EDITOR ’ S COMMENT
How organisational culture can destroy its digital conversion
Senior managers interested in maintaining positions of internal control may work against free collaboration within , elaborates Farid Al Sabbagh at Fujitsu .
Middle East businesses are awash with opinion , much of it misguided , regarding digitalisation and the foundations needed to implement it .
First , let us dispel falsehoods . Digitalisation does not just need young people . It requires people with flexibility and a range of skills . It does not just need new technology , it requires new business models .
Organisations throughout the Middle East are finding barriers to digitalisation through deeply imbedded cultural practices . To make an organisation fully digital , there must be a willingness to develop and nurture digital corporate culture . This may be daunting , but to truly compete in modern business environment , one that favours the versatile , adaptable organisation , refining business culture can be critical for long-term future .
A system designed specifically to meet the needs of the consumer can often be undermined by a company ’ s established culture . Digitalisation in the modern era repeatedly fails , due to an intrinsic inability to address cultural inefficiencies .
Digital allows employees throughout the organisation to share information easily . Horizontal and bottom-up information flows , at the expense of traditional top-down , allows expertise to move more freely and discussions are held more widely across the organisation . This can worry senior management , as people active in helping others with freedom of expression and greater connectivity can sometimes build more respect than management themselves . Fear of losing control is one of the toughest obstacles to change in the digital transformation . It is
Farid Al Sabbagh is Vice President and Managing Director , Fujitsu Middle East
certainly difficult to promote the reimagining of hierarchical structures to managers who have been reliant on them for many years , whilst encouraging the use of social platforms to share ideas .
Internal battles for influence can slow decision making , as can difficulties justifying value for the business . Again , senior managers can be reluctant to allocate resources to a process which remains difficult to quantify . In addressing digitalisation , there is still a tendency to focus too much on the technology , rather than a willingness to rethink how people work , the human centric aspect . This is crucial , as is becoming familiar with how decisions are made and implemented .
Creating an environment where individuals are free to experiment requires a visionary element . Visionaries help organisations focus on what is important in making the business function . Without flexibility and freedom to take initiative , organisations will be less likely to rethink how they work and managers will remain concerned with a loss of control . A new management attitude would coincide with a more defined career path and can help develop a skills plan .
Internal power play can put significant restraints on progress towards digitalisation . A shared sense of purpose can go a long way to alleviating work-based opposition , whilst granting a more agile decision making process . The old organisational structure , with strict hierarchy and command and control , pushes those keen to influence further to the boundaries . Distributed decision making imbedded in the structure will lessen the likelihood of resistance to reevaluate how they work .
The people least likely to interact with customers , and those who are unlikely to know exactly what the customer wants , are the ones making the vital decisions in an old business model . In this environment , high level managers will concentrate more on the actual technology , rather than discuss what it is used for and how it will help .
Digitalisation is acting as a central point to facilitate necessary movement towards new business structures . There will be obstacles . Yet it is in identifying these obstacles that an organisation will truly be able to transform and reap the benefits of the digital revolution .
12 Issue 03 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS