"If Airbnb has gained it was not due to technology