Being Digital vs. Doing Digital: Tricia Wang at GS1 Connect

T he internet and other digital systems have been transforming the way we conduct business and commerce for more than 20 years. Why now do we talk about “digital transformation”?

For many industries, putting up a website in the late 1990s or building an app in the 2010s was a big move. These new ways of connecting with customers required significant changes to tech systems and business processes — but they are simple compared to today’s opportunities. Certainly, the “simple” changes that websites and apps created have entirely disrupted many industries. And yet today’s opportunities for digital transformation go far beyond websites and apps.

Today consumers expect lots of detailed, accurate product information for every purchase. Most purchases involve complex webs of brands, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and logistics. Dozens of independent businesses can be involved in getting one product from design to production to the market and finally into a consumer’s hands. To get the right information through this complex web to facilitate a purchase requires a digital transformation for many organizations that still operate in more manual ways, even if they are using computerized systems.

For many organizations, a website or even an app could be bolted on to existing operations, processes, and organizational structures. We added a website department or created a small mobile team embedded in an existing department, they built the digital application, and we were suddenly digital.

But today’s digital imperative requires new ways of thinking, says global tech ethnographer Tricia Wang. “You can succeed at innovation and fail at decision-making,” Wang said recently in a keynote address at GS1 Connect. Organizations that remain inward-focused and take a company-centric perspective fail at digital transformation, Wang says — but organizations that take a customer-centric approach can transform their thinking and their operations into a new model that creates powerful connections to their customers.

Wang differentiates between doing digital (like building a website or an app) and being digital (a fundamental shift in your business strategy and process). Company-centric organizations may do digital by adding a mobile app or investing in a big data project, but Wang says that just adds another layer in between the business strategy and the customer — making it even harder to stay connected to the market.

Instead, Wang says organizations need to become digital — and operate in non-linear, disruptive, agile ways. This is counter-intuitive for many traditional organizations, which are likely to feel a loss of control. But this nimble way of being lets companies align with consumers in new ways.

Learn more about Tricia Wang’s perspective on digital transformation in her TEDx talk.

How can you become digital? Both suppliers and retailers are looking for ways to use technology to better connect with consumers and meet their ever-changing needs. Being digital means creating experiences that use technology to bring you closer to the consumer — providing information to help consumers solve problems and make decisions where and when they need it. Being digital requires a high level of transparency and real trust with your consumers.

In that process, Wang would tell you to avoid quantification bias: Don’t be swayed by only valuing the information that’s easy to measure. Instead of just focusing on big data, she encourages organizations to think about both big data (quantitative data) and what she calls thick data — qualitative data that shows you the human side of our digital world, and enables you to build strategies and strong relationships based on consumers’ needs.

Digital transformation aligns your organization goals with consumers’ needs, and then uses change management principles to transform legacy technology and processes that keep you disconnected from consumers. The goals may vary, depending on where you are today. Your transformation might include:

• Re-envisioning slow, cumbersome data management processes
• Creating one source of truth for product information
• Connecting systems and syndicating information transfer seamlessly inside and outside your organization
• Re-thinking information management strategies to value transparency over secrecy
• Empowering more team members to connect with consumers
• Aligning your decision-making framework around the market instead of internal needs

At Edgenet we’re focused on creating a product content experience that enables your digital transformation. Our Digital Transformation Summit next week brings together thought leaders from all parts of the product ecosystem to share the trends and opportunities they see. If you can’t be there in person, sign up now to get all the updates to help your organization become digital.