digital foundation, they are becoming experts at leveraging internal data to make decisions on operational challenges.

Having an "always on" mindset that can adapt to innovations improves businesses' ability to redesign customer experiences. By enabling cross-position collaboration, digital leaders can better identify which customer-focused opportunities can be scaled quickly and which failing or slow-moving initiatives can be abandoned.

We can clearly see that the value that digital transformation provides to digital leaders is very high. Any company that wants to capture a similar amount of value needs to be ready for change. Any company that embraces the necessary factors for success – aligned C-level executives, investments in talent and an always-on approach – can become leaders in the digital space.