Digital transformation is something most leaders have been aware of for years. Pre-pandemic it was seen as a bonus for businesses, but in today’s market, digital is vital for organisations to survive in challenging times.
From adopting Google Workplace or Augmented and Virtual Reality and IoT solutions, going digital can mean a variety of things. Cloud integration, improving customer touch points and finding new ways to help employees connect at home or in the office are compelling avenues for digital change, and most leaders are actively exploring them.
According to Research and Markets, the digital transformation market size is expected to grow from $521.5 billion USD in 2021, to $1,247.5 billion USD by 2026, at a CAGR of 19.1%.
With digital, disruption is inevitable. While many businesses might believe disruption spells trouble, there are those that view it another way. Leaders who are not willing to become a victim of disruption are those that are able to not only accept change, but to become proactive in the face of it.
This particular breed of leader can be rare, but those who are able to embrace disruption, stand poised to reap the rewards of increased productivity and a sustained competitive edge.
CG Tech is an owner-managed investment holding company with interests in traditional industries with a digital twist. The group’s Chairman, Niall Carroll, with a storied career in investment banking and corporate advisory, has helped to create a unique environment where an ecosystem approach to investing is driving the group’s success.
Together with Chief Ecosystem Officer, Jason English, and the rest of the owner-managers, CG Tech is proving the key to surviving a crisis is not only embracing disruption but doing so in a way that empowers your teams and your people to make decisions and drive innovation.
“We accepted that disruption was unavoidable years ago. The key then became how we could properly prepare to sustain ourselves in times of crisis, while still taking care of our people,” explains Carroll.
Even before the pandemic, Carroll recognised the future of going virtual. In 2015 the group started a drone company, although they were primarily focused on the petrochemical services industry. The group recognised the operational synergies of employing advanced drone tech in the relatively unsophisticated world of oil and gas services and looked to see how this technology could be used within the group, as well as how it might power future innovations for the CG Tech teams.
“When we design solutions, we try to design them at scale so that we can take those across the network, as opposed to the teams in one area building solutions for just that area,” explains Carroll.
By not being afraid of future technologies, CG Tech was at the forefront of the digital innovations needed to help companies power through the pandemic. The group’s digital arm, The Virtulab, was already harnessing the technology needed to help businesses connect when the world went into lockdown in 2020.
The business quickly pivoted from providing in-house solutions for the CG Tech portfolio companies to building a digital platform that used virtual reality technologies to enhance the work-from-home revolution brought on by the pandemic.
“The development of the Virtuworx platform really proved to us just how important our form of investing is,” explains CEO Jason English.
By operating within an ecosystem, each of the CG Tech subsidiaries link together in one way or another. Synergies are recognised, partnerships are formed and an environment of openness and transparency serve to drive success across the group.
For Niall Carroll, competition is healthy but not if it restricts cooperation.
“The way we work, success for one equals success for us all,” says Carroll. “I’m not interested in chasing the long tail of one mega-successful company, with a majority of mediocre ones. I find it more interesting to create a group where innovation, and the people, power success across the entire ecosystem.”
For Carroll and English, a consistent theme around the importance of their people is no accident. While many confuse digital transformation with the replacement of manual labour, CG Tech’s people are at the centre of the Group’s transformation.
“A lot of innovation is designed to drive down cost and put people out of work. But actually, it doesn’t need to be that way,” explains Niall Carroll.
The key is to recognise that a company’s biggest resource is their people. Ironically, it would seem that digital transformation is really about making the jobs of people better, faster and more productive.
According to a study by McKinsey, 70 per cent of digital transformations fail, with many citing resistance from employees as the main reason. This gives us some insight into the importance of getting your people on board.
“Most people are afraid of change, especially if they think it means their job will become obsolete,” says Jason English. “We believe in new value creation. This manifests in the culture at CG Tech. Our people trust that the digital transformations we’re putting in place are about adding value, rather than cutting people.”
For CG Tech, digital transformation has been a driving force behind the group’s success and the catalyst used to help upskill their workforce. By putting their people and teams first, they are proving disruption can be used to improve not just a company’s bottom line, but also elevate culture, and sustainable business practices and lead to better innovation and efficiency within teams.