Managing change in digital transformation involves following a systematic change management process. This includes recognizing the need for transformation, identifying the current and desired future states, and developing a vision and strategy. It is important to plan the transformation process, implement it in an agile manner, and continuously monitor progress. The transformation must also be sustained long-term through reinforcement. Managing issues and learning throughout is key to successfully guiding an organization through digital change.

1. Managing change in digital transformation
Anirban Poddar

2. Change management depends on the organization and the industry.
Change can be managed proactively or reactively by an incremental
approach or a transformational approach.
• Change management is the ability to recognize and respond to changes that can affect the supply of inputs or demand for outputs.
• There are different alternative views on the change process. It also depends on organizational capabilities and industry characteristics.
• Change process involves a number of events, decisions, and actions that are connected in some sort of sequence. The process can differ in terms of
the degree to which it present change as following certain essential stages and the extent to which the direction of change is constructed.
Sources: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT – JOHN HAYES | Analysis 2
• Change can be incremental where continuous adaptation helps to maintain alignment with the
environment and over time the stream of incremental changes can cumulate to transform the
organization.
• Change can also be revolutionary or transformational where organizations make transformation shifts
in their deep structures or fundamental choices after a period of equilibrium to reach another state of
equilibrium.
• To avoid the pattern of punctuated equilibrium or necessary transformational shift after each short
lived equilibrium, organizations need to be continuously adaptive over the longer term.
• Change can be triggered either by external factors in which case it is reactive in nature or by internal
initiatives where proactive measures taken by the organization.
• Proactive way of responding to the change is better than reactive way as the former provides more
time to respond and better ways to manage but in reality not all change can be responded proactively.
Also, it is not always possible to follow the incremental approach because of internal forces and
external revolutions and there are needs for transformational changes.
RE-ORIENTATION
ADAPTATION RE-CREATION
FINE TUNING
INCREMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONAL
PROACTIVEREACTIVE

3. Managing change involves seven core activities. These activities are
related to each other.
Sources: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT – JOHN HAYES | Analysis 3
• Recognizing the need for change and translating the need to a desire for change.
• Deciding the change manager who will manage the process.
• Identifying the change agents and build relations among them.
• Reviewing the present state and identifying what need to be changed.
• Identifying the future state after the change.
• Building a proper vision for the change to keep focus and motivation throughout the process.
• Building the overall strategy for the change process.
• Defining details, timings, sequences and issues of the process.
• Identifying long-term implications of the decisions.
• Carrying out the process according to the plan and accommodating changes in the process.
• Managing communication properly and keeping the motivation intact.
• Reviewing the change and monitoring progress.
• Pursuing the long-term commitments and reinforcing the change post implementation.
• Managing the consequences of the churn due to the change.
• Managing issues at macro and micro level and persisting the learnings throughout the process.
RECOGNITION AND
STARTING THE PROCESS
DIAGNOSIS
PLANNING
IMPLEMENTATION AND
REVIEWING PROGRESS
SUSTAINING THE CHANGE
LEARNING
LEADINGANDMANAGINGTHEPEOPLEISSUES

4. Digital transformation is the profound transformation of the business.
Transformation in a proactive way is necessary to survive in future.
• Digital transformation takes into account all the parameters that are needed to succeed, depending on the strategy, roadmap, goals, stakeholders,
context and so forth. It is not only about technology or marketing or operation or any specific angle. It is the profound transformation of the business
as a whole.
• Digital transformation revolves around the capacities to be more agile, people-oriented, innovative, customer-centric, streamlined, efficient and able
to induce/leverage existing or emerging digital opportunities to change the status quo and tap into new information- and service-driven revenues.
Sources: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT – JOHN HAYES | https://www.i-scoop.eu/digital-transformation/ | Analysis 4
• Digital transformation is dealing with transformational change in the way the organization works.
• Often digital transformation is reactive in nature. The external forces like technology disruption or
competitors’ behavior or customer demand or changes in the ecosystem or other factors demand the
need for change. Here change is flown in a bottom-up approach within the organization. Due the
interconnectedness of the departments within internal silos, managing change becomes difficult and
takes longer time in this approach.
• Proactive digital transformation originates from the top of the organization. Here change in vision is
established at the CXO level and cascaded down the line in an organized way. This top-down approach
gives more flexibility to manage the change in breaking internal barriers and takes lesser time to
achieve the goal.
• Businesses have always been changing and innovating. But, now the pace of change is more
aggressive than the past due to digital technology advancement. We will soon reach the stage of DX
economy where digital transformation will be at the core of a new economy. Organizations need to
move fast and be adaptive in nature to survive. Thus the proactive way of managing digital
transformation is more effective than the other. At the stage of DX economy the process will become
more incremental than transformational.
RE-ORIENTATION
ADAPTATION RE-CREATION
FINE TUNING
INCREMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONAL
PROACTIVEREACTIVE

