Series: Digital transformation - Why is digital transformation important to my business? 2/6

As explained in the previous article, definitions may vary depending on the sector, the author of the article you are reading or many other factors. As a reminder, our definition of digital transformation is "the integration of new technologies in a targeted sector of the company with the aim of improving its products, processes and strategies".

As you can imagine, we believe that digital transformation is not only important, but vital to any company to which it can be applied! It is important to note that it is not necessarily a question of revolutionizing your entire SME/business in one year. You need to identify the sector that will benefit most from the digital transition, and which will have the most positive impact on the whole company.

The digital strategy can for example include: 
  • The implementation of new tools for internal management.
  • Improve the customer experience. 
  • Using collaborative and open source work as levers to enhance your existing products.
  • A pivot in its business model to reinvent itself and improve its competitiveness.
It is therefore very important to take the time to study your digitalization needs, before starting your transformation project. In our opinion, all companies, VSEs and SMEs included, must allocate time to watch for new technologies in their sector. Indeed, it is a question here of not letting oneself be overtaken by events and to wake up one day by realizing that it is too late, that your competition took the required steps already years ago.

As the digital world is evolving at high speed, the digital transformation is more a matter of making your company evolve over time and in a continuous way, rather than a one-off approach aimed at "updating" your SME towards digital technologies.

In the rest of this article, we will give you two concrete examples that will help you better understand the stakes of digital transformation.

LEGO and Kodak : 2 case studies

The World Economic Forum offers a series of case studies on the theme of digital transformation. In particular, there are case studies on the digital transformation of major groups classified by theme (automotive, energy, media, etc.).
Transofrmation digitale - Lego usecase
A concrete example is the LEGO Group, which was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2004. Seeing the problems coming, they embarked on a massive digital transformation program aimed at diversifying their revenue streams by adding mobile applications, games and movies. In addition, and it was really disruptive at the time, Lego embarked on the creation of the Digital Designer platform (3D design platform). Platform aimed at involving LEGO Fans in the design of their future products. Genius!

Some of the results that came out of it:
  • LEGO achieved an EBITDA margin of 37.1% in 2014, a 15% increase since 2007.
  • LEGO's revenues grew at an annual growth rate of 20% from €1.6 billion in 2009 to €3.8 billion in 2014.
  • In 2014, the first LEGO film generated revenues of approximately $468 million with a production budget of only $60 million.
  • LEGO gradually recovered after 2005 and is now considered the "Apple of Toys". 
The LEGO example is a textbook case of a successful digital transformation that makes you dream!

The same cannot be said for Kodak, which is another famous case study, but unlike LEGO, Kodak missed the digital turn. 
Transofrmation digitale - Kodak usecase
Of course it's not as simple as that, but to sum up, Kodak is known for its film cameras, which used the technology of analog photography (printing photos from a physical film).

Although this technology was very popular for a while, especially with disposable cameras, digital cameras were beginning to emerge. So Kodak had a choice: to take the digital train or to continue with its technology that still seemed to work.

However, the technology of digital photography seemed to provide solutions to many of the needs of photographers:
  • An internal memory accessible at all times. 
  • You don't have to develop your photos to see them. 
  • Possibility to print your own photos.
It goes without saying that the sale of digital cameras has far surpassed that of film cameras due to the improved user experience. Thus, avoiding the digital transformation led Kodak to approach bankruptcy in 2012. They finally rethought their strategy and took the already busy digital train at the cost of very substantial losses for the company.

For examples closer to your company / SME, visit the World Economic Forum website:

http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/go-to-the-case-studies/

The examples of Lego and Kodak are somewhat extreme, but full of lessons. On a more human scale, we accompanied the digital transformation of the Geneva International Conference Centre. The CICG started their digital shift a few years ago and is now one of the most modern conference centres in the world, notably through their event broadcasting ecosystem (Mobile Application and Management Tool).

They can now delegate the administration of events directly to their clients, saving a considerable amount of time on the organization, allowing them to focus on the general satisfaction of their participants.

Do not hesitate to contact us to find out what steps have been taken in their digital transformation.

Conclusion

If you don't know where to start in the digital transformation of your business, contact us for a free one-hour discussion. We will take the time to study your problem and understand together how to start your revolution.

Soon, we will publish the third article in this series which will be entitled "How to succeed in your digital transformation".

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