Aurélien Gohier: “Digital Transformation — Let’s Stop Generating Guilt”

The time to transform is now! At Talkspirit, we firmly believe that. But we shouldn’t leave behind the companies that have decided not to go fully digital, as Aurélien Gohier recently explained to us — a B2B marketing expert and author of the BtoB Marketing & Sales blog. We share his vision of an inclusive digitalization that advances progressively and fights the digital divide. Let’s hear it from him.

Hi Aurélien, you chose the word “inclusion” to discuss digital transformation. Why?

We too often assume that digital transformation is a done deal, and that those left behind have somehow chosen to be there. That’s a mistake. In 2017, Bpifrance interviewed 1,800 business leaders on the subject: 87 % of them said they did not make digital transformation a strategic priority. We have to be careful not to underread that figure. The cliché of the SME owner who thinks their company “works perfectly well without digital” and resists change tends to dominate our thinking — and while that person does exist, I’ve never personally met one. The reality is far more complex. When a large corporation has five or ten years ahead of it to start feeling the return on investment of this kind of transformation, an SME has one or two years at best. Add to that the fact that an SME that “botches” its digital transformation genuinely risks disappearing — something far less true for a large group. For this reason, SMEs need more targeted support on the road to digitalization, as well as financial and non-financial resources to enable change.

We hear a lot about the service economy era, about AI, predictive technologies, and all manner of incredible visions — while for some businesses, collaboration still means FTP transfers. And this isn’t just a marginal fringe of change resisters. The digital divide is real, whether at the individual or company level. 500,000 French citizens live in so-called “ white zones” — areas with no internet access at all. And that’s just the extreme end, not the intermediate forms of the digital divide that are less acute but just as impactful. I’ll admit I sometimes feel a bit lost: facing the Bpifrance figures above, I read studies like this one from Forrester claiming that in 2019, 85 % of companies were implementing or planning to implement IoT solutions. Quite frankly, that must be fairly anxiety-inducing for a regional SME leader who hasn’t yet transformed their business model. Much like those recruitment agency reports explaining that a digital marketing manager should be earning between €110k and €130k by age 30. Let’s stop generating guilt about not being digital enough and/or wealthy enough. In both cases, it helps no one.

If I hadn’t chosen the word “inclusion,” I would have chosen “precision.” One of the enemies of inclusive digital transformation is the constant conflation between transforming marketing through digital channels and fundamentally transforming a company’s processes and business model in the age of the usage and knowledge economy. If you search “ digital transformation expert” in the LinkedIn search bar, you’ll very likely land on 80 % digital marketing experts — not digital transformation experts proper. Having spent time with many academic, institutional and private industry players, I see how damaging and discrediting this confusion is for those genuinely working to spread the right messages about the need for business transformation.

Do you think digital can truly be for everyone?

I’m not qualified to say whether universal digital access is realistic, or within what timeframe. One thing is certain, though: access to digital tools is one thing; using them well is another. We all need to push governments to put in place the means necessary for everyone to benefit positively from digital — beyond the infrastructure gaps (internet access) that fuel the digital divide. I believe the internet has still not fulfilled one of its major objectives: democratizing knowledge for all. We thought that having good information available to everyone would be enough to narrow the knowledge divide — but it wasn’t.

I believe the internet has, in some respects, actually widened that divide: those who are already well-educated have the means to become even more so, faster — while those without that advantage are negatively influenced by an increasingly shallow information landscape. In short: whatever the medium of knowledge, if you don’t have the codes and methods for healthy, critical, in-depth learning, the fact that it’s now accessible from your phone with a swipe of a thumb doesn’t fundamentally change anything. The analogy for business: implementing and using a collaboration optimization platform is relatively straightforward. Using digital tools consistently, for long-term competitiveness and innovation, while keeping people and skills at the center, is a whole other level. That’s typically the job of a digital transformation expert — not a digital marketing expert like me, even if that doesn’t stop me from having an opinion!

To draw another analogy with the environment: we know that each of us can spread good practices in our own circle — sorting waste, flying less, not throwing batteries in the bin, buying a metal water bottle (#magourdeamoi, an initiative championed by my beloved Roméo Elvis), and plenty of other fairly basic things. But if governments worldwide don’t put in place real measures and regulations to avert catastrophe, then our small everyday actions will be as well-meaning as they are futile. With digital, the stakes aren’t comparable, but the principle is the same: the governing bodies of our country must enable and ensure that this wave of transformation happens without leaving any company on the sidelines. Organizations like La French Fab, the Alliance Industrie du Futur and many others are working toward that goal, and the outcomes are very encouraging!

Also read: Digital Transformation: 5 Challenges and 25 Key Concepts

Isn’t there a contradiction here — digital can be a lever for inclusion, but also a source of exclusion and disengagement?

I read recently on the Blog du Modérateur that the average lifespan of a company was 67 years in 1927, and that figure has now fallen to under 10 years. Digital transformation opens up extraordinary possibilities for reinventing business models — but it’s also a steamroller for those who don’t keep pace. At least, that’s what the numbers say. This is precisely the mission of initiatives like the French Fab Tour, which travels across regions to meet companies, gauge their needs and their appetite for transformation. In the fight against the digital divide, everyone has a role to play. As in countless other situations, benevolence is one of the key ingredients.

A small story that partly illustrates my feeling about this need to change habits: three weeks ago, on a business trip, I found myself seated in a row of three on a plane. To my left, a man close to sixty, working on what appeared to be a complex algorithm on a laptop from a brand I won’t name, but whose logo is a fruit you can eat with or without the skin. To my right, a man of around 45, who had printed out emails and articles on industry and high-tech topics, by the look of it, and was highlighting them with a marker while taking notes on paper. Both men were equally likely to be brilliant and to hold significant responsibilities in a company. And yet, at that precise moment, my perception of competitiveness and what I consider “modernity” was biased by the automatic association we make between the use of new technologies and workplace performance.

Yes, modern work tools can make us more productive and effective. But we can also get lost in the digital maze: checking our emails too often, constantly bombarded by smartphone notifications, and much more. This sometimes distorted vision of the tools a modern worker should use can breed a kind of ostracism toward those who are not eager to change their working methods overnight. Inclusive digital transformation starts with a compassionate consideration of more traditional ways of working.

At the company level, it’s a bit harder to play devil’s advocate, because it has become almost impossible to remain competitive without embedding digital at the heart of your strategy. During a filmed conversation with Patrice Bégay, Executive and Communications Director at Bpifrance, at Global Industrie last week, we discussed the fact that transformation must be driven from the very top of the organization. And it’s not enough for a CEO to express the desire to put digital at the heart of priorities: they need to invest time and money to make it happen, and staff the transformation project accordingly. Many companies, like Dassault Systèmes, have made it their business to support large groups, SMEs and startups through this process. I’m also sharing a short video that perfectly sums up what’s at stake in a digital maturity assessment for a company — a necessary step before diving headlong into a transformation and tool implementation process.

A final word?

I’ll borrow a quote I heard in an excellent podcast, “Paris en contre-plongée,” produced by Bleu de Chanel and made by Webedia. Jean-François Richet cites Napoleon Bonaparte: “ In revolutions, there are two kinds of people: those who make them and those who benefit from them. ” No need to choose which side you’re on — I just thought the quote was very cool. 🙂