There has been a number of fascinating reports of late, of them has been this one, from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). 

This report starts with the comment

A successful transformation leads to increased profitability and strategic advances, as our latest survey shows. But not enough companies are getting it right.

Here at DLA Ignite we are certainly seeing this too. 

As BCG state "CEOs sense that when digital transformations are implemented successfully, they can deliver big rewards"

"Still, only 35% of companies achieve their digital transformation objectives, according to our latest survey, up slightly from 30% in our 2020 study."

The thing about transformation, like any change program there has to be a strategy and the leadership have to get behind it.  In an area we know well, sales transformation, most companies just piss about with "hints and tips" sessions or LinkedIn trainers and this is just "digital hope".  The leadership hope something will happen. 

How are companies in my sector doing?

BCG share this graph, which is great to see the data of how digital transformation provides a bottom line impact, always great to see a company like BCG validating what we are doing here at DLA Ignite. 

BCG also talk about “experience effect”, as a business gets more digital skills, its success increases.  Make sense.

But we see something else in our clients.  Competitive disruption.

Before we get into this, let me just say that while DLA Ignite is known for sales transformation and social selling, our business provides transformation across the business using social media.  In other words, digital transformation, not based on technology but by empowering people and process with digital skills.  Let's look as some of the case study success and the impact it makes on a market. 

What happens in other markets?

We walked into the drone market with Cyberhawk who went through our training and coaching, they came out the other side, masters in the implementation of our methodology.  What happened was that the competition reacted.  It was fascinating to watch in real-time (on social media) these business react to competitive pressure.  They trashed about like a person drowning, sending spam connection requests, hoping that somehow they would find they secret sauce.  We now have two other drone companies looking to sign up.

We walked into the display market and Display Technologies competition did the same.  Let's get back to the BCG data.

Real results - Clear financial impact

BCG state: "The bottom line on digital transformations is that they generate clear and significant financial impact. On average, companies that addressed the six success factors reported a 21% EBIT increase in the businesses within the scope of the transformation compared with only a 10% increase on average for those companies that did not."

Here at DLA Ignite, we see a 30% increase in revenue and a 20 reduction in sales cycles. 

 But why start in sales?

It is a natural place to start, we can get our measuring sticks out and measure the results, we also know that increases in revenue and new logos is something that will get the C-Suite attention.

If we look at the data from BCG you will see that the top three reasons for digital transformation are all sales and marketing related. 

I'm going to end with a great quote from BCG

"Companies that successfully scale a digital transformation can shift their focus from core capabilities to innovation and growth."