There are a multitude of suggested representations of the concept – for instance, the collaborative works of Google and Boston Consulting Group resulting in the proposed Deloitte Digital Model (DDM), the digital marketing organizations study of Deloitte Digital with Facebook and their findings on digital maturity and many more.
Across all these proposals, the central idea remains consistent – digital maturity is the suggested ability of an entity to respond to its changing environment in a digitally appropriate manner to remain effective and competitive and digital transformation is the approach taken in doing so.
The assessment of digital maturity is gauged over a spectrum and across varied aspects like integrated tech, data-driven operating model, specialist skills, cultural barriers to being digital, agility to respond to unplanned change, etc.
The definition is indeed broad spectrum hence it holds meaning in very bespoke ways for different organisations. A regional company that is profitable in the current times may engage in digital transformation and turn to cloud computing to achieve a specific goal of leveraging cost benefits and increasing profit margins whereas another company may seek the same solution for achieving business continuity and scalability. Notwithstanding the unique reasons behind each of the business cases in the endeavour to achieving digital maturity, the overall spirit remains the same – the spirit of continuous growth and improvement.
Evolution is engineered within the human soul and species.
We relentlessly aspire to be a better version of ourselves. We want to progressively move towards being a Type II civilisation on the Kardashev scale with engineering dreams of building a Matrioshka brain someday in the future, the technology for which seems plausible even in present times.
Akin to having the desire to harness an increasing amount of energy based on the level of technological advancement, companies may find themselves yearning to leverage the current economic tides to their advantage by means of assessing their current digital maturity and taking the next few steps to transform in an ever-changing digital epoch.
The journey of digital transformation towards achieving increasing levels of digital maturity is one that must be embarked upon by companies to not only adapt from within as they should but adapt as they must and thus cannot thrive without.
