Cécile Le Galès, Founder and Managing Director of Beeshake, presents her vision of a successful digital transformation: "Breaking down silos to increase collaboration".
Breaking down traditional silos and increasing collaboration... This is a double promise that we at Beeshake find fascinating. It is, after all, the promise of a successful digital transition!
However, a digital transition plan is not started by deciding to " break down the silos ". Rather, you decide to rethink the ways of working, the ways of exchanging and the transversality of collaborative modes. The direct consequence of this will be to gradually break down the silos. But this can take time!
Ultimately, it is a question of encouraging a change of paradigm, making people forget that of traditional companies. These were based on pyramidal organisations, with very top-down, "one-to-many" information flows, accompanied by managerial flows of the same kind. The replacement? A more horizontal way of working, based on the strength of exchanges!
It is often said that companies that are more mature in their digital transformation grow six times more than companies that are less advanced. Digital technology seems to be a great opportunity! However, this transformation is complex to implement. Our clients and prospects often tell us they "don't know where to start".
At Beeshake, we are convinced that a methodology exists to help companies transform and find a new managerial organisation. For us, digital transformation cannot be improvised. It cannot be orchestrated in silos, through isolated initiatives. It takes place over several years, because it affects all aspects of the company.
Our credo is that a company that is transforming must put the employee at the heart of its thinking. Because it is only when you have transformed your people, your jobs, that you can transform your products and services - and even your business model later on! We have therefore identified three main stages, common to all companies and all sectors of activity, that must be completed in order to achieve a successful digital transformation.
The first step: acculturation
The biggest problem in companies is that there is a heterogeneity of knowledge and skills related to digital. The purpose of acculturation is therefore to enable the company to inform its employees, to share its vision with them, to involve them in its strategy, to train them and to ensure that they understand the issues. In short, to create a common digital foundation for employees.
The second step: collaboration
What is it about? Quite simply, it is about enabling employees to exchange and share knowledge. To make information and communication more fluid. Now that employees are aware of the challenges of digital technology, it is much easier to encourage the adoption of new tools, such as corporate social networks, internal communication software, project management software, collaborative CRM, etc.
With these first two steps, we have changed the company's culture, then its practices. What remains is to change the company's businesses, products and services.
The final step in breaking down silos: thecollaborative innovation
R&D can then be proposed, initiated and driven by all the company's employees. Everyone can enrich it, comment on it and contribute to it. When we reach this stage, we are on the right track: the silos are broken, the men and women who make up the company are part of the value creation of tomorrow! And collaboration is an essential part of your digital transformation!
