Important: Translated automatically from Spanish by 🌐💬 Aphra 1.0.0
Without a doubt, Digital Transformation is one of the concepts that have become most fashionable during this 2020. Perhaps because the pandemic has forced many companies and freelancers to accelerate their conversion to digital. Perhaps because the government has announced that it will invest a significant amount of money1 in the cause. Perhaps it’s been the sum of a little bit of everything. And it’s about time. Because we’re not just late, but extremely late2.
But digital technology hasn’t arrived overnight. However, as a country, we’ve been quite reluctant to accept it. Last year, the administration wouldn’t validate a digitally signed document. This year it’s recommended, even becoming the only valid way in some cases. From zero to a hundred. From nothing to everything, overnight3. This way, there will be no transformation. At most, an accelerated digitalization. A digitalization that, let’s be honest, will exponentially increase the generational digital divide4, leaving a sector of the population practically obsolete.
There are many people for whom the concept of Digital Transformation gives them the chills. And they’re not without reason: You’ve been doing things a certain way all your life. And suddenly, starting tomorrow, absolutely everything is going to change. Your way of life is in danger, your job is in danger, the knowledge you have so far about how to do what you do is in danger. We’ve barely taken steps as a country towards a digital conversion in twenty years, but now we want everything done in five. It doesn’t matter who we run over in the process.
Technology consultancies must be rubbing their hands with glee5. You just throw money at us and we’ll take care of making a complete digital transformation for your business. If later any minor problem causes the staff not to know how to react in time and your income plummets… Well, better pay in advance.
And yet, we can’t keep looking the other way. We can’t ignore technological advances. We must not continue to rest on our laurels6. But there are ways and ways of doing things.
That’s why I propose the concept of Minimal Digital Transformation7.
We need consultancies that don’t intend to make a total conversion of a business from one week to the next, leaving behind all those who don’t adapt quickly. We need consultancies that take companies from point A to point B making multiple stops along the way8. Let’s make just one change to your business process, a Minimal Digital Transformation. We’ll see how it affects productivity, how the most common problems are solved, how employees adapt, how they become convinced that technology facilitates their work and doesn’t replace them, but makes them more indispensable.
It’s not about destroying the entire building and starting over, it’s about renovating it step by step9, to prevent its collapse. But let’s start the work now10.
Let’s go for the next Minimal Digital Transformation.
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“pasta” is a Spanish slang term for money, commonly used in informal contexts. ↩︎
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This is a translation of the Spanish idiom “vamos tarde no, lo siguiente”, which emphasizes being extremely late. ↩︎
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This phrase captures the sudden change implied by “De 0 a 100. De nada a todo.” ↩︎
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“brecha digital generacional” refers to the generational digital divide, a significant issue in Spain and other countries. ↩︎
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“frotándose las manos” is an idiomatic expression indicating anticipation or satisfaction. ↩︎
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This is a translation of “No debemos dormirnos más en los laureles”, emphasizing the need to avoid complacency. ↩︎
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“Transformación Digital Mínima” is a concept proposed by the author, emphasizing a gradual approach to digital transformation. ↩︎
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“del punto A al punto B” is used metaphorically here to describe the process of business transformation. ↩︎
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This is a translation of the metaphor “No se trata de destruir todo el edificio y volver a empezar, se trata de reformarlo paso a paso”, which has cultural significance in Spain related to gradual change. ↩︎
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This captures the urgency implied in “Pero comencemos la obra ya”. ↩︎
