Digital Transformation in 2024 and Beyond -Insights from the C-Suite
The Amcham Digital Economy event recently covered the trends in digital disruption, strategies for achieving success, industry insight, and the CEO's leadership role in navigating these transformations. The session was moderated by Nitin Modi, Amcham Digital Economy Committee Co-Chair, starting with the simple terms of digital transformation as how to “future-proof a business”.
The 1st speaker: Narain Chutijirawong, executive Director of Deloitte Thailand shared the key findings from Deloitte Thailand's Digital Transformation Survey 2023: The top technology implementation includes technology like cloud, traditional web, mobile app and data analytics. The digital DNA Maturity spectrum starts from Exploring Digital, Doing Digital, Becoming Digital and Being Digital.
Most corporates, ~ 43%, are in the stage of Doing Digital (meaning mostly leveraging digital technologies to extend capabilities but still focused around the same business, operating and customer models) whilst 15% are in the Being Digital stage (meaning optimized models and profoundly different from prior business models).
From the various transformation initiatives, the top successful results were reduced cost and increased employee productivity and the top challenges are lack of expertise, insufficient budget & resources and immature digital culture.
The better perception of C-Level towards the result of digital transformation is evidenced by the 239% improvement in success rate as they gain experience and confidence with better technology selection and realistic digital transformation KPIs.
The 2nd speaker, Wayne Williams, CFO of the Minor Hotel Group mentioned several pandemic responses and emphasized that reputation is everything. The value and growth are the key. 6Ps to drive growth and value are Patrons (exceeding customers’ expectations), People (adaptive, agile and inclusive workforce), Portfolio (trust & branding), Product (differentiated & optimized efficiency), Performance (revenue/profit) and Probity (ESG/future-proofing business).
Key technology priorities to support growth are 1.Competitive and Differentiated Recognition (platform/data to drive the loyalty and figures) 2. Digital Experience & Footprint (consistent customer experience) 3. Cross Compatible Information Systems (seamless integration) 4. Insight to decision-makers (real-time info) 5. Integrity & Automation (transparent core process) 6.Organization Structure (equipped with digital skills) 7.Security & Data Privacy 8. Emerging Trends & Technologies (Innovation).
The third speaker, Clay Miller, Principal Advisor of Ecosystem covered Thailand: Technology Drivers and Impact on Digital Transformation. A lot more happening in Thailand is primarily focused on 4 sectors, including 1. Healthcare, 2. Wellness & Medical Tourism, 3. Education and 4. Agriculture & Food. 89% of enterprises in Thailand say they have a technology focus.
Employees in Thailand are more open to hybrid work. During the past 18 months, Generative AI has come to the forefront (drawing the enterprise's interest and early adoption ) and has the potential to reshape industries. Most decided to join the AI journey from exploring & in discussions to the early stage of ongoing proof-of-concept & implementation.
Some challenges of AI in Thailand are perpetuating bias, potential misuse, lack of context understanding and integration with existing systems. Thus, some developments are required e.g. the responsible AI guidelines, the human validation and the API integrations.
