Closing the Multitude of Digital Gaps

We are at the age of digital dawn, hyper-connectivity is the most critical digital characteristics. Digitalization implies the full-scale changes in the way business is conducted so that simply adopting a new digital technology may be insufficient. You have to transform the company's underlying functions and organization as a whole with adjusted digital speed. Otherwise, companies may begin a decline from its previous good performance. However, many many business managers today still apply old silo management mindsets to new ways of organizing, create the multitude of gaps blocking the way of digital transformation.Being divided by so many gaps across leadership, management, and innovation, etc, organizations lose their collaborative advantage as they are being over managed and under led, remain disconnected, hoard knowledge, decrease effectiveness, and do not have the competence to collaborate in the long term.
Innovation gap: Organizations that can proactively and effectively build core digital capabilities based on digital cognizance to adapt to digital normality, will gain unique competitive advantage and execute with speed. Bridging innovation execution gap requires a systematic execution scenario with clear stages, performance thresholds, decision-making parameters combined with the iterative learning process that supports wide-ranging exploration at each stage.  Innovation execution is an integral part of a strategy-execution continuum. Organizations can be more effective in executing innovative ideas by relying less on silo functions, more on cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement.
Problem-solving gap: There is a shortage of effective management which could be translated to the capability shortage for both defining and solving the right problems. You can give most people skills easily when compared to trying to give/develop the ability, attitude, flexibility, intelligence, practicality, pragmatism for problem-solving. There needs to be a better appreciation for problem-solving abilities; to examine a situation from multiple angles and develop new approaches, because once you could identify the right fit, you had one less task to handle. At the societal level, there are needs to change so that the independent and critical thinking are encouraged and problem-solving minds are engaged. Digital professionals today need to be pragmatic and practical, analytical and empathetic, have an eye on solving the problems and continually striving to make things better and the society better.
Leadership gap: The differentiator between a digital leader and a laggard is not about the title and authority, more about the mindsets and attitude. at the digital age, status quo only cannot make one a real leader, if they don’t have a purpose of leading or lack of insight or vision upon the directions, and in-depth understanding and expertise to connect the mind and lead effortlessly. Digital attitudes are about being experimental and persistent. Digital leaders today also need to show intellectual curiosity, creativity, learning agility, and risk tolerance, etc.
Digitalization does make the world hyperconnected and interdependent than ever, when things connect in this way, any entity wishing to negotiate a successful journey has to understand what the implications of this degree of connectivity mean to them. They have to understand what it means within their organization and the business ecosystem. Today’s digital organization simply just can’t stand still. Bridging the 'gap of opportunity' between where you are and want to become is a welcomed challenge. Transformation is a journey rather than a destination. Make the digital transformation journey is worth the effort.
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