Technology - Our children are leading the way

The introduction of new technologies is often met with skepticism here and is even understood as a possible threat. But if technology is seen as an opportunity to redefine the world, this fear is unfounded.

We know from our studies that almost all financial organizations see enormous potential in digital transformation. But only 56 percent of companies have developed a concrete strategy for this and only 35 percent believe that they have sufficient resources and skills on board to implement this strategy.

At The Hackett Group, we are often confronted with the question of what technologies are "in" right now and what technology skills the workforce of the future will need.

But it is wrong to focus only on technology. The essential features of digital transformation include the development of new business models, innovation, increased customer orientation and better support for decision-making processes.

The possibilities offered by technology in this regard have grown exponentially in recent years, and it is to be expected that this development will continue to accelerate.

But that doesn't mean we all need to be retrained as Data Scientists or Robot Designers. Rather, most employees just need a better understanding of how the new technologies can be applied and what opportunities they open up.

Human creativity is then required to develop and roll out application scenarios. In other words, creativity and a willingness to experiment (characteristics that cannot be provided by artificial intelligence) are many times more important than the technology itself.

Training and employee development should therefore also focus very strongly on dealing with technology, on new methodologies (for example, design thinking) and not so much on the technology as such.

In order to be able to shape truly transformative, customer-oriented innovations, interdisciplinary collaboration will be increasingly necessary. Departmental boundaries will become more permeable and employees will increasingly have to find their way around flexible organizational forms.

Characteristics such as communication, collaboration and customer orientation are thus becoming increasingly important as the digital transformation progresses.

Another misconception is that the focus these days should be exclusively on the latest technologies. But those who have already experimented with machine learning and advanced analytics know how important clean master data still is.

And the companies that have had in-depth experience with robotics are aware of the restrictions and are still focusing on digital connection of business partners and further simplification and harmonization of ERP systems and IT architecture.

Thus, the "classic" capabilities are still relevant for the future, enriched by new capabilities such as Cloud, Mobile, Agile and in the near future Blockchain and AI.

The challenge is to bring the old and new worlds together in a meaningful way without losing employees. Another area of responsibility is the interface between man and machine.

For example, it takes time to build trust in machine-generated forecasts. Many companies that use Big Data and algorithms to increase the accuracy of financial forecasts have often taken more than a year to get the results accepted. But when you then use the freed-up time for meaningful business partnering, the benefits are obvious.

The opportunities already offered by technology today are enormous. But they will only come to fruition if people open up these opportunities and seize them as a chance. Digital transformation is therefore above all a cultural change with people as the linchpin.