Digital culture is defined as the set of customs, practices and consumption habits —both for purchases and sales— and social interaction that are carried out through digital technology tools, such as Information and Communication Technologies.

Building a digital culture aims to answer a simple question: how to succeed when the operating environment is changing rapidly?

New strategies must adapt to an ever-evolving digital world, where companies have more data to analyze, and the media landscape is getting bigger and more complex. This has forced organizations to evolve at the same pace. And that is precisely what it means to adopt a digital culture!

Its elements allow you to find any type of information, share experiences and launch multiple activities, among other actions. This democratic, broad and inclusive environment contributes more to the development of new technologies and the innovation of companies.

Find out more about the essence of digital culture by reading our post!

Contents : show

Digital culture: what is it?

Digital culture is the way in which people interact with technology, both in the personal and professional sphere. Although they may seem synonymous, digital culture is not the same as digital transformation!

Over generations, we have defined “culture” as a synergy of underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, norms, habits, symbols, and languages that define and characterize a group.

This definition has changed significantly with the advent of disruptive technologies and digital tools. In addition to the favorable impact of innovation on the business environment, innovative technological resources have enabled companies to adapt and reap the benefits of anticipating and meeting the demands of globalization.

In the field of organizations, it is essential to focus on a digital culture approach, as necessary and depending on the demands of the market.

For this, the organizational culture must be capable of accompanying changes, integrating new processes, approaches, policies and technologies, with the aim of modernizing, accelerating and optimizing the quality of corporate strategies.

This means that, in the current context, corporate success is closely linked to the company’s ability to align its culture with the digital approach and replace the “what to do?” do?”.

Having said this, it is clear that the purpose of digital culture is to optimize current models, procedures, structures and processes, which depends on a change in mindset driven by business management.

Why should companies align to digital culture?

Now that we have analyzed what digital culture is, it is time to explore 4 fundamental reasons why this should be a key concern in any organization.

Let’s see!

1. Digital culture dictates the pace of digital transformation

Research by Couchbase indicated that more than 90% of digital transformation initiatives fail .

So why has failure become an expected outcome? The answer is that many companies believe that investing in digital technologies is enough to propel them towards Industry 4.0.

However, its effectiveness is the result of the combination of three elements: strong leadership, relevant technologies and the definition of a strong digital culture.

2. It is a competitive advantage

Beyond being expressively relevant to good performance, effective productivity and successful business results, digital transformation alone is not enough to drive business development.

The reason why digital culture plays such an important role is because its very principles revolve around employees, their performance, and their purposes. Thus, incorporating it into the company helps cultivate a positive work environment and promotes prosperous coexistence between collaborators and disruptive tools.

In fact, the adoption of a digital culture enables organizations to foster a collaborative and harmonious environment between various points of view, thus avoiding problems in labor relations and, above all, the lack of proactivity in work teams.

As you can see, this digital approach is the basis of a highly innovative company, which can:

Unlock unexpected added value.
Deliver products and services to customers that exceed their expectations, improving their experience with the brand.
Set new goals for the adoption of new technologies.

3. It is essential for business longevity

In his book, “ Building Digital Culture,” author Daniel Rowles, CEO of Target Internet, advises organizations that they should treat digital disruptions like anything they have responded to in the past.

Technology is constantly evolving, generally responding to market demands and trends. Therefore, businesses have no choice but to take a risk and experiment.

Rowles’ argument supports the evolution of disruptive companies like Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, MercadoLibre, among many others, which have managed to reinvent business models without showing any signs of slowing down.

Being able to do so requires implementing an organizational culture that leverages technology, is risk-taking, and constantly tries to deliver customer value. In short, the reinvention of business models requires the structuring of a strong digital culture.

4. Improve employee engagement

A study done by Microsoft EMEA found that organizations with a well-established digital culture have:

5 times more staff who feel empowered.
4 times more collaborators with a high degree of commitment.
3 times more members with a high level of innovation.
2 times more collaborators who feel productive.

How is this possible?

Here are some facts about modern contributors:

They want to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for what they do.
They are more motivated when they see a sense of purpose, value, and meaning in what they do.
They seek openness, equality and a sense of community.
They expect open and honest feedback.
They know that a company’s greatest asset is its workforce.

By meeting the expectations of the members of the company, they can generate 26% higher profits. This is because highly engaged employees:

they take less sick leave;
they stay with the company longer;
they find ways to reduce costs and maximize value;
they are promoters of the brand, as well as being able to constantly surprise and delight the customer, irrevocably retaining their loyalty.

How to accelerate innovation through digitization?

For a company, advancing in the digital transformation process is not only a way to optimize its internal dynamics, but also represents a powerful advantage over the competition.

But what can we do to promote innovation in our business?

The most consistent way to achieve this challenge is by prioritizing the digitization of archives and, consequently, of information.

Below, we present 4 key measures to boost innovation in the company through digitization.

1. Analyze the current landscape

Before embarking on designing a plan that makes digitization viable, it is essential that corporate managers know and understand the reality of their business. This covers:

analyze the effectiveness of the processes in progress;
verify performance indicators that provide relevant information on the digital environment;
establish digitalization objectives in accordance with corporate purposes;
consider the conditions of the work teams and detect their level of knowledge in terms of technology and innovation.

2. Integrate tools that add value to the business

Technological progress has led to the emergence of various useful tools for organizations, this is the case of integrated management and communication systems, as well as electronic signature platforms.

Regarding the latter, it is an extremely relevant resource to modernize operations and maximize the use of good business opportunities.

By having an electronic signature solution, the company can quickly send, receive and sign documents, avoiding wasting time and money printing files and hiring logistics services.

Likewise, the electronic signature presents legal validity, a fact that makes it possible to present the documents as probative instruments before the courts.

To introduce this platform to the reality of the business, it is recommended:

analyze the demands of your business considering the processes that can incorporate the solution, the budget, the staff profile and their degree of knowledge in terms of technology;
select 2 or 3 providers, investigate their reputation, evaluate the peculiarities of each platform and choose the one that best suits the needs of your company;
define a data storage and handling policy incorporating information security measures;
train collaborators on the operating mechanism of the program;
evaluate the results obtained taking into account metrics and indicators.

If you consider these tips, the process of introducing electronic signature software will be extremely profitable and, consequently, the company will enjoy a good experience.

3. Bet on scalability

Ideally, the company should implement technologies that can scale with the growth of the business. In this way, in the face of an expansion or abrupt increase in production, the business does not need to replace its tools with more powerful ones.

Keep in mind that these changes not only require investing more capital, but also open space for the occurrence of errors due to lack of mastery of the new tool, at the same time that they generate some resistance and dissatisfaction among collaborators.

4. Train your collaborators

In order to prevent professionals from presenting a closed and pessimistic position towards the digitization proposal, it is crucial that managers develop training and training as soon as they decide to integrate a new technology.

In addition to adding abundant information about the tool, it is worth implementing actions and tasks that bring the members of the team closer to the leaders. These measures not only foster employee enthusiasm for the new technology, but also increase the organization’s credibility in the eyes of its professionals.

That is all for today!

The benefits of investing in and cultivating digital culture are obvious. However, the question remains: how far along is your organization in its journey? Do you want to start digitizing operations across the entire business infrastructure?

If so, we invite you to try our electronic signature solution, an essential option to speed up and multiply the number of contracts signed with your employees, suppliers and customers.

Related post: