The days when a business was considered leading-edge for having a digital strategy encompassing mobile, e-commerce and social media feel long gone. In fact some would argue that, in the ‘digital age’ we now live, a business could hardly survive without these customary ‘bolt-on’ digital tools. This, of course, is debatable but one thing is for sure, the true ‘digital leaders’ have a lot more to their digital strategies than only these digital offerings.

A current focus of our research at Nimbus Ninety is to understand what makes a particular organisation a ‘digital leader’, and what’s stopping others from achieving their level of digital excellence. In this article I want to highlight what we believe is the core, but also the biggest challenge, to any organisation who wants their digital strategy to transform them into a ‘digital leader’: creating a digital culture.

Take part in the Nimbus Ninety Digital Progress Survey to find out how your organisation compares to those considered digital leaders and uncover how your organisations digital strategy may be supporting or hindering your digital ambitions.

Rigid hierarchies, lack of ability to attract the relevant skills and a ‘fear of failure’ culture are stifling many organisations’ ability to compete with the new digital disruptors. Contrast that with the most well-known brands and digital upstarts attracting the nation’s best digital talent where being digital is ingrained into every thread of the organisation’s DNA. A disruptive, ‘challenge the status quo’ mentality, free from a ‘fear of failure’, ignites a company-wide ambition to innovate and experiment. They know that a pervasive, digitally disruptive culture will support and integrate every digital initiative- encompassing people, process and technology.

Only today the BBC announced they will be giving away Raspberry Pi's to 11 year olds across the country as part of a push to make the UK more digital.  We loved this story as it demonstrates a clear message from Government that the UK understands the importance of creating a digital culture to keep the UK a competitive digital landscape.

To get to the core of being digital, you need to go deeper to consider not only the technological skills of your workforce but also how they think and act and how those thoughts and actions are translated into how they interact with each other, your partners and most importantly your customers. New digital technologies such as mobile, big data, cloud and social media combined with disruptive trends, like the Internet of Things are enabling these behaviours to be embedded seamlessly into business models, internal processes, customer communications and business transactions. If you can’t encourage the right culture and attract the right talent to give your organisation the best chance to leverage the benefits of digital tools you will struggle to keep up with the ‘digital leaders’ of today.

On 12 and 13 May 2015 at our IGNITE summit one of our speakers, Ash Roots, Digital Director at Direct Line Group will be speaking on this very subject and the challenges he has faced in creating digital culture. We will also host an hour and a half masterclass on digital culture and skills that will give you practical information and roadmap on what you can do to lead your organisation’s digital culture transformation.

If you are interested in attending our IGNITE summit please click here.

For any more information please email dom.murphy@nimbusninety.com