About Himanshu Wadia:
He is a seasoned IT/Telecom professional. With a strong educational foundation with DECE, B.Tech(IT), PGDM (IMT-Ghaziabad) and MDP from IIM Calcutta, Himanshu has been a pioneer of core Techno-Management roles.
With over 18 years of experience working in top Technology Firms like TCS, Ericsson, Bharti Airtel, & Amdocs, Himanshu’s portfolio has always revolved around Innovation & Automation. He currently works as Director, IT Infrastructure & BSS.
Himanshu has been delivering Guest Lectures and Leadership Talks in top Management & Engineering college students of India, including IIM Shillong, IIM Amritsar & IIT Ropar.
Digital Innovation | The orchestrator of Customer Centric approach
Remember those days when our parents applied for a landline phone connection for our homes, and then waited for months, sometimes years, to get it installed?
Remember the times when we had to fill up a form to get a SIM card connection, put a photograph, waited for someone to come down to the address to get a verification done?
Now imagine today, you walk in to a store, do digital KYC and get your SIM card latched to network, ready for incoming/outgoing calls and use the internet within minutes!
That is one of the millions of examples of digital revolution we saw in the last decade, or so. All these have been designed and worked keeping Customer Centricity at the centre of the innovative using Digital Tech as the enabler.
The world of Digital Revolution!
Digital innovation is the continuous process of creating new or upgraded digital products, services, Technical and manual processes, or scalable business models that potentially generate value for customers, stakeholders, and society.
Digital innovation can help organizations gain a competitive edge, increase efficiency, enhance customer experience, and solve complex problems. Digital innovation, however, is not easy to achieve, as it requires a clear vision, a supportive culture, a definite collaborative mindset, and a willingness to experiment, acceptance of failure and learn. Be open to explore some successful cutting edge digital strategies that can help you leverage emerging digital trends and transform your organization.
Defining a 4 step formula that has worked for me in my growth years working with organizations like TCS, Bharti Airtel, Ericsson, and Amdocs.
1. Identify & understand customer requirements
One of the key drivers of digital innovation is hyper focus on customer-centricity. You need to identify and understand the needs, inclinations, pain points, and behaviors of your target customers, and use that insight to create solutions that meet or exceed their expectations. We can use various methods to gather customer feedback such as surveys, interviews or social media analytics You can also use tools such as personas, customer journeys and empathy maps to visualize with your customers. By putting your customers at the center of your digital innovation process, you can ensure that you deliver value and relevance to them.
2. Align Digital Strategy with Business Goals
An essential aspect for digital innovation is strategy. You need to align your digital strategy with your business goals, and ensure that your digital innovation efforts completely support and enhance your value proposition, competitive advantage, and growth objectives. You can use frameworks such as the business model canvas, the value proposition canvas or lean canvas to define & communicate your digital strategy and value proposition. One can also use tools such as the Balanced Scorecard, the OKR framework & the innovation Metrics Dashboard to measure and monitor your digital innovation performance and impact. Continue being strong on the principle that what can be measured, can be improved.
3. Experiment with emerging Tech
Another important factor for digital innovation is usage of technology. You need to explore and experiment with emerging technologies that can enable new or improved capabilities, potential, functionalities, or experiences for your customers and your organization. You can use market ready techniques such as horizon scanning, technology scouting or technology roadmapping to identify and evaluate the potential of new technologies, such as AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, or IoT we can also use methods such as prototyping, testing, or co-piloting to validate and polish ideas and solutions using these technologies. By being aware, open and agile with emerging technologies, one can create innovative and differentiated offerings for your markets
4. A culture of innovative learning
A third critical element for digital innovation is organisational culture. One needs to develop a culture of innovation and collaboration within your organization or department, where people are encouraged to share ideas and innovations, learn from failures and work together across various functions and boundaries. We can use practices such as innovation workshops, hackathons, or innovation labs to stimulate creativity, generate ideas and solve complex problems. We can also use platforms such as intranets, social networks, or innovation management systems to facilitate communication, knowledge sharing, and feedback among the employees and other stakeholders. By creating a culture of innovation and collaboration, unleashing the true potential and talent of people is a possibility.
Collaborate with other businesses, start-ups or academic institutions and draw fresh blood. These partnerships can bring in new perspectives technologies & additional resources. Open innovation can lead to more creative and effective solutions.
By aligning digital strategy with your business goals, you can ensure that your digital innovation initiatives are relevant & effective for a long future.
Let’s foster a happy future for our new generation!
