Digital News Asia, Malaysia: APAC Head of Cognizant Digital Business Says Embracing Digital Means Altogether Reimagining the Traditional Operating Model

“Most business leaders recognize that they need to employ a digital strategy to avoid becoming the next hapless victim of disruption,” writes John Burgin. “The crux of digital transformation, however, lies in learning to go from ‘doing digital’ to ‘being digital’.” Excerpts:

“For enterprises, truly embracing digital means altogether reimagining the traditional operating model. Consider an airline that wants to take a fundamentally different view of the experience it provides to its customers. One day, a business traveler asks a flight attendant for her favorite cup of coffee. The airline captures this preference — and many others — to build a detailed persona for the traveler. Aside from standard travel preferences — class of travel, seat type, dietary requirements — the airline builds a richer view of specific information that can help provide a delightful new experience for the frequent traveler.

Imagine the beautiful surprise when on the next trip, the traveler is collected by a limo driver who hands over a long macchiato whilst discussing the itinerary for her trip. The traveler is further delighted to find that check-in and transfer of luggage to her preferred hotel accommodation at her destination have been arranged, and that leisure activities, including gourmet dining and a golf tee time, have been pre-booked. The airline has thus delivered a truly exceptional travel and hospitality experience, one that requires a fundamental change in the airline’s business plan, enterprise architecture and operational processes.

For companies looking to drive meaningful change, it’s important to make sure that any initiative is aligned with changing industry dynamics and the shifting needs of their customers. In this case, ethnographic research can provide useful insights into the type of new experiences that different types of customers will respond to.”

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