Disclaimer: This is an original article written as a sample for a client. Since they did not use it, I have uploaded it on my website as my portfolio.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous anecdote by legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker, and it has never been more relevant than today. Any organisation that deems to make a mark in the world should focus more on bettering its culture than framing breakthrough strategies or meeting figurative KPIs that can make billions. And you know why?
Because how the organisation meets its business goals depends on how its workplace is. The most effective strategy you can implement is building a culture that keeps with the volatile dynamics we are a part of. If we dig deeper into the literal meaning of Drucker’s anecdote, it substantiates that people make those strategies and those strategies are only successful if its culture deems so.
Embracing digital transformation through technology-driven innovation and strategic leadership is how a healthy digital culture is built. If you’re an SMB, here’s how you can instil a connected and valuable digital culture in your organisation:
7 Practical Tips On How SMBs Can Instil A Digital Culture:
- Accept The Digital Adoption Before Digital Transformation
While embracing a digital culture saves cost and increase profit in a large enterprise, for an SMB, embracing a digital culture is a part of their business process – almost synonymous with how they work. Digital culture in an SMB setup starts with a digital mindset.
Adopting the technology- for managing, producing, delegating, and organising- across the workplace, at all verticals, and then transforming the way they work in alignment with the business’ goals.
- Creating Flexible & Innovative Work Culture
The work culture does not end on getting the work done, meeting a deadline, and just meeting a ‘number.’ It is more of meeting a purpose, a collection team culture about reaching that goal, and each individual takes responsibility while working for a team.
Not to box these individuals to KPIs and formulaic approaches to meet the goal but allowing (or rather encourage) them to literally go outside the box, look for creative, innovative and flexible work culture while meeting the result.
- Less Paper-Based Activities = More Productivity
Now there is a digital way to do everything. Here comes our next interlining tip, i.e., using technology as much as possible to do a redundant, repetitive task. Delegate to automation what seems a lengthy process.
Things become automatically organised with your digital work environment looking less filled with papers and paperclips, and all on Excel, CRM and tech tools.
- Thoughtful Experimentation At Work
Your SMB should strive for excellence – that defines the core of your digital culture. But does excellence means always succeeding and making no mistakes? Only if life and work were that linear!
When reaching your goal, your next step should not be to meet the end goal, make no mistakes, and emerge failure-proof. Rather, you should excel by learning ad you fail. Every strategy, technique, and step you take should solve a problem first before it results in a success or failure. You have to create a culture that celebrates making mistakes, progressing through them, learning from them and continuing to grow through thoughtful experimentation.
- Aim More Than Meeting The KPIs
Your business is there because there is a problem that your customer is seeking resolutions/answers for. And though having KPIs are very crucial to analyse them, your customers are humans – and humans have emotions. They change and evolve. People, idealistically, are not robots.
Certain problems are not addressed even though you meet the KPIs. So you need to look beyond that, beyond meeting the numbers. You have to ensure the strategies and campaigns you have taken solves customer’s problem, which is sometimes uncontrollable and unmeasurable through rigid KPIs.
- Collaborate Don’t Command
Here’s one you need to change as an SMB owner. You need to be agile. Business leaders questions. They are aware of their loopholes. They are aware of their team, business model, mistakes, and customers. A healthy digital culture is when you don’t command but collaborate with your team and ensure absolute internal transparency and external awareness.
- Align Your Business’ Strategy For Everyone’s Betterment
A good workplace digital culture is built on thoughtful strategies that benefit your organisation, your team, your stakeholders, and ultimately your customers. Without any of these, the work is thoroughly compromised. You have to make sure your goals are correctly, if not perfectly, aligned to makes their lives better.
Analyse – Think – Change: The Way To Build A Digital Culture At The Workplace
Business is not just for making profits. Things people find valuable is business. The digital culture pillar in your workspace should be driven by purpose – a purpose that both your business’ and employees’ must align with. You must ignite a work culture that keeps up with the trends and accept the digital change.
Wake up to the reality of things. Your SMB’s digital culture at the workplace should prefer improving by doing.
