Excerpted from the presentation of Shyam Sekar, founder Startup Xperts on the Rise conference in Bengaluru

Quickly introducing digital transformation. What do we mean by digital transformation? Yes, everybody has a mobile phone in their pockets. Today when you go to any shop whether it is a tender coconut person or a cobbler you can pay online. It's phenomenal. The transformation is happening big time at the ground level. When we talk about digital transformation for industries, digital transformation for companies is all your functions getting integrated through the digital mode that is digital transformation. Business resilience is all about businesses being able to withhold and thrive despite challenges. That's called the resilience. We could see various businesses running through decades and still trying ways to scale up and this could probably help you with. Some statistics that I will pick over the next thirty seconds.

NASSCOM says that thirty percent of the cost can be saved if SMEs go digital.

Not just that Deloitte, the largest consulting firm says forty percent more productivity can happen if you go digital.

IBM tells you twice as likely to be successful, and your success quotient increases by 2x.

And google says thirty percent more likely to export if you go digital.

So, there is no reason why we are not going digital, but it is critical how we do that. Having said that, technology has been impacting businesses. Yes, it does impact businesses, some businesses would have leveraged and grown, and some businesses that haven't moved to tech probably would have seen competition embracing technology building it up and probably losing an edge over there. So multiple scenarios could happen, but it does impact. Having said that technology doesn't impact all businesses at the same level and not all industries get impacted the same way. The levels of impact are different for every business.

Now we talk about waves. Just like the versions of software and computers that keep moving, in the nineties when computers came in people were shouting yes you bring in computers, we will lose jobs. Did we lose jobs? It created jobs, millions of jobs, it transformed the way we do business, likewise, we are talking about artificial intelligence, right? Is it going to take away jobs? The big question, there is a debate going on about which came first the chicken or the egg. Debates will continue but when you go back and then see what happened when you go forward and look where you are today, it is going to transform, yes, some monotonous, mundane jobs can go in a different direction, but it can create new jobs new skills and we can get empowered to do things differently. We need to transform ourselves, that is the purpose. There are three ways it can happen. The very first wave of basic digital foundation we can all have could be a mobile phone, email etc. Wave two is all about interconnecting businesses and then ensuring analytics, and insights are picked up dashboards are there to make your decisions. Business leaders need to have dashboards at any point in time, whether a manufacturing firm, of you into IT, technology firm, you need to have statistics and data to track productivity, find where leaks are, where can you improve, how can you add value to your customers, that's level two, wave two. Wave three, thanks to AI, thanks to robotics, it is happening very fast. The waves are happening fast. Having said that, you need to understand which wave you are in. Are you still in wave one which came twenty years ago, or you have already moved to wave two or are you ready to embrace wave three? I don't know, you will have to ask yourselves in terms. Wave three has already come how much have you integrated and incorporated technology into your business, technology is not just for IT companies the reason being. Look at how can it help you in terms of saving costs.

What should you do to get into digital mode? What should you do to boost your revenues and build your business? Here are the ten steps.

Start small and scale up: The smallest thing comes from our brains, the thought process that yes, I am ready to make the shift then that is the very first step into getting into digital mode. Mind is the biggest barrier. If you continue to do what you do you will continue to get what you get. If you think I need to multiply my business I need to scale up my revenues I need to get more customers, I need to build a better brand I need to have more employees then, you have to do something different. So, what are you going to do differently? So, think about it and start small. you do not need to think of forty functions take one area one small thing and then just get that in the place or some kind of technology enablement.

Focus on your customers: We exist because of our customers which means what is going to impact your customers will make a difference in you choosing the right area to focus on digitally. Eighty-twenty rule everyone knows right? So, the twenty percent of your change will get you eighty percent of your scale and business and profitability. It always applies irrespective of organisation. So, which are the areas that you can focus on that you can give maximum value to our customers? That is where you need to pick up. Pick up one and say this can be impactful I am going to try this out. I am not asking you to stop anything. Production, nothing gets stopped. But you are going to take a small tweak and say yes, I am going to do this. so that my consumer impact is felt I get more business I get more references, or I can address new markets and new customers. I can beat the competition.

Assess your current stage of digital maturity: Where you are? are you in level one or level two or three? you have to ask the questions; you have to analyse and find out if there is a big room in wave two where you can leverage better because wave three is already there. If you have still not embraced wave two then it has got to be even more challenging. the challenges will be mounting on you heavily. And SMEs need to rise to the occasion and ensure they can do it better.

Develop a digital transformation strategy: Everything starts with the strategy. If we don't have a strategy in place, why are you doing it, what you are expecting, what time frame, and what do I measure, it’s difficult so you need to have a strong strategy to have it.

Invest in the technology and tools: Unless and until you understand what technology and tools to use and how could transform your business it is difficult to do. Invest in training and development: People need to be trained. If you are implementing a small solution, you must have a team onboard and trained first.

Get help from experts: Everything is not feasible on our own. You need to have experts come in There are many people like us who can help you do that. They are available everywhere. Just reach out to them and ask for support, they are available to help you out.

Get your team on board: This again I have found in my corporate life. Some solutions were used but they had to be shelved. The reason people were not on board. They were forced to do something, and they would cannibalise the entire initiative. They will find reasons not to use it. They will come with a hundred problems and complaints and management will say leave it, let's wrap it up let's not take the solutions any longer. But the objective of taking the solution is different if you have not onboarded your team and made them understand yes, it is not policing, it is for your good. You need to track your customers and how to enable communication with the customers it is a tool to achieve you better. Get the team on board. Unless and until it is done digital transformation strategy may not work.

Be flexible and adaptive: Flexibility and adaptability is always the key. The market is constantly shifting. The undercurrents are very high. you have to be agile and adaptable and don't get locked and do something. I know people who have built solutions and by the time the second year has gone, the wave has already gone the recommendation has already gone all the twenty-thirty-forty lakhs spent has gone down the drain. So, you need to be agile, you need to know what you have to do to get it into place and scale it up.

And finally, measure your progress: Anything that doesn't get measured doesn't get done. That is the clear saying. Anything you are going to do you have to be clear in terms of what KPIs you have to measure. You have to be clear about what methodology you are going to measure and see how you are progressing against the goals there can be shifting and there can be alignments you need to have something at the broader scale so that you can measure it up.