Interview with Michael Delcamp: Digital Transformation

Team members frequently ask me, "What is a digital transformation?" My first response is to share what it is not. Digital transformation is not technology-driven or led by the IT department. It's not solely about implementing new tools and data systems, and it's certainly not fast or a one-time event. Digital transformation is about people, processes, and solving problems. It's integrating digital technology into all business areas, fundamentally changing how we operate, and delivering value to our customers. It's also a cultural change that requires us to continually challenge the status quo, innovate, experiment, and get comfortable with failing, learning, and improving as an organization.

This can mean walking away from long-standing business processes that Cochran was built upon in favor of new and innovative practices that are being developed and refined. These practices focus on customer experience as well as operational agility and innovation, culture and leadership, workforce enablement, and the integration of digital technology and business intelligence.

Why is digital transformation important to us? This question always reminds me of the well-known case study of Blockbuster vs. Netflix. Despite its dominance in the home video market in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Blockbuster did not adapt and was slow to recognize the potential of online video rental and streaming. It also remained committed far too long to its late fee revenue stream. We all know how that one turned out. Why is this important for Cochran? To answer this question, we must look to our organizational strategy. What will support revenue growth, deliver greater diversity of partnerships, optimize business processes and collaboration, enhance the application of data and business intelligence to decision-making, support better use of capital, enable safety compliance, attract and retain the best talent, and outpace our competition?

What does a digital transformation look like? Here are a few examples of the types of changes you may initiate, experience, and support during Cochran’s digital transformation:

- Providing our customers with ways to resolve many of their support questions themselves rather than contacting customer support to do even routine account maintenance activities

- Replacing on-premise data storage with cloud-based data management and backup

- Setting up communication tools that better align with how we work

- Using analytic tools to gain better insights into customer behavior and product usage

- Deploying our company’s software offering as a software as a service (SaaS) solution so that customers can access it without having to download anything

What is your role in our digital transformation? As a member of this outstanding team, be curious and share your knowledge and expertise with others. Look for ways to create value and approach challenges and opportunities with an innovative and continuous improvement mindset.