DigiBarometer measures digital transformation: "Clueless" SME boards?
Nothing will change our world like the digital transformation. Swiss SMEs are also affected by the revolutionary changes and should make themselves fit for them. The DigiBarometer, conducted for the first time in 2018 by the Chief Digital Community (CDC) consulting platform in collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts - IT, shows the great need to catch up. Although 97 percent of SMEs see digital transformation as an opportunity, only 20 percent are successfully pursuing this path to date.
People, markets and society will change fundamentally. New technologies are forcing companies to radically rethink their business models and offer enormous growth opportunities. But companies must also be able to take advantage of these opportunities. As a direct consequence, mastering the digital transformation means a huge effort, especially for existing companies. Old thought patterns and structures must be broken, and new approaches and business models must be developed. The pressure to innovate and change is becoming a continuous challenge - also for Swiss SMEs.
DigiBarometer: The most important results and findings
Against this backdrop, the Chief Digital Community (CDC), in collaboration with the Lucerne School of Information Technology, conducted the DigiBarometer for the first time in 2018 to survey the situation of Swiss SMEs with regard to digital transformation. By means of this survey, important insights into the situation of Swiss SMEs in the increasingly digitalized world could be gained, with the aim of raising awareness.
- 97 percent see digital transformation as an opportunity.
- 20 percent are successfully underway with digital transformation, 68 percent partially successful.
- 70 percent have anchored digital transformation in their corporate strategy, and 13 percent are planning to do the same.
- 49 percent have sufficient know-how internally, while 29 percent do not yet.
- Fifty-six percent gave no answer regarding the location of experts for digital transformation within the corporate structure. 24 percent mention the company management.
- 49 percent state that they have too few resources internally for digital transformation.
- 46 percent name products and services as the reaction area of digital transformation.
- 28 percent say their board of directors has a high level of knowledge, while a further 8 percent rate this as very high. This contrasts with 38 percent who rate their board of directors as having a low or very low level of knowledge.
SME boards of directors with sufficient know-how?
"Anchoring digital transformation in corporate strategy a driver of implementation success," the DigiBarometer study says of these results. And it goes on to say: "Overall, the proportion of very large companies with a strategic anchoring of digital transformation is higher than among smaller and very small companies, where there are almost no differences compared with the overall sample. Accordingly, one measure for SMEs is to take up and anchor the topic strategically, according to the study's recommendation for action.
In 58 percent of the cases, the respondents believe that their board of directors has a high or very high level of expertise in digital transformation if digital transformation is part of the corporate strategy. According to the study, this figure falls to 49 percent when the overall sample is considered. The explanation for this is that a board of directors with a high level of digital expertise will recognize digital transformation as a strategic imperative and anchor it in the strategy accordingly.
Source: www.chiefdigital.ch
