In this article, Sarah Forsterling, Head of Transformation at ntegrity, reveals the reality of digital struggles in the industry, and looks at what the future holds for those working across this evolving landscape.
Early findings from new research into the digital culture of over 100 Australian organisations shows they’re not designed for digital success, there is a lack of digital leadership and acumen in order to retain good talent and there is an inflated market for digital skills in Australia.
This means that Aussie organisations are struggling with digital transformation, and will continue to struggle if something does not change.
Microsoft recently released a report based on interviews with 30 Australian organisations that identified three critical success factors for digital transformation; strong leadership buy-in, an entrepreneurial culture and access to talent.
Our research results so far are highlighting that although these are critical success factors – they are also the biggest challenges for Australian organisations.
In our interviews we heard again and again, “We just don’t have anyone on our leadership team who can take on driving digital” and “we are lacking that visionary piece on digital from leadership that we need to succeed”.
Not only is there a concern around the lack of prioritisation of digital across Australian organisations, but the impact this has on the ability for a company to leverage digital is directly related to the acumen of leadership.
Without the internal digital leadership, recruiting to fill roles in a shallow digital market is even more of a challenge.
Further results showed various companies “struggle across the board to fill digital roles” and “have a lot of problems recruiting digital through traditional recruiting agencies; the ‘digital specialist’ has no idea how to find the right person for our digital team”. These are common challenges for many Aussie organisations that are having real business impact.
These are only some of the challenges our digital culture research is starting to surface. Although this sounds dire, it also means there is so much opportunity. By highlighting where the structural and cultural challenges are – you can fix them. Early findings from the research will be released next week with a full report coming out in February.
From my own experience of working across various industries at opposite ends of both the digital and the transformation spectrum – from large development organisation Save the Children, to San Francisco born in the cloud tech start-up Yammer, and then somewhere in the middle of those two, Microsoft – these complementary experiences showed me that real business impact takes place in the space where people and technology intersect.
I am fascinated by how a company’s culture and structure can either fuel or suffocate their digital success. Understanding how this link between people and technology impacts an organisation’s bottom line is the focus of our Australian Digital Culture Research.
If you work in digital in Australia please take the six minute survey to share your valuable insight on the digital culture of your organisation. For taking part in the research you will be the first to receive the research report and also an invitation to the Digital Culture breakfast where the research insights will be released and discussed.
