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FEATURE / APU
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LEADERSHIP BLACK BOX (DTLBB) – MALAYSIAN CONTEXT
GO DIGITAL – THE NEW NORM
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rom just another business buzzword, today, the force of digital is affecting almost every industry. Pierre Nanterme, CEO of Accenture highlighted in World Economic Forum (2016), digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000. Current businesses are characterised by rapid, dynamic evolvement, powered by technological advancements like the IoT, virtual human-machine interfaces, and AI (Dixon et al., 2020). Businesses today, are at crossroads; whereby, in order to survive, or thrive, they are facing restructuring and transformational decisions; in view of rapidly advancing technology. Digital Transformation (DT) refers to a business’ assimilation of information, infrastructure, practices, and individuals; with digital facetsto become more effective and efficient with fast turnaround targeted impact. This multi-staged process is also about organisations providing enhanced values to stakeholders via digital portfolios (Rossi, 2015). The cases of LEGO and Starbucks present an excellent example of digital transformation. LEGO moved up the value chain post restructuring and digital transformation with a new revenue channel from movies, mobile games, and mobile applications. Starbucks focused on building a digitalised customer experience by focusing on their loyalty. Mobile Order and Pay App became their primary digital transformation agenda by providing a convenient and easy buying experience (Petersen, 2016).
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(Left) Professor Ir. Ts. Dr. Vinesh Thiruchelvam (dr.vinesh@staffemail.apu.edu.my), Deputy Vice Chancellor & Chief Innovation Officer, Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU). (Right) Dr. Murugappan (muru@mcmc.gov.my) Head, Human Capital Division, Malaysian Communication yjk,./1Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
In essence, companies such as LEGO and Starbucks experienced new business value exchange and competitive advantage (IDG, 2018) facilitated by digital transformation. From a Malaysian perspective, the Dell Digital Transformation Index (2018) reported that nearly 55% of Malaysian businesses lack adequate resources to effect digital transformation. In addition, 48% were worried that they would lag behind in the transformation process; with 27% indicating that they were not prepared at all to initiate the transformation process. Marketing interactive also reported in the same report that, 3% of the respondents agreed to have embedded
digitalisation fully in their business. Such businesses were the only ones to have successfully undergone any kind of transformation lifecycle. Amidst this background setting, DT in Malaysia is supported by the government through the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, which postulated the digital economy’s role in driving economic growth as indicated by MEA (2019). The launch of the Malaysia Digital Economic Blueprint, or MyDigital, on 19 February 2021 provides a road map to the digital economy’s role in pushing forward its economic recovery. By 2025, Malaysia expects the digital economy to contribute 22.6% to its GDP by creating 500,000 new jobs,
