Digital Transformation Isn’t a Heart Transplant!

Digital Transformation – The power of putting People First

We absolutely embrace the belief that establishing a digital presence in the marketplace is vital to the future success of your brokerage – maybe even to its survival. A large and growing segment of your customer base is demanding the ability to interact with you digitally.

While a digital transformation might be necessary, don’t treat the development of a digital presence as if it were a corporate heart transplant for your brokerage! Your digital brand is a necessary addition to your capabilities, but what will continue to drive your business should be the beliefs and values that are at the heart of what you do.

In other words, we still need to put People First.

Lose sight of this, and you risk dehumanizing your relationships with your customers.

Just what are those beliefs and values that are at the heart of your business?

We’ve always called these ‘core values,’ but I think we need to give them a new name – Guiding Principles. You know them as your non-negotiables. Now you may be saying, “We’ve got that covered – our core values are honesty, customer first, great service…”

But I encourage you to dig deeper! What’s beneath all of those?

Here are ours to use as an example:

The iC3 Guiding Principles 

Passion – we are passionate about the work we do and only deal with clients who are just as passionate about their work.

Respect – we treat all those with whom we deal with deep respect at all times, and will accept nothing less in return.

Value – we believe that the long-term success of relationships is based on the creation of value for each other.

Results – we agree with Yoda: there is no ‘try,’ there is only ‘do’ or ‘do not.’ We are prepared to be measured by the results we achieve.

What to do next

Peel the onion and commit to writing your Guiding Principles! It might be hard work, but it will be worth it.

Then, use your Guiding Principles as a lens through which you will view every one of your key relationships – employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.

Make sure that your use of technology is done in a way that puts your Guiding Principles first and foremost. Technology must be an enabler of more thoughtful, meaningful human interaction – not a surrogate.

Once you have your Guiding Principles written down, the next step is to socialize them. By that, I mean train your Leadership Team and your Front-line Team to understand what the Guiding Principles look like as a set of behaviours, not just words. Then your people will have something to model.

By the way, as you’re looking through the Guiding Principles lens, if you find any relationships that conflict with your Guiding Principles, well, we think you know what you have to do next…the future of your business may depend on it!