Insights on Digital Leaders Investment Strategy

Digital leaders investments strategy

Digital leader’s investment priorities are different from Digital laggards. Digital leaders invest aggressively in digital efforts. They allocate a sizable proportion of funds to building a world-class IT/technology function. They dedicate a significant percentage of their workforce to digital projects. They have ambitions to expand their digital talent base and upskill their existing workforce. They invest in pushing digital efforts to scale. Digital leaders increasingly focus on scaling up in data and Artificial intelligence (AI).
Digital disruption affects every company globally. Digital champions digitize faster than their competitors. They are able to achieve this due to the following reasons:

1. Digital leaders devote more than 5% of operational expenditures annually to digital.
2. Digital leaders focus more on digital talent.
3. Digital leaders are able to scale up pilots and use cases to realize the benefits of digital solutions.

Digital leaders are primarily investing in data, technology, and new business growth. They have devised new ways of working including agile at scale, digital culture, and leadership. Digitally mature companies move beyond use cases to scale up digital solutions.

Digital leaders spend more on tech and IT

Digital leader’s investments are aggressively focused on new-age tech. They invest a significant portion of the dollars to building world-class technology capabilities. Industries like financial services and telecommunications do the majority of their investments in digital compared to other companies.

Digital leaders broaden their talent pool

Digital leaders have more employees focused on digital projects. They hire from outside to expand their digital talent. They also invest in upskilling their current workforce.

Digital leaders scale-up data and AI capabilities

Digital leaders scale up their digital efforts to transform themselves into data-driven companies. They are investing their resources in the critical areas of data and AI. Data is becoming more vital. Hence data governance mechanism is required to successfully execute the data strategy. Companies need to invest in data-related capabilities like personalization, end to end customer journeys and digital supply chains. Digital leaders have AI experts inhouse to deploy AI aggressively. These companies have developed AI pilots and are able to convert these AI pilots into viable business offerings. For digital leaders, these conversions are a priority. To achieve this, companies need employees who are savvy in data and analytics.

Secret to success

Digital leaders have mastered the transition from digital vision to digital reality. The critical success for the Digital leader’s success is below.

• Digital leaders invest significantly in building a leading tech function. These investments will position them to leverage new technologies like AI, IoT, and Blockchain to support new digital business models. The investments will also create major efficiencies in the core business. The savings realized can help fund digital journeys.
• Digital leaders have a comprehensive talent strategy. They have allocated budgets for the creation of new roles and skills that are in demand. These roles include data scientists and agile coaches. They have also developed a focused digital talent-hiring strategy. In addition, they have built a blueprint for upskilling their current workforce. This ensures that they have the right talent in terms of both capabilities and technical skills to build and manage the digital business.
• Digital leaders have invested in data capabilities in order to digitize the customer journey. They have developed personalized offerings to improve customer experience. They have adopted new technologies such as AI, IoT, and Blockchain. In addition, they have managed to build powerful ecosystems. Digital leaders have a focused data strategy to capture new revenue pools. This has enabled them to drive true digital transformation.

Final Takeaway

Success in digital demands a clear and focused investment strategy. Digital leaders that have the right investments can drive true digital transformation.