What is digital transformation and why is it a disruption?

There are many talks about digital transformation recently, but what does it really mean, and why is it called a disruption?Depending on how you perceive it, this term may be just a fad to you, or it may mean the beginning of an outright evolution in your company.Why does it have to do with how ‘you’ see it? It’s because no matter what new digital strategies there are, what new electronic platforms are at disposal, or what new technologies were given to assist you, they mean nothing if you don’t adapt and transform yourself.Instead of only using the usual technical perspective to see this such as big data, blockchain, interactive technologies, etc., innovators need to also see it in a more psychological way: the most crucial step in digital transformation starts from transforming from within the mindset. Enabling a digital mindset to adapt to innovations which may disrupt the daily routines, but also for a chance of evolution into something better and more efficient.A digital mindset is the essence of digital transformation.Medium to large businesses have a difficult time adapting to it because of the disruption it will bring to internal stakeholders’ way of doing business. Although the new digital strategies and technologies will help a company open new channels of communications and distribution, which helps in driving brand awareness and ultimately increasing value, it’ll mean that many stakeholders will have to adapt and learn for something that may potentially help them in the future. Without a positive digital mindset, large scale digital transformation such as this won’t be able to happen.Thus, digital transformation has to start from within the mindset. Educational workshops and seminars will help stakeholders understand the entire digital landscape and why such a transformation would be beneficial to not only them, but their external partners as well, since it’ll increase business efficiency and harmonise the delivery of information. The more information people have on new initiatives, the less resistance there will be, and will slowly start to see more opportunities rather than risks.Most importantly, innovators need to illustrate how the end-consumers and clients are now expecting unified customer experience across all channels, which is beyond what large enterprises can offer today due to the sheer size of the companies. When a company doesn’t evolve as quickly as its customers, they will move onto the many substitute competitors to fill their service needs. Ultimately, rather than seeing digital transformation as a risk, the true risk is actually not applying digital innovation and grasping the new opportunity it will provide to the business.Gradually, digital strategies will be encouraged and accepted, new technologies will be in demand and utilised efficiently, and ‘digital disruption’ will then evolve into true ‘digital innovation’.Vincent Leung is digital communications and marketing manager for Asia Pacific at BNP Paribas.