Dawning of Digital Disappointment

We have been seeing one article after another about how organizations are getting frustrated with Digital. It boils down to setting expectations. If you fell for the "digital will change your business model overnight", then I can understand why. Not every industry can expect a wholesale business model change overnight at this point in time. If your organization took an incremental benefits and learn approach as you progress digitally, you probably are still pretty happy even though you are not quite sure what the actual end game will be with digital. It may not matter because your organization is growing skills and competencies that will bode well for better customer experiences while creating greater effectiveness.

Let's Look at Rocket Mortgage:

Did Quicken Loans expect their product name to become more popular than their organization? Do they mind laughing all the way to the bank as they drew in more business even though they didn't really transform the mortgage business model while legacy applications of old still churn away under the covers? They added a very customer compelling front end leverage the best that digital offered at that time and put their muscle behind it. Customers received speedier and more visible results, but Quicken still does loans baby. This is practical application of digital in a focused way.

Let's Look at Taxi Service:

Many of  the taxi companies inspected themselves after the dawn of Uber & Lyft. They couldn't understand why customers would take a chance with unlicensed drivers just because there was an easy and visible app that linked you with drivers where you were. Once the traditional organizations realized they were in the transportation business that needed to wrap themselves around a better customer service model, many launched successful car services. Will it be enough to survive the jump start lead that Uber and Lyft have gotten? Time will tell

Let's Look at Industry 4.0: 

While the appeal of dynamic and customer adaptable supply chains whose complexity is buffered from the customer is great, there are incremental steps for new kinds of automation that do not require redesigning it all at once. More humanity laced automation in any piece of the supply or value chain will deliver benefits. Imagine a production line that watches workers and coaches them to better performance even if they are deep in the linked Industry 4.0 adaptable supply chain. While an end to end flexible supply chain that delivers custom product to the customer in the best way possible is still the goal

Net; Net:

Let's still keep our eyes and ears open for opportunities to disrupt with digital, but let's not forget that is not all "Turn Key". There is incremental value to mini-digital journeys that deliver benefit while making progress towards the ultimate digital destination. Maybe expectations need to be changed to match emerging reality.

Read more about incremental mini journeys and digital on ramps by clicking here