{"id":667,"date":"2017-11-15T16:44:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T16:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securitycurve.com\/?p=667"},"modified":"2017-11-15T16:44:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T16:44:02","slug":"thinking-about-digital-transformation-now-youre-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/securitycurve.com\/?p=667","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about “digital transformation” now? You’re too late"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Have you noticed a sudden surge in interest about “digital transformation” out there in the wild wild word of web?\u00a0 I have.\u00a0 It’s a whole thing nowadays.\u00a0 I usually don’t comment on stuff like this because, frankly, I’m a practical guy — and “pie in the sky” theories about business transformation sometimes strike me as people sipping cocktails while the room’s on fire.\u00a0 But today, I’m making an exception.<\/p>\n

Here’s the backstory.\u00a0 Everyday I read feedly.\u00a0 If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a cloud RSS reader.\u00a0 I’ve used it since Google dropped support for their cloud reader product. This is because I lack the patience to read the news like a normal person on Twitter or LinkedIn. Yes, I still subscribe to RSS feeds… like your grandpa used to.\u00a0 (The first email I sent was over WWIVNet<\/a>, so lay off my old-timey ways.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, the reason I’m mentioning the tool specifically is that I actually thought it was bugged this morning because of the prevalence of digital transformation related content in it.\u00a0 See, the view I use shows headlines as a long, single-spaced list.\u00a0 On it, there was a full page of items starting with the words “Digital transformation…”\u00a0 I thought at first (silly me) that there was some feed spamming the same article over and over again.\u00a0 Like maybe some CMS somewhere was producing feeds that munged the time or maybe was reposting the same article over and over again.<\/p>\n

Nope.\u00a0 Turns out there were just a bajillion articles up there about digital transformation.\u00a0 \u00a0Articles like, “Digital Transformation: Ways to get it done right in your business”<\/a>\u00a0or “Digital Transformation: The career defining issue for CEOs…”<\/a>\u00a0 Plus a whole other boatload of similar-sounding ones.\u00a0 What’s interesting to me isn’t that people are interested in the topic (because of course they are) or that companies are transforming (because again, of course.)\u00a0 Instead, what is interesting to me is that this is news… that it’s news now and that people are thinking differently about their companies today because “digital transformation”.<\/p>\n

Look, here’s the deal.\u00a0 It’s “already yesterday”<\/a> on the digital transformation – at least insofar as people typically use the term.\u00a0 What I mean by that is two things: 1) If you’re thinking about “digital transformation” now and focusing on something specific you need to do to “achieve” it, that’s a symptom of something.\u00a0 What it’s symptomatic of probably isn’t good news for you or your business.\u00a0 2) What you really ought to be doing (instead of focusing on some post-“transformation” end state) is instead concentrating on your “adaptability”.<\/p>\n

For example, there’s a reason I didn’t type this post out on a Selectric and fax it to you.\u00a0 I have adapted in how I write stuff… you’ve adapted in how you read stuff.\u00a0 “Transformation complete.”<\/p>\n

Did you need to do something specific to achieve the “post-transformation goal” of reading something in a blog vs. a memo, newspaper, or on a bathroom stall?\u00a0 Yes and no.\u00a0 You did, but you didn’t really think about it too much, right?\u00a0 \u00a0It happened by degrees as a normal course of events unfolding.\u00a0 The truth is, transformation isn’t a goal in and of itself.\u00a0 There is no spoon.\u00a0 If you “transform” today, you will need to transform again tomorrow. Chasing the specific mechanics of how best to transform is like me pondering my lawn and deciding which blade of grass I’m going to cut.\u00a0 It’s ridiculous because I’m going to cut them all.\u00a0 And I’m going to cut them again a week from now.<\/p>\n

This article really seems to get to the nut of what I’m trying to say here:<\/a><\/p>\n

If your company has not been applying digital technologies over the last 40 years, you don’t exist. The time-share, mainframe, departmental computing, client-server, PC, ERP, Internet, cloud, and mobile eras are all old news today. You already use some of these, of course. If anything, most of these eras coexist in your technology stack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I recommend you read it.\u00a0 This guy is really astute.\u00a0 He goes on to say why the important point isn’t that<\/span> you transform — or even really how<\/span> you transform.\u00a0 Instead, his point is about your willingness to adapt<\/span>.\u00a0 He says it relates to “fungibility”, which I guess works too.\u00a0 I’m using “adaptability” though because more people know what “adapt” means vs. “fungible”.\u00a0 Anyway, most people are fundamentally not that willing to adapt.\u00a0 I still use an RSS reader, for example. That said, I like to think that if there was a better way (for me) that I would consider it.\u00a0 I also periodically try new ways and evaluate their success vs. their failure at doing what I need it to do.<\/p>\n

Being willing to adapt is, fundamentally, a mindset.\u00a0 It’s cultural.\u00a0 It means that you:<\/p>\n