The Relationship Between Leadership and Digital Transformation

When companies say "We are going to digitalize" and make this issue a critical agenda, it is a situation of realizing that their train is running away and expressing their panicked mood of "Oops, the train is running away, we have to catch up" in a cool way.

Can you ever imagine that all technology manufacturers such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. have been having internal meetings for the last 20 years, or these days, saying that we must digitalize? These companies were already born digital. When Bill Gates wrote his book Working at the Speed of Thought in 1999, he predicted and shared all that would happen today and stated 20 years ago what companies should do to prepare for today. However, companies born analog maintained the status quo and waited until the last day as a result of weak leadership.

Instead of preparing for the future with 3-5 or 10-year plans, they first asked the question "what will happen if we don't do this today?" to the suggestions made by IT and other business units, and if not doing it has no negative consequences for that day, "if it doesn't stop the business, then continue in the current way, friends", and continued to carry on with traditional approaches until the egg hit the door. Managers of such companies have maximized their profitability for years with these approaches. While the technology rails were being laid in the world, such companies and short-term thinking managers traveled back and forth on asphalt that was turned upside down because it was cheaper. Now, it will not be easy for them to make the transition they have not made in the last 20 years in a few months and years, because they are now telling managers who are used to asphalt that they need to drive a spacecraft in zero gravity.

The single most critical point that will facilitate this change is strong leadership. Our managers are the ones who can show healthy reactions to crisis and adapt to change easily, but their job is difficult this time. Because a very serious personal infrastructure is required for adaptation to change this time.

Although recently, we see executives who have not fully grasped this great transformation but were born and raised in the Slikon Valley, changed the world with the companies they founded there, then returned to Turkey and now pretend to be preparing the companies in our country for digital transformation and give themselves names such as Digital Leader, Chief Digital Officer. This is not a new situation. People who were IT managers years ago first became IT managers and then CIOs. Now, people selected from different departments are being appointed as Digital Transformation Leader, CDO and so on. This has been the case not only in technology units but also in human resources. Personnel managers responsible for personnel rights became HR managers after a while, and in recent years they became CHROs. Unfortunately, this is a typical behavior of developing countries. I wish we had leaders with the competence to change the world instead of leaders who try to adapt to this situation by changing their job title when the world changes.

In summary, companies need leaders with new mindsets before digital tools and processes. At this point, I think it would be the healthiest method for them to read the world well, listen to experts and try to understand the subject for a while, and then determine strategies for their companies. I believe that if something needs to transform, it should be the transformation of the mindset of leaders rather than the transformation to digital. If that transformation exists, if leaders can step out of their comfort zone and disrupt themselves first, then technology and digital transformation will be just fun tools and processes to use to adapt to internal and external customers.

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A Guide to Understanding Digital Transformation for Leaders