By Danith Valles, Director of Architecture at Cecabank.
Digital culture goes beyond information technology, it must be embedded in the DNA of all company departments. What does it mean to be a digital company? It means having not only high technology but also digital talent with a growth mindset in all areas of your business. Only in this manner can innovative digital products and services be created that contribute to transforming the business model. Customer engagement, as the core of our digital processes, is also part of this culture. A digital culture therefore requires a tectonic shift in the mindset and activities of employees, as well as in the way they interact with others both within and outside the organisation.
Thus, digital culture relies on five pillars that companies should try to embrace as part of their digital transformation.
On the one hand, we talk about risk appetite, which refers to decision-making within the company. Rather than being given explicit instructions on how to accomplish their work, employees follow guiding principles so that their judgement can be trusted. An example of this dynamic is decision-making to change the business process and model with disruptive technologies. Directly related to this is learning voracity, which embodies the continuous learning of employees and their training for success.
At the same time, digital culture supports the need to accelerate and promote continuous interaction rather than perfecting a product or idea before launching it. It is necessary to provide commercial agility as part of the business culture with the goal of accelerating time to market of products, meeting customer needs and adapting to the open market. For this to be possible, there is a need for borderless collaboration, encompassing suppliers or third parties, in order to enable collaborative innovation.
Digital culture drives employees to look outward and engage with customers and partners, seeking to create new business solutions. Broad guidance or vision occurs, for example, when employees shape product development based on customer experience. And it is precisely the customer who is at the core of this business model. A model focused on experience and commitment thereto.
These defining elements vary in degree depending on the sector and the company. In other words, the degree of risk-taking in a technology company will be different from the appropriate degree in a financial services company. Encouraging risk-taking aims to foster innovative thinking while maintaining prudence, complying with regulation and company policy.
Within organisations, there is a need to drive digital transformation programmes that promote digital culture and foster forms of collaboration among teams that converge towards an agile model. Similarly, it is important to expand the collaboration model in digital projects or initiatives involving customers, national and international suppliers, and regulators, among others. This ensures that the solutions have a comprehensive and complete functionality for all customers.
Embracing digital culture to add value for customers
Digital transformation requires instilling a culture that supports change aligned with the company's global strategy. Both digital and information technology roles need to embrace this type of culture to help transform the business model through disruptive technologies that drive the digitalisation of the company. In this way, digital roles design product and service solutions based on a vision that focuses on customer experience.
They can add value at a strategic level: participating in the definition of the portfolio, aligning the vision of digital products and solutions, and designing the digital strategy of platforms and products; and at an operational level: providing agility in the delivery of digital products and continuously improving platforms and products as part of solutions, services and processes.
In conclusion, it is important to stress the importance of digital culture as a driver of business transformation in an increasingly digital environment focused on customer experience.
