“Rip the Band-Aid off” — Why the New Face of Digital Transformation is Unlike Anything Before
“Don’t try and do this softly,” Yolande Piazza, VP Financial Services, Google Cloud, said to American Banker. “Now is the time to rip the Band-Aid off.”
The pandemic has changed the face of life. Of how families met. Of how children played together. Of how you took that fun vacation with families. Of what everyday routines were meant to mean. Of how things you took for granted, were suddenly a thing of the past. And of work. Of how commuting was an inseparable part of daily life. Of how you collaborated with your team. Of how you ran your business. Of how you built relationships with your users. Of how you thought you’ll transform your business for the future.
We are brought up conditioned to be cautious. We are taught that there was risk in taking that next big stride, instead of just a baby step. “So why don’t you start with baby steps first and see where you go?” one of my college professors advised me over two decades ago, as I was about to take my first step out into the corporate world. “One thing each time… and that done well” — so we learnt in middle school.
Many years ago, a technology executive of a large financial services company told me, “There are a lot of shiny things out there. Cloud is one of them. We don’t go in chase of shiny things. We are a regulated industry.”
Not far from then, another financial services executive told me, “Our business is built on the strong foundations of our brokers and their deep personal relationships they’ve established across years with our customers”.
Yet another executive told me about enhancing digital penetration, “That’s not an easy decision. We need to spend time doing the due diligence and feasibility evaluation to see if that’s something that’ll actually work for us”.
And then, March 2020 happened.
Remote working and cloud were suddenly no more a regulatory hassle — they were a dire necessity for businesses to survive. Digital engagement was not a deterrent to years-long deep personal relationships — they became the brand new business model.
It all happened overnight. Cautious baby steps were not the norm anymore. Companies had no time to assess the perceived regulatory risks of doing everything digital or doing everything over cloud. It had to be done — and it had be done NOW. It had to be done NOW — or the business wouldn’t survive.
Caution was a luxury no firm could afford. Business models had to change immediately. Collaboration had to be redefined immediately. Digital channels had to be adopted immediately. There was no time for due diligence.
There was only time left to act. To begin digital transformation, in all its earnestness. And to begin all of it immediately.
That brings us to the present day. Digital has begun its penetration like never before. The question now is not about when you’d take up your transformation, but more about what has taken you so long? Digital is the survival skill that every business of any size needs today. The traditional “time spent doing the due-diligence” and take “one baby step at a time” are now the newest recipes for failure.
So what is left for organizations to do to survive the pandemic and the proverbial new normal future that it has suddenly thrown us all into? Like our VP, Yolande Piazza, said in a conversation with American Banker, “Don’t try and do this softly, Now is the time to rip the Band-Aid off.”
