Digital transformation is an evolutionary journey which means a renewed understanding of the future of business and how to update underlying business values, structures, and cultures.
The business paradigm means hyper-connectivity, interdependence, and people-centricity. Leadership in itself is future driven, in driving changes and pursuit of human progress, a constant learning process requires the leader to build experience and share insight.
The senior business leaders such as corporate boards today need to be future-oriented, see further than what all others see; understand issues from new angles, broaden perspectives, deepen perception; predict what will happen and take steps further – what organizations should do upon it.
Corporate BoDs play a critical role in reviewing business visions, mission, and strategy: Vision is the future you want to realize from a coordinated effort. It is your point on the horizon, the mission is focused on the value that the organization brings to its customers and stakeholders. the strategy is how you will get there. As circumstances are changing rapidly, a strategy is a roadmap which needs to be checked and revised constantly, as the strategy itself can encompass many techniques and tools. Senior leadership roles such as board directors are the guiding forces, clarifying visions, overseeing business strategies, identifying blind spots of management discipline or bottlenecks in corporate resource alignment and capacity development, and harnessing communication to the organization’s shareholders.
The corporate board’s role is to clarify business purposes, pull management out of the trees to see the forest by enforcing governance disciplines and steering business transformation: The difference between the mechanistic system and a digital system is the business purpose. The digital organization needs to be purpose driven and people centric. The purpose, embodied in the core value proposition, inspires the vision which defines the mission, informs the strategies to achieve the business goals and objectives. Companies should gain the super consciousness of business purpose, as the purpose itself is a multidimensional system, to keep the business firm, think of the quality of people as systems, organizations as systems, bring greater awareness of intricacies and generate systemic value to accelerate business performance and unlock its full potential.
A digital-savvy board will have the advantage of pulling enough resources and pushing the business innovation: Innovation is the only way to build differentiated business advantage, survive and thrive from the fierce competitions. The BoDs take an oversight of the business’s innovation agenda, enhance innovation governance, and monitor innovation management performance. In specific, corporate boards as one of the top leadership pillars should practice open-minded leadership, make commitment to support innovation initiatives, create the space for cross-boundary communication and collaboration, set the right risk-taking appetite, cultivate an innovative culture, tie innovations to the organization’s strategy and scale innovation effect systematically.
Digital transformation is an evolutionary journey which means a renewed understanding of the future of business and how to update underlying business values, structures, and cultures. Board directorship is about setting directions and inspiring changes. Corporate board directors can play situational leadership consistently, lubricate shareholders’ relationships; when necessary, break down the old rules, establish new principles, develop the best and next practices for making change happen and sustaining its effect, leading business forward seamlessly.
