Digitisation – A Holistic Approach

Alexander Lapp, Senior Manager, Digitalization and E-business, takes us through his company’s digitisation journey and expounds upon why it is better to drive the process internally

- Alexander Lapp

For years the term has dominated public debate, without really being accessible; digitalisation, so it is said, involves a fundamental change in corporate structures and cultures. Hierarchies are said to be a hindrance on the journey to digital transformation – teams and projects must break the boundaries between departments. In order to develop new business models on a digital basis, we must become agile and learn to think in a manner that is even more process and customer-oriented.

This is all well and good. It is, however, simply not concrete and not accessible, which is why many business leaders have opted in recent years for the path of delegating the topic of digitalisation, outsourcing it to actual or alleged teams of experts when searching for a safe approach. Start-ups have been founded or purchased with the task of driving a company’s digital transformation forward; after all, daily operations shouldn’t suffer because of the upheaval.

Instead of assigning responsibility to a digital “dingy” or some equivalent, it is advisable to set sail for the digital future with the whole ship and the entire crew, together. This may not be the easiest path in the short term, it is the best – for the customers and therefore the industry at large.

DIGITALISATION AFFECTS EVERYONE

The reasons for this decision are as complex as the undertaking itself. To start with, we realised that digitalisation affects everyone. Changes in thoughts and actions, without which digitalisation would not work, must permeate every employee and the entire company, from within. The stronger everyone’s active involvement, the better this will work, instead of being confronted with new ideas and incentives from outside.