Living in these unprecedented times has led organizations across industries & sectors to rapidly transform their strategy to stay in sync with the continuously evolving business needs. Technology became an underlying aspect and a major enabler in transforming their business model. They are forced to recalibrate their operating model, purpose & strategy, processes formulated, talent acquired and technology used so that they adapt to these changing times and disruption. Digital transformation is about restructuring their products & services in such a way to provide the right solutions at the right place at the right time. It is about ensuring the realization of the maximum business value to their existing & their potential customers by going digital in their offerings and value-chain.

While redesigning the business strategy might seem like a drive from the top-level C-suite only, there needs to be wide distribution of this decision-making initiative across an organization at all levels. To actualize this new strategic vision and percolate it within every team working in an organization, the mid-management layer needs to take it up and do the needed groundwork in order to give shape to the new business model as laid out by the senior management. And who could be called upon to take this up than Project Managers themselves? As mentioned in one of my articles before, the role of a project manager has gone much beyond their traditional planning and scheduling activities. They need to shift their mindset from operationally-managed projects to strategically-managed projects. And hence they play an instrumental role in the entire transformation process. Project Managers need to be proficient enough to put the organization’s strategic initiatives into practice, in order to bridge the gap between their strategic goals and actual deliveries.

Below are a few areas a project manager needs to spend their time on to implement these digital initiatives:

Fostering Cultural change: Digital transformation is a bottoms-up approach wherein an organization needs to have a buy-in from all the teams working at a ground level, like delivery teams in this transformational change. Agile culture needs to be imbibed in an organization to carry out this digital transformation. This is where PMs play a larger role in fostering a culture that catalyzes this change at all levels. They need to challenge the traditional status quo and adopt the new way of working by engaging stakeholders, which can help internalize agile methodologies and processes. This is easier said than done, as dealing with resistance & bringing about a change is a skill rarely seen in a few transformational leaders. Communicating the laid-out vision, formalizing new processes, adopting a new way of working (like adopting Disciplined Agile), determining appropriate technology given the business scenario are some of the ways with which Project Managers can drive this transformation successfully.

Establishing Feedback loops: One of the underlying core principles of agile methodologies is “Inspect & Adapt”. Constant feedback needs to be established at all levels and across teams to align themselves with the changing needs. A Project Manager is at the helm of establishing this. While the delivery teams conduct sprint reviews during their sprint cycle to gather client feedback, the constant review should become a norm in every business function in its own sense. Sales & Account Management teams can create self-service systems or community-driven forums to engage end-users and get a sense of their changing requirements. These feedback loops help organizations de-risk their new initiative that they intend to venture into. It enables them to respond to changes quickly and adjust their objectives, whenever required.

Strong Leadership: Project Managers need to display their strong leadership skills in driving these digital transformation programs. They need to guide the teams with a clear vision, concrete goals and disseminate an action plan to achieving this. They also need to facilitate the team to navigate through any roadblocks or impediments they might be plagued with. A cross-functional approach needs to be embraced wherein PMs re-design the business processes in such a way that teams collaborate across multiple departments and functions. PMs are placed at a good vantage point to be able to oversee all the enablers needed in driving this: - Talent, Technology, Processes, Systems, Organizational structure, Frameworks, Stakeholders, etc., and hence their effective leadership skills would go a long way in achieving all of these.

I couldn't think of any appropriate example than Domino’s, a pizza restaurant chain that initiated its digital transformation journey in 2008 wherein it started online ordering for their customers. It leveraged the use of social media platforms which allows customers to place orders using various messaging platforms and other means of communication. This not only shot their stock-price but also helped them to keep their product relevant in this digital era. This is the digital transformation fabric they built around their core business of “Selling pizza”.

Project Managers are at the heart of taking key decisions influencing the organization’s trajectory to digital transformation initiative. They play a crucial role in bringing the cultural shift by spreading agile values and establishing a learn-adapt-review cycle to enhance the organization’s ability to quickly adapt to the changing market conditions. These coupled with their leadership style help organizations lead and maintain their competitive advantage in their quest to stay abreast of market dynamics at all times.

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