A business culture is strategically a balance of two elements – people and technology. Even after the implementation of technology across the board, the elements need to work together to set an appropriate business culture in an organization.
Technologies do not work independently. Hence, an organization’s success is dependent on its management of people and the ability to create a workforce that can adapt to whatever technological transformation is thrown at them.
Great organizations with a significant presence in the industry have genuinely realized that the greatest throttle in the mission to greatness in the global environment is not the lack of technology, competition, product or market situation; but the people who work for them. The people working in an organization form its core, and without their full cooperation and integration, every attempt to infuse technological change may fall flat on its face.
Changing business culture is similar to re-building an organization from the first brick onwards, which is why this can be an intimidating and tiring job. Organizations looking to develop technologically and incorporate solutions often face resistance in the form of disgruntled employees who aren’t willing to accept this change.
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In this article, we take a look at some of the benefits of aligning technology with your business processes. We also look at the resistance faced in such moves and how it can be removed.
Importance of Digital Culture
Before we further analyze this resistance, let us first understand why exactly a digital culture is important for your organization and what can be done to harness it.
- Digital culture can assist in the digital transformation and brings better mental agility to an organization’s workflow. This change in perspective allows organizations to take charge of opportunities and enjoy better results.
- A digital culture promotes transparency and banishes hierarchy from the workplace. Every employee is engaged in the decision-making process and there is a focus on both inclusive and exclusive growth.
- A digital culture helps add efficiency to processes and improves the acumen workers have over recent technology and innovations in the market. Instead of shying away from change, employees come up with ways to add innovation to strategic processes.
- Digital culture can help boost employee capabilities and increase their average skill-sets. Employees learn how to work on challenging briefs with conviction and presence of mind. They also learn how to manage new innovations and tech updates.
Minimizing the Resistance to Change in Culture
Challenging organizational culture and hierarchy can be tougher and more complex than you’d imagine. The challenges organizations potentially face here include:
SERVICE DISABLED VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS (SDVOSB)
Eradicating Traditional Company Culture
The biggest hurdle in the way of digital culture is the presence of a traditional culture that is rigid and reluctant to move. Traditional business cultures aren’t built on principles of flexibility and can prove to be averse to change. Employees have also become accustomed to the traditional culture and show no flexibility at all toward accepting updates and upgrades to the technology – even if it is for the betterment of the organization.
In their mission to stick with old goals, employees lose sight of all that matters and the new goals that the business has set for itself. The leadership now has to take conclusive steps on how to gain acceptance for the change and how to mesh it within all nooks and corners of the workflow.
Infrastructural Costs
Incorporating a digital culture or transformation comes with its own costs. The process requires the implementation of a full-fledged infrastructure boosted through the presence of hybrid systems that can work together in compliance. The legacy systems and IT cells you have in your department can prove to be a hindrance in the overall processing and flow of this system. Eventually, when you do think of a wipe-off, the cost overruns can drain your business financially.
Limited Scalability and Resources
Having spent a significant amount of their budget on digital transformation, organizations do not have it in them to ensure scalability and utilization of resources in the digital culture. While in an ideal world, all businesses should allocate resources to cater to the challenges of a new culture, this happens very rarely. Often, organizations end up overrunning their budget and leave nothing for future complications.
Up Skilling Challenges
Once you have technological and advanced processes in place, you need to up-skill your workers and help them achieve the level of training and expertise required to work on and with these systems. Digital literacy is a massive roadblock today in the implementation of a broader digital transformation and an IT structure across the board. Even the processes associated with a typical digital transformation can be quite challenging to scale and grasp. Businesses have to come up with ways to spend heavily on training and mentorship programs so that employees don’t feel like they’ve been thrown under the bus.
Cultural resistance can be overcome by defining a vision and explaining it at all staff levels in the workplace. Additionally, an evaluation of the current culture can help you identify possible strengths that it possesses. Retain those strengths so that employees aren’t completely handed over to a transformed environment.
Throw the junk of the previous culture away and retain the strengths after your evaluation. A separate management team to work effectively on evaluations and analyses of the process can also help minimize resistance to the implementation of technology.
Financial Issues of Technology Implementation
While these sources of acquiring technology have their own charm, it is relatively difficult for SMEs to acquire these technologies until they have extensive financial resources and funds of their own. Keeping up with ever-growing demand for integration and the new innovations in the market is necessary to respond to the situation.
This, however, comes at a cost beyond what most businesses today can afford. Furthermore, there is also the complication of systems becoming obsolete over time. A one-time investment might only cover SMEs for a period of 5 to 7 years in this rapidly progressing world.
Small Disadvantaged Business
Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) provides access to specialized skills and capabilities contributing to improved competitiveness and efficiency.
Small and medium enterprises face financial issues during the implementation of technology and should best have their financial resources in place before they feel the need to source a technology. Establishing banking relationships is necessary to build financial stability in the long-term. These relationships also require extensive attention on an ongoing basis. Venture capitalists can prove to be decent sources of finance for SMEs here, if they exhibit an unusual and promising potential for highly profitable and rapid growth in the future.
Conclusion to Aligning Technology to Business Processes
An AWS solution can strategically reduce the financial issues of tech implementation in your organization. The solutions provided here stand for a long time and can help improve business operations. Contact us for solutions relate to Aligning Technology to Business Processes.
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