Aggressive digital strategies key to PH firms’ competitiveness, says McKinsey

Philippine companies need to take bold initiatives in the digital sphere and use technology to remain relevant and competitive in today’s so-called age of disruption, according to an international consulting sphere.

In a statement, McKinsey & Co. said research covering over 2,000 of the largest nonfinancial firms globally over a decade showed that companies must now address and highlight digitization, advanced technologies and tech-enabled disruption in business transformations.

Unfortunately, only one in 12 companies truly succeed at transformation, the firm said.

“McKinsey has supported many companies in the Philippines and Southeast Asia to successfully transform over many years,” the firm’s manager for Southeast Asia Kaushik Das said. “Initially, we developed a simple recipe for performance transformation results, focused on ambition, people and execution.”

The research added that technology and digital-driven strategies are now more effective than traditional approaches in change management programs because, more than improving speed and cost-efficiency, digital also builds capacities.

“With the Southeast Asia region changing rapidly, we recognize that it is increasingly important for companies to also pursue big moves, such as reinventing or innovating their revenue models, fully embracing the power of digital and analytics, and making bold portfolio choices,” Das said. “Going all in by pursuing performance transformation and ‘big moves’ in parallel significantly improves a company’s chances of successfully transforming.”

McKinsey research estimates that the arrival of what it calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to create up to $3.7 trillion in value to global manufacturing, underlying the tremendous opportunities that successful, holistic technology-enabled transformation can bring.

These opportunities were discussed at the firm’s Decoded Philippines anniversary event under the theme of “Technology, Transformation and Trends”— three dimensions that are essential for helping Philippine corporates lead and win in a technology-enabled world.

“McKinsey sees great promise for Filipino corporations in the age of disruption. The Philippines has been identified as a recent accelerator in a region of outperformers,” said Vinayak HV, McKinsey’s digital leader for Southeast Asia.

“This will see global trends hitting the shores of the Philippines in the next decade, and the country must leverage these opportunities to future proof its growth,” he said.