Raktim Singh, a renowned digital thought leader from the city of Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, is an IT expert by profession. His fervent passion for analysing the digital transformation journey of various businesses led him to pen his thoughts on digital transformation in his book.  This book, titled, ‘Driving Digital Transformation: Reshape the Future of Your Business’ is available on Amazon & already has become an ‘Amazon Best Seller’. In this book, Raktim explains how a business can thrive and not just survive given the current situations, which firmly establishes his position as a thought leader in the digital world.

Raktim’s Take on Digital Transformation

Everyone wants instant gratification and personalization without putting in the efforts or spending money. The same goes for any business and they want instant results. Marketing needs to be efficient yet easy on their pockets. This is where digital transformation comes into the picture.

According to Raktim, a business will need to either innovate itself or face extinction. He feels that digital transformation is not only about creating efficient business models with the help of technology but also being disciplined and sincere in implementing it and helping the whole team follow protocols.

Raktim says that going through digital transformation can make or break a business. We can keep an organization alive and up-to-date by investing in continuous learning, being agile, and leveraging the power of networking, eco-system, and partnerships. In his view, digital transformation, along with the tools and processes, can solve business problems and steer alternative paths of innovations in work-life situations.

A List of Essential Components of Digital Transformation from Raktim

Digital Transformation comprises of 4 pillars:

1) Data: Raktim stresses on Data in real time, which refers to information on customers, competitors, markets, and supply chain. He says that having all this data and knowing how to use it without second-guessing the information makes it efficient for a business to decide without being biased.

2) Cloud: All information, in some way or the other, is being stored on the cloud nowadays. The digital thought leader opines that it is more convenient to rent out cloud space for the time frame you require rather than holding on to it for all the times you do not need it. This also helps in reducing expenditure on information storage at the time it is not being used.

3) Internet of things or IoT: This is nothing but the internet and being able to connect multiple devices e.g.: phones, television, and smartwatches, etc with the help of the internet. A person could sit in a meeting and with his smartwatch know who is calling or messaging him without him looking into his phone. Raktim considers IoT to be a highly powerful and innovative technology that is capable of changing the landscape of several industries. According to him, mankind is yet to see the best of this amazing technology.

4) AI or Artificial Intelligence: With the help of the first 3 components, they created AI. We have come a long way since tuning the radio to a station of our preference or turning on the television and being limited to the shows the cable operator provides. AI makes listening to music on YouTube convenient and of your choice. Even the recommendations on Netflix are through AI. It shows you recommendations based on the previously viewed shows. AI is nothing but machine learning. Raktim’s take on AI is that it has changed the way we do business. So, he readily agrees that businesses should welcome this technology for a real digital transformation.

As per Raktim, earlier, scaling a successful business was a big challenge. Becoming bigger means hiring more team members, catering to their unique needs, engaging with more customers and providing them a personalized experience. To do that, earlier, companies were forced to hire senior team members, who were good in making sure that all work between different stakeholders, is properly coordinated. To put it simply, companies used to create ‘Overhead’ roles as that was inevitable.

Now, with these 4 pillars, the equation has totally changed. More data means that your AI algorithm becomes much smarter. Also, you can store and do computation, in a cost-effective way by using CLOUD. So, in a nutshell, the more data you collect from your customers, employees, devices (IoT), the better will be the real personalized experience you can offer to each individual. This way, scaling is not a pain anymore.

Future-Proof Your Digital Transformation Journey: Raktim’s Advice

The mindset of business owners needs to change. Welcome change and technology so that they can expand and grow. They will need to know about the content of their business. A business will need to know how to provide more value to its customers and keep profits increasing too. This requires understanding the mindset & sub-conscious mind of each team member. Each human being is different & expects a totally personalized experience. Now with DT, it is possible to provide personalized experience, without spending too much money.

The digital thought leader’s advice to businesses is that they should future-proof their organisations by setting off on the path of digital transformation today as DT is a huge game to watch out for. It is something that can reinvent your thought process, business prospects, and your personal lives.