5. Digital transformation is achieved by answering three fundamental
questions – Why, What and How.
Sources: https://www.i-scoop.eu/digital-transformation/ | Analysis 5
HOW
HOW CAN IT BE
ACHIEVED FROM
THE PRESENT
STATE?
WHAT
WHAT IS THERE TO CHANGE
AND WHAT IS THERE TO
ACHIEVE?
WHY
WHY THERE IS A
NEED AND WHO
ARE REQUIRED?
• Can you foresee the future?
• Can you anticipate the
customer needs?
• Can you evaluate competitors’
position?
• Can you identify the
involvements required from
others?
• Is the proposed transformation
aligned with company vision?
• What exactly needs to be
transformed?
• What is the purpose of the
transformation?
• How the purpose is connected
with people and processes?
• What are the long-term and
intermediate objectives?
• Which knowledge and skills are
required?
• What strategy needs to be
taken to achieve the
objectives?
• How the vision can be
transformed into planning and
action?
• What are the right choices of
tools for action?
• How the motivation will be
intact till the end?
• How the customer will be
involved?
• How the transformation will be
managed and monitored?
• How the communication will be
managed?
• How the success will be
measured?
• How the information and
learnings will be captured?
• How the transformation will be
persisted for long-term?

6. Managing change in digital transformation is following the change
management activities in an organized manner.
Sources: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT – JOHN HAYES | https://www.i-scoop.eu/digital-transformation/ | Analysis 6
HOW
HOW CAN IT BE
ACHIEVED FROM
THE PRESENT
STATE?
WHAT
WHAT IS THERE TO CHANGE
AND WHAT IS THERE TO
ACHIEVE?
WHY
WHY THERE IS A
NEED AND WHO
ARE REQUIRED?
1 – Recognize the need for transformation
and identify the key stakeholders.
2 – Identify the current state, the future
state and build a vision for transformation.
3 – Build a transformation strategy, create a
detail plan and evaluate the implications.
Perform the transformation preferably in an
agile way, manage, review, and monitor.
Reinforce the commitments and manage the
consequences.
Manage issues and learn all the time.
RECOGNITION AND
STARTING THE PROCESS
DIAGNOSIS
PLANNING
IMPLEMENTATION AND
REVIEWING PROGRESS
SUSTAINING THE CHANGE
LEARNING
LEADINGANDMANAGINGTHEPEOPLEISSUES

7. Few points are helpful to remember while managing change in digital
transformation.
• The change management activities in digital transformation may overlap with each other but the primary idea is to follow them in a sequential way
and remember the basics.
• At the beginning of the process, the vision to look into the future and “pro-dapt” to take the lead is the key criteria for success in digital
transformation.
• While a range of technologies has accelerated disruption, business innovation, and changes in human behavior, the exponential growth and pace of
change is just a fraction of what is yet to come. So, it is necessary to move fast and be flexible to change.
• It is the key to put people and processes above technology, even if the technology is a change agent – or at least the ways it is used to evolve,
innovate, adapt and “pro-dapt”.
• Although digital transformation is not about digital technologies as such, it is clear that the adoption and opportunities of technologies under the
umbrellas of social business, cloud, mobility, Big Data (analytics), cognitive computing, the Internet of Things, and many more, will always speed up
changes across the society. The right choice of tools for transformation is required for the businesses to keep up with the pace of the environment.
Sources: https://www.i-scoop.eu/digital-transformation/ | Analysis 7