6 Guiding Principles of Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is crucial to navigating twenty-first-century business demands. Implementing digital transformation will empower an entire workforce to work seamlessly together, leveraging technology to achieve shared goals.

In this blog post, Rob Llewellyn will show you how not to lose sight of the big picture of digital transformation. You will learn the six principles of digital transformation that are relevant to any organization with a digitalization strategy. These principles—the components of the THRIVE Digital Transformation Framework—will help you better imagine digital transformation as the sum of its parts. Llewellyn is a distinguished consultant with a focus on digital transformation, and the framework he outlines in this post is enormously clarifying.

Read on to learn more about how to navigate digital transformation:

Digital transformation is the ongoing practice of implementing new technologies and processes comprehensively and strategically across an organization. Embracing digital transformation helps organizations become more innovative, responsive, and efficient.

When it comes to digital transformation, it’s important not to lose sight of your mission as an organization. Here’s an example that will illustrate why it is vital to consider digital transformation in its entirety rather than hyper-focus on one of its components over another:

The digital transformation iceberg uses Sigmund Freud’s iceberg analogy to illustrate how the conscious mind of digital leaders should be focused on far more than the tip of the digital iceberg. The alternative might be likened to the disaster that struck the mighty Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912.

This image is sourced from CXO Transform

The iceberg is designed to encourage leaders to look beneath the surface and approach digital transformation holistically. It helps leaders approach digital transformation with an open mind and primed to answer the question “what should we transform and how?”

There are multiple transformation approaches available to help leaders consider the bigger picture of digital transformation. Regardless of which are used, it should be a priority to remove any blinkers that focus a firm ‘only’ upon the customer.

We know from Stephen Covey that values govern people’s behavior, but principles determine consequences. In the way that Covey encouraged us to utilize key leadership principles, so THRIVE is intended to encourage leaders to utilize six digital business transformation principles to equip themselves for the digital economy challenge.

As with GPS tools that help us get to where we need to be, THRIVE helps leaders navigate what sits beneath the surface and avoid the same fate that saw the demise of the mighty Titanic back in 1912.