Is Transformation Driven by Culture or Technology?

70% of companies have a digital transformation strategy in place or are actively working on one. So, it’s no surprise really that 40%% of all technology spending will go towards digital transformation. After all, the two go hand in hand, and technology is a key piece of the transformation puzzle. But is it the only piece?

Recently Ed Maddock, CTO at iGrafx, and Charles Araujo, Principle Analyst at Intellyx, spoke with the editor about PEX Network about this topic. They answered a crucial question around successful transformations – are they driven by culture or technology?

Ed started the conversation by explaining that though technology plays a big part, believing it’s the only piece is big reason for transformation failures. For example, organizations may not achieve their strategic objectives by just applying a new technology to it. Instead companies need to use a “process early” approach. This means thinking about things from a process perspective instead of a siloed or technology perspective. Essentially organizations need to understand what the processes are, and who has responsibility for each. This helps to enable the cultural element to transformation, which is critical to success.

Charles continued the discussion by referring to an analogy of an elephant with a rider on a path. He explains that when addressing cultural change, organizations tend to address the rider or the “rational being”. However, there are other components – the emotional piece, which in this analogy is the elephant, and the process, which is the path. And he also explained that when you change the processes from the right perspective, it becomes a powerful tool for cultural transformation.

You can listen to the entire interview clip below!