By: José Luis Aromando

Corporate culture plays the most important role in digital transformation, since it implies the need for people to adopt new processes, new ways of organizing, new ways of working, new behaviors and approaches in order to break silos and relate differently with clients, their members and their value ecosystem.

The Covid19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the adoption of Digital in terms of days and weeks, forcing organizations to work differently. Obviously the feeling of "chaos" y "disorder" They were evident in the first days, but no organization was paralyzed and all were adapting and improving their adoption.

The concept of "organization", in this context, means much more than the actual/formal structure of the company with its hierarchy of responsibilities and departments. The organization, in a world of digital transformation, includes the work culture and the set of practices and attitudes that are key to designing and executing agile responses.

The digital transformation It is not just about taking advantage of the opportunities that technology offers us, but about implementing an organization based on agility: corporate culture then plays a vital role in the digital transformation of any company. Even more so in contexts of high uncertainty about what is to come and in behavioral changes that are here to stay.

build a culture of change and permanent evolution is essential. It has been evident for a few years now that companies no longer make a single change and then simply sit back and wait for the next five years of business to change again. Today, multiple initiatives coexist at all times and compel us to create a new momentum and rhythm in the business that reflects the new reality of the markets in which we operate.

In our experience we have seen -sometimes- that organizational managers are not fully aware of the cultural implications of the digital initiatives they lead. The digitalization of the workforce, the new “workplaces” Virtual and collaborative practices require companies to operate in ways they have never anticipated and to move with a risk/error tolerance and speed to which we are not accustomed.

Several studies and papers identify some of the cultural values ​​and, therefore, the desired behaviors that are considered key to being successful in a digital transformation:

• Proactive vs reactive style.
• Customer-centric vs. focused on product/service.
• Data focused on building the future and not explaining the past.
• Real-time information vs. past reports.
• Rapid/agile innovation vs. large investments of time/resources.
• Decisions based on proofs of concept and use cases.
• Risk taking and failures are accepted and encouraged.
• Always test with clients.
• Flat/agile organization vs hierarchical organizations.
• Multifunctional teams/networks vs silos.

Culture leads the adoption of technology in the digital age, while the ability to innovate depends on the adoption of new values ​​and behaviors.

Then, the corporate cultures They must manage to reflect the speed and agility of digitalization to remain competitive and continue attracting the best talent. In this sense, the pandemic brought us a huge opportunity that we must take advantage of.

The current digital revolution It allows us to have tools that show us with concrete data how behaviors are changing and how cultures are evolving. In this, as in many other topics, companies will directly manage as Data-Based Organizations.