Measuring the Success of Digital Strategy Implementation

The difficulty, however, is that a holistic and strategic digital transformation takes several years. Initial transformation initiatives that bring quick measurable benefits can be achieved in the short term. However, multi-year initiatives present a greater challenge to those in charge. Management may lose focus, energy or interest in the transformation projects, or executives and project members may leave the organization, causing initiatives to stall. If an organization is serious about strategic digital transformation, outlining projects and releasing budgets, it must also establish and use a long-term transformation management system.

Transformation management can be carried out in two ways. First, based on the progress of the project. The digital roadmap or the digital strategy consists of several initiatives and projects. Their progress can be measured, for example, with project reports or a traffic-light system.

Second, the three key metrics are outlined and used. The three most important key metrics for all transformation strategies are:

• Finance: is the organization making more money? Is profitability increasing?
• Customer focus: does the organization make customers more successful and does this bind them to the organization?
• Employee focus: does the organization create a modern working environment that is appreciated by its employees?

An emerging fourth success metric is sustainability – a priority for society and the environment. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) describes organizations’ social responsibility in terms of sustainable business practices. Organizations have a responsibility for the impact of their activities on society and the environment.

Nowadays, many organizations still focus on business plans and project budgets that show a positive return on investment. However, in a fast-moving, digital world, these forecasted budgets and key performance targets only work to a limited extent. It is therefore even more important to carry out regular work on knowledge and culture building at board and management level in order to bring new approaches, methods and key metrics to the forefront of strategy and technology discussions.

And finally, organizations should embed digital transformation metrics in their leadership principles and culture: leaders and employees should use feedback from the market and the business to continuously improve and develop high-performing teams.

For your own digital transformation, utilize the workshop templates available on https://the-digital-transformation-canvas.com/download/ and videos on https://www.youtube.com/@TheDigitalTransformationCanvas/videos.

Further information:

– The CAS program “Digital Acceleration & AI”

– Episode 17 (Highlights and summary for digital transformation development and implementation) on YouTube

– Marc K Peter’s new book on digital transformation