What is a Digital Strategy?

I often get asked by friends, colleagues, and non-profit organisations about what is a digital strategy and how I go about implementing one. Well, here I am going to try and explain what one is.

What Is a Digital Strategy?

A digital strategy is a high-level plan that implements new digital initiatives and technologies to achieve more efficient business processes. A digital strategy roadmap helps companies digitally innovate and unlock new opportunities to create competitive advantages, grow revenue, create value, and enhance reputation.

Successfully creating a modern digital strategy helps organizations meet ever-changing customer needs, expand their footprint globally, and build a “business trench” that creates a differentiator between them and their competitors.

A digital strategy should consider the digitalization of both business processes and business model innovation. Although ‘digital strategy’ usually focuses on technology, it’s important that it covers practical implementation issues of managing data and resources to manage the change when introducing technology. That’s why digital strategy often involves reviewing digital transformation strategy.

There are many technologies that could drive and form part of your digital strategy.

Cloud computing

• Enables organizations to quickly and affordably access computing resources, advanced software, new updates, and functionalities.

Mobile platforms

• Enables work from anywhere in the world, at any time.

Machine learning and AI

• Provide organizations with intelligent insights that empower more accurate and faster decision-making.

Automation

• Enables organizations to delegate repetitive tasks to machines, freeing up time for human resources to improve productivity and efficiency.

AR and VR

• Provide access to services remotely in a gamified way that encourages engagement.

IoT

• Provide data to inform AI services, which offer automation and personalization.

Blockchain technology

• This is revolutionizing the entire technology landscape, enabling decentralization across numerous industries. Payment processing through ledgers that anonymize transactions is the basic use case.

Organisations worldwide employ all these technologies to deliver unique services and experiences.

What are the goals of digital strategy?

The overall goal of a digital strategy is to improve an organization’s business effectiveness. It should be aimed at both increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

Advantages of a Digital Strategy

Having a focused digital strategy helps companies identify digitalization and guides them on how to apply them to their current business models and offerings. Here are a few of the most beneficial advantages of creating a digital strategy for your organisation:

Diversifies your business offerings

New technology helps companies create new business offerings that can drive entire new streams of revenue. This is why it’s important for businesses to select a digitally aware internal leader who will create a digital strategy team to investigate both current business pain points and threats and new emerging technologies.

Meets evolving customer expectations

• Customer expectations move as quickly as new technology emerges. COVID-19 has radically impacted the needs of customers in the past three years. Having a digital strategy will help you identify these new customer expectations early in their development and build a plan to tackle them head-on with next-gen experiences.

Creates a differentiator between you and your competitors

• For many companies, the best-case scenario for digitalization is creating a new service or experience that is intrinsically tied to the business. This is the hardest benefit to conceptualize, as it is innovative at its core

Streamlines your internal processes

Not all digital strategies need to be massive in scope, or sexy in appeal. Smaller internal process digital efforts can be equally as effective. This is why it’s important for digital strategy leaders to first understand a company’s current pain points to create a plan to address these issues.

Protects your business from threats

• Similar to the diversification of business offerings and meeting evolving customer expectations is the idea of implementing a digital strategy to protect your organization from culture shifts and digital threats – and maybe the most important of all benefits on this list. Here, companies research and build a digital strategy to evolve with technology.

Best Practices to Develop a Digital Strategy

Here are some of the best practices I have learned to implement on my journey. Some I have used frequently; some I have learned after implementation.

1. Take a company-wide approach when building your strategy.
2. Build customer-centric processes. Start with the customer experience.
3. Measure your success.
4. Design an entire ecosystem of tools that integrate seamlessly, share information and sync data.
5. Leverage new cloud technology. Pick the right technology.
6. Approach changes systematically.
7. Engage employees.
8. Prepare (changed) your company’s mindset.
9. Make use of the data.
10. Link your digital transformation to your business goals.
11. Be Transparent.

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, organizations must embrace digital strategies to stay competitive, meet customer expectations, and drive business growth. A digital strategy, as a high-level plan, empowers companies to leverage new technologies and initiatives to optimize processes, diversify offerings, and enhance overall effectiveness. By embracing cloud computing, mobile platforms, AI, automation, AR/VR, IoT, and blockchain technology, businesses can unlock new opportunities, create unique experiences, and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Implementing a digital strategy requires careful consideration of current pain points, emerging technologies, and customer expectations. It involves a company-wide approach, a focus on customer-centricity, and the systematic integration of tools and data. It's crucial to measure success, engage employees, and cultivate a mindset that embraces change and continuous improvement. Ultimately, a well-executed digital strategy streamlines internal processes, protects against threats, and aligns digital transformation with overarching business goals.

As we navigate the dynamic digital landscape, organizations must continuously evaluate and adapt their digital strategies. By staying agile, leveraging data, and fostering transparency, businesses can remain at the forefront of digital innovation and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

A thoughtfully designed and effectively implemented digital strategy serves as a roadmap to navigate the digital realm, unleash growth potential, and position organizations for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital world. Embrace the power of digital strategy and embark on a transformative journey to unlock new horizons and drive your organization forward into the future.