Digitalization isn’t simply the transformation of the physical into the digital. It entails processes that bring about change everywhere and all the time. Traditional companies or even whole professions are disappearing, and new ones are emerging. The new power of the customer brings with it the need for customer focus. For companies and employees, it is becoming increasingly important to examine their own professional environment for digital challenges and opportunities. What does the digital transformation mean for companies and in the workplace? Embark on a journey into the digital world.
Firstly it’s different, and secondly it’s digital
Digitalization, digital transformation or simply digital change are neither new buzzwords nor overwhelming news. These are terms for a process which is only just beginning. This process drives developments which lead to the disappearance of traditional companies, work places and certainties. This has wide-reaching consequences for the economy and the world of work. What the digital change means in concrete terms for companies and workplaces is conveyed by the e-learning course “Understanding digitalization”. Digitalization means creating digital data, using it, and linking and analyzing digital data. Patterns can be derived and recognized from this information and so products and services can be developed.
Digitalization and globalization have both advantages and risks for companies and society as a whole as well as for the individual. We can stay in touch with people all over the world ad use other peoples knowledge and products. On the other hand, we easily lose sight of big picture. A term has been coined to describe this lack of an overview: the VUCA world.
The VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
The consequences of digitalization and globalization are often described with the term “VUCA world”. Stable relationships are no longer the norm. This volatility is reflected in the “V”. The conditions are not only volatile but also uncertain. The “U” stands for “uncertainty”. The connection between cause and effect is no longer simply a given. Everything is interconnected. This complexity is represented by the “C”. The “A” describes the ambiguity of things.
Companies are faced with important challenges. For all the uncertainty there remains one certainty: Traditional approaches, such as long-term planning of product development are no longer suitable for the VUCA world. Companies facing this challenge must in the first place ensure that their employees understand digitization. The “Understanding Digitalization” e-learning course illustrates the central contents of this topic with relevant examples in a variety of explanatory videos. Transfer tasks encourage participants to examine their own professional environment and their company for digital challenges and potential. In the VUCA world, traditional structures and knowledge have long since been turned upside down. The e-learning course demonstrates this with a number of exciting facts and stories from the business world.
Digital change makes it possible – up-to-date today, out-of-date tomorrow
Business success is not static. Businesses can work their way up to the top and reach pole position. But even companies that were once market leaders can disappear if they do not adapt to changes in time. This occurred with two world-famous companies that are used as an example in this e-learning course. Cutting-edge technology, market leadership in mobile telecommunications… Nothing could go wrong, right? It was the customers who finally decided on another manufacturer with more technical possibilities. Although their technology still worked flawlessly, “suddenly” no one wanted to buy the products of the former market leader anymore.
The e-learning course uses a manufacturer of film material that even invented the digital camera and launched one of the first models on the market as a further example. The company felt that switching from analogue to digital would mean that no more film would be sold, so it was not particularly interested in the success of the new product and left the field to the competition.
Was the digital shift to blame for the crisis of these two companies or was it the failure of individual managers? The “Understanding Digitalization” e-learning course shows how important it is to recognize development potential with a list of the most valuable companies in terms of market capitalization in 1990 and 2019.
With digital transformation, the success of a company depends on its ability to recognize and exploit market changes. The e-learning course demonstrates that the top positions are occupied exclusively by companies that are fully committed to digitization. But digitalization is not an end in itself. These companies seized the opportunities offered by new technologies and markets. In one of the transfer tasks, the participants must find out which companies dominated their respective industry ten years ago and which ones did so twenty years ago. The results should then be compared and analyzed with the figures at hand.
The potential of artificial intelligence in the digital transformation
“The benefits for human society are likely to be significant in any case. AI doctors could provide far better and cheaper healthcare to billions of people, especially those who have had no access to health care at all had up to now. Thanks to learning algorithms and biometric sensors, a poor villager in an underdeveloped country could receive far better medical care via their smartphone than the richest person in the world today receives in the most advanced hospital.” (Yuval Noah Harari, Historian and bestselling author)
Digitization differs from previous waves of modernization in that not only so-called “simple tasks” are taken over by machines. In the course of the digital transformation, complex and knowledge-based tasks can also be taken over by artificial intelligence. The e-learning course explains what this entails for certain job descriptions, such as those of doctors, which will look completely different in a few years.
“The interesting thing about our intelligence is that we can play Go and then get up from the table and make food, which is something a machine cannot do.” (Bernhard Schölkopf, Computer Scientists)
Impressive explanatory videos illustrate the many aspects of these developments. Following the videos, participants are invited to use a transfer task to explore the impact of digitalization on their own workplace and working environment.
Customer Centricity – why customer orientation is much more important in the digital transformation
It only takes a few clicks for a customer to change their electricity provider, book trips or rate products and services. Digitalization has transferred market power from companies to customers. Today, it is no longer the company that determines what’s on offer, but rather the customer. This gives much more weight to customer orientation. In the “Understanding Digitalization” e-learning course, participants learn to look at all processes, products and services from the customer’s perspective, using the example of probably the best-known online mail order company.
“We see our customers as guests invited to a party we are throwing. Our daily task is to make all aspects of the consumer experience a little bit better.” (Jeff Bezos, Amazon)
A transfer task helps participants to find out how satisfied their customers currently are with their service. They are instructed to determine the influence of their customers on the content and formal design of their products or services. They also need to discover whether they need to change anything in their products or services, and what the products or services should look like.
A look into the digital crystal ball
What do companies need to do to be fit for the digital future? They must be able to adapt quickly to new circumstances and market situations if they want to be fit for the future. They must be able to recognize opportunities and new markets made possible by the new products and services. They must be ready to take risks and learn to make decisions, even in confusing times. They must be ready to continuously ask themselves whether what promises success today will also mean success tomorrow. What concrete tasks does this entail for human resource development? Flexible, effective and sustainable solutions are necessary to satisfy the high demand for continuing education. E-learning content can act as a supporting pillar in this, preparing employees and companies for the digital future.
The “Understanding Digitalization” e-learning course encourages participants to take on the challenges of digital transformation. This is a multimedia e-learning course with video sequences, professional learning moderation, explanatory videos, learning questions and transfer tasks. It is aimed at employees who need to be made aware of new challenges and be prepared for digitalization, teams who analyze their department with regard to digitalization, and managers who, together with their teams, are looking for new ways, customers and markets.