Getting your company into digital shape doesn’t mean dumping everything that has made it strong.
Even though traditional companies find much to admire and learn from in the cultures of born-digital companies, some born-digital qualities are cause for concern. Amazon.com, for instance, launches new businesses quickly and drives repeated efficiency gains in operations. However, it is less admired for what can be seen as uncompromising relationships with publishers, partners, localities, and workers. Uber is revered for its ability to innovate services with agility. But many observers are dismayed by the ways it has seemed to dismiss regulators, exploit drivers, and, in a set of highly publicized incidents, fail to protect workers and customers from harassment.1
When Jonas Samuelson became CEO of Stockholm-based home appliance maker Electrolux in 2016, he wanted to reignite innovation and growth by building a faster, more digital-ready organizational culture. Yet many of the practices of Silicon Valley did not seem appropriate for his 100-year-old company or the social and business culture of Scandinavia. Samuelson couldn’t ask 55,000 employees to work 70-hour weeks and couldn’t incentivize them with millions in stock options. He couldn’t fire people just because their core skills started to age. He couldn’t constantly redesign the company’s processes and products — Electrolux makes hardware, not software, and customers expect to keep their products for many years. However, he could drive a culture shift that would energize employees to generate more innovation and profitable growth. He believed strongly that this could change Electrolux for the better without losing what was already terrific about the company.2
Electrolux is not alone in this quest. Many companies are trying to embrace aspects of digital culture without exposing themselves to the less desirable elements of Silicon Valley startups. Consumer electronics and appliances giant Haier has spent years transforming its culture in pursuit of greater speed and innovation while maintaining the efficiency and stability of its traditional manufacturing and logistics processes. KBC Bank is adapting to fight fast-moving fintech entrants while complying with strict European privacy and employee protection regulations. Leaders of Schneider Electric are pushing culture changes to play a major role in the rapidly evolving internet of things while still being a reliable provider of devices upon which thousands of office buildings and data centers depend.
For many legacy companies, culture change is the biggest challenge of digital transformation.
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/building-digital-ready-culture-in-traditional-organizations/