The Digital Age Brings With It the Need to Restructure By Suzzanne Uhland

Image courtesy of mike mozart at Flickr.com

Companies will need to stay up to date with the digital era, but they will first need to determine if there is a need for an update. There are clear signs when your company should consider updating their organization like when the industry is changing, the effectiveness is reducing, constant mistakes are more common, which usually goes hand in hand with high turnover and low morale, and finally this will all take its toll on the profit margins. You can read more about these different signs to recognize if it’s time to restructure on the Suzzane Uhland’s SlideShare page. With the digital age approaching quickly your company will definitely be in the need of a digital transformation, which will be inevitable with the users need to change their consumer experience.

Changing your organization to adjust itself to the digital era will take more than simply changing the user interface and experience, it will need a modification in the company’s CEO team so that the digital trend can be evident in their experience and knowhow, especially since more and more there is a merge between marketing and communication. The gap between marketing and communication is closing as social media becomes the best way to communicate with stakeholders and clients. As roles merge then you’ll see the need to begin by restructuring your management team and creating roles that truly represent the changes that occur in your company. Additionally, products or services may have to be modified as well as the digital age replaces traditional business models. Let’s take a closer look at how your company can recognize if it needs to restructure and how to do so if it is necessary.

Recognize if it’s time to changeBy recognizing if it’s time for your company to transition into the digital era just at the right time, you’ll save yourself from many of the triggers that could lead to a loss in profit. Some were mentioned before, but at the end of the day anything that affects your profit will be something to consider when transitioning. One of the first symptoms is going to be witnessed through your employees’ actions and commitment to the company. Their roles will need to be evaluated, as well as their responsibilities and tasks so that they can be aligned to the changes the organization needs to make in order to transition. The digital era is coming to many different segments of business and you have to learn to recognize when your business should make the shift because the traditional way of doing business is simply not cutting it.

Some companies that found the need to restructureMacy’s is one of the most traditional department stores in the United States, and when they started to notice that their business was declining due to a change in culture they knew they had to do something fast. They decided to close nearly 90 stores of their 880 nationwide as a start to their new strategy to doing business. Now, this is not without consequences, this means that it has let go of approximately 10.000 employees, to dedicate more to their expansion in the digital business. In 2016, their online sales have increased in double-digits on both their sites macys.com and bloomingdales.com and due to this they will continue to inject more and more capital into mobile commerce, analytics, marketing data and in-store pickup.

Their traffic in their stores has continued to reduce, so this retailer, the same as many others, has chosen to continue delving into the digital market for the sole purpose of trying to compensate for their losses in brick-and-mortar stores. Time Inc. is another example of companies that are looking to find ways to promote the use of digital tools that can help bring new revenue to the organization.

What to consider when making the changeFirst of all, you need to consider all of the different elements that will be part of the transition to the digital age. You will need to start to acknowledge how your relationships will change with regards to your suppliers, intermediaries and customers.

Once you know that you are ready to begin making changes in your organization be sure to consider the effect that this will have on your procedures, communication and relationship with all of the stakeholders in your organization. One size does not fit all in this case, so you'll need to analyze carefully what is the best way to bring technology into your organization and how it will bring value to your organization and its products and/or services. When including technology you will most surely see many of the benefits behind it like an improvement in communication, enhancement of customer service, improvement of knowledge-sharing, and a reduction of costs. At the same time, you will be able to enter new markets and support the natural globalization process in your industry. Your organization could even create new products and services that rely on technology and foster innovation, which will all increase revenues because they cater to the modern client.