Digital transformation certainly opens up challenging scenarios, and by taking full advantage of digital technological innovations, excellent results can be achieved. The purpose of technology is to improve people’s lives by making it easier for them to perform the tasks they face every day.
Everyone in the company, from top management to employees, can see how digital transformation affects their business. You need to establish a strategy that takes into account the strengths, limitations, opportunities and threats that adopting these technologies can bring to your business.
In this JOurnal article we look at how digital transformation can play an important role in the development of start-ups.
THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE START-UP WORLD
According to research conducted by the MIT Center for Digital Business, companies that apply digital transformation are 26% stronger than their competitors and have a 12% higher growth factor. It is therefore of paramount importance for start-ups to use new technologies and be innovative. Here’s how digital transformation can bring more benefits to these companies:
- improve the customer experience;
- facilitate business management;
- develop new channels;
- reduce operational costs;
- allow planning processes in real time.
Investing in digital transformation is the goal of every company or start-up that wants to improve its business effectively. Those who have already started digital transformation have seen the benefits it can bring. The reasons why investing in digital transformation has become essential are linked to the digital revolution, which has radically changed society.
A good reason to invest in digital transformation is not to fall behind the competition. Competitors are already adapting to digital innovation and change because they have realised the benefits that digital transformation can offer. The best move to achieve real results and not fall behind is therefore to adopt a competitive strategy and embrace digital transformation with conviction.
START-UPS AS ACCELERATORS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Start-ups are playing a key role in the development and innovation of large companies facing digital transformation. Considering the benefits for large organisations, the relationship with start-ups has progressively started to be considered a priority and has been codified: development of the notion of open innovation, multiplication of initiatives to bring together external actors, acquisition of start-ups, training of top management, development of tools to measure innovation, implementation of intrapreneurship modules, etc.
Large companies have become aware that their competitiveness depends on their ability to find new growth drivers through closer relationships with innovative players capable of challenging their internal assets which physiologically might settle for the status quo.
Marketing and communication are key to the success of a start-up. The launch of a startupstart up on the market cannot be separated from the proper structuring of an integrated communication line that acts as a link between the startupstart up and the market. The innovation that characterises this type of business must also influence the communication to be implemented, so an informal and fast style must be preferred, with the use of various communication channels and social platforms.
THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: CHALLENGES FOR STARTUPS
Nowadays, more than ever, start-ups must be ready for any kind of change and accept any new challenge. Let’s take a look at the key aspects they should take into account in order to succeed:
- Acquire awareness: you need to understand new trends and be aware of new technologies. You should also question your business model with a view to continuous digital transformation;
- Experiment to learn: it is important to build ecosystems, alliances and partnerships. They should adopt a prototype approach, create independent and agile teams;
- Scaling up activities to multiply impact: redesigning business models by opting to enhance the current set-up or creating spin-offs.
In a difficult context, such as that of the Covid-19 pandemic, established companies have understood the importance of digital as a lever to ensure continuity, and ICT investment forecasts for 2021 indicated a slight growth of +0.89%. But a new drive to collaborate with startupstart-ups emerges in companies following the health emergency: 34% of large companies show a greater stimulus to Open Innovation, 22% have found more interest or started concrete collaborations with startupstart-ups to overcome the emergency.
In the open innovation model, a company commercialises external ideas and/or uses external channels to commercialise its own ideas. An openness that cuts across all activities of the company, from asset management to the choice of partners to the (re)configuration of competitive advantage.
In other words, in order to evolve and remain competitive or establish itself on the market, a company cannot fail to draw on ideas and channels with “mixed” paths that include tools and skills not necessarily present in-house.
CONCLUSION
Digital transformation involves all companies and even more so the world of startups, which are increasingly the drivers that stimulate and drive large organisations to change and embrace the opportunities of the technological revolution in a win-win approach.
Open innovation favours collaboration between start-ups and companies: the former can access more capital and technology, enter the market more easily, acquire references; the latter can capitalise on the start-up’s R&D activity, diversify the business, and test the product/service more easily before launching it on the market.
Innovation hubs play a significant role in bridging the gap between business and digital transformation. Innovation hubs bring together different realities and deal mainly with:
- entrepreneurship;
- research and development;
- digital innovation.
Paradigmatic in Sicily is the Innovation Hub Catania, or IHCT, the innovation centre based in Catania. Similar places are gaining ground all over Europe and are sure to have a positive impact on the territory.
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