Accenture Research and Oxford Economics forecast that smarter use of digital will generate an additional $2tn to global GDP between 2015 and 2020.

By 2022, 80% of enterprise revenue growth will depend directly on digital offerings and operations, according to IDC.

Better harnessing of digital can grow every business’ reach, revenue, reputation and profitability.

The right strategy and investment in digital can deliver significant returns.

Yet most businesses are far from realising their potential through digital.

Find out where your business stands today on the Digital Effectiveness Quadrant and what tomorrow can bring in just 3 multiple choice questions.

💡 Strategy for digital

A strategy for digital isn’t just about what technology you’ll use, what customer experiences you’ll deliver or how you’ll use data. It’s not something that remains static and becomes out of date in a rapidly changing market landscape.

It’s a dynamic business strategy for the digital age, one that takes into account all the opportunities of digital – from business models to customer engagement, use of data, automation and innovation. A strategy that can (and does) adapt to the rising tides of digital and its widespread consumer adoption.

According to IDG’s 2019 Digital Business Survey91% of enterprises have plans to adopt or have already adopted a digital-first business strategy. Yet only 68% say they have completed or are in the process of completing such a strategy.

Celonis study reports that 45% of C-suite executives admit they do not know where to start when developing their transformation strategy.

🏦 Investment in digital

Investment in digital isn’t just about throwing money at it. Vast sums are put into badly thought out and managed digital programmes, which don’t deliver results.

An oft-cited McKinsey study claims that over 70% of Digital Transformation initiatives don’t reach their goals. McKinsey’s most recent research suggests this is getting worse, with only 16% seeing sustained performance improvements.

No wonder this leads many organisations to be overly cautious on future digital investment. In the Celonis study44% of senior leaders believe their digital transformation efforts have been “a waste of time”, citing poor planning, high costs and lack of organisation-wide involvement as top concerns.

Re-building trust with leaders is critical. A solid business case may need to be supplemented with evidence through trial to secure future investment.

Investment in digital is more than financing though – it’s about your organisation’s commitment to digital. It includes how you’re set up, where in the organisation digital fits, the skills and experience of your people and the maturity of your technology and processes.

Investment, in the right places, can deliver healthy and growing returns.

📈 Returns from digital

There’s no value in having the perfect strategy and committing investment to it if it doesn’t deliver business results. Digital maturity is not the goal but digital effectiveness in reaching your business metrics is.

Be prepared to change what you’re doing and how much you’re putting into digital in order to deliver those metrics.

Earlier this year, Aviva’s new CEO said he was scaling back the insurer’s substantial digital investment to be more disciplined about ROI. One analyst commented that ‘hype’ had exceeded ‘delivery’.

Every business must continuously review and optimise their digital activity for effectiveness.

Don’t just do the same thing better but do better things too. A completely new business model, for example, may deliver greater returns than incremental increases in conversion rate or reducing cost-to-serve on your existing model.

Realise the full benefit of digital

Answer just 3 multiple choice questions to find out where your business is on the Digital Effectiveness Quadrant and your growth potential.

The right strategy and investment in digital can deliver significant returns.

Are you making the most of digital?

 

This article was first published on LinkedIn.