Digital Burgers, Analog Minds.
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I went to Mcdonalds (Don’t judge) last night with my older brother. He is 12 years my senior and just a little bit of a technophobe. The whole concept of what Standard Harvest does is
completely foreign to him.
McDonald’s was packed. You’d think they had the best burgers in the world! What else explains why they are always so busy?
“Look,” I said, pointing to a row of kiosks, each one displaying a sideways mounted touchscreen monitor. “Let’s just use those.”
He agreed and the line was avoided, the food delivered, unpackaged and rammed into our faces. The familiar shame associated with eating at McDonald’s began to tickle my brain when…
“So it’s like, an app right? That’s what you do? He asked after he submerged his last fry in ketchup and popped it into his mouth.
“Kinda, but no, “We Simplify Digital Transformation”
“Yea, like an app right?
“No, but kinda”. I buried my head in my hands out of frustration, fiddled with the garbage and wrappers to fill the confused silence. The whole concept of digital transformation is as abstract as it is undefined. We don’t really know what a completed transition looks like or what makes one successful. We only know what one doesn’t look like and where it leads.
Businesses closing their doors and going out of business… Remember Blockbuster Video?
“Well I still don’t get it man, I want to, but I don’t.”
After several moments I had a thought. ‘Wait a second”, I snapped at him. “Look around.”
“Ok….”
“Here, Mcdonalds, this is a good example of a digital transformation.”
“What do you mean?”
I pointed up to the front of the restaurant. “What did we do when we came in and saw that the line was too long? We said screw the line and jumped on the touchscreens, right?”
“Yea…”
Next, I pointed out front. “See those spots? The reserved ones? Those are for the app customers, the ones who order from the app. ( I wonder what percentage of app orders are placed while using the bathroom?). All this technology is…”
“Ohh I get it, It’s about using new technologies any way you can?”
“No man” I sighed. “Digital transformation isn’t necessarily about the technology, it’s about drastically improving customer experience. Customer experience bro, not customer service anymore.”
“But you said it’s uber-important?” He asked.
“Because its true, If McDonald’s didn’t innovate in this space, if they didn’t leverage technology to make our experience better, another company eventually will and McDonald’s will end up like Friendster, remember them?”
“No, Who?”
“My point exactly.”
These next few days, look around at as many examples of digital transformation as you can find. They are everywhere.
I’d like to hear from you. What are some of the challenges you run into regarding digitization?
