Journey

It is helpful to be able to define things. We hear and read a lot about “digital transformation”. I am not going to define it. I do think it is primarily marketing jargon.

Merriam-Webster gives transform this definition:

• to change in composition or structure
• to change the outward form or appearance of
• to change in character or condition: convert

Most people think of transformation in terms of totally changing something. In this case, it is described totally changing to become digital. There is a whole lot of money people are hoping you will spend to achieve that.

That isn’t cynical. It is the truth. We are being “sold” something here. Nothing wrong with that but it is an investment to be made that should pay off. If it won’t pay off then we should question why someone wants us to do something.

My take is that you have started a journey to become more digital than you are today. There are lots of good business reasons for that. So we are on a journey. We aren’t trying to change from being a car to a plane.

What matters to is that this digital journey takes into account all the parameters that are needed to succeed, depending on your strategy, roadmap, goals, stakeholders, context and so forth. What also matters to is that you don’t look at a digital journey from a pure technology nor a pure marketing or any other angle.

It is seeing the whole not just a few parts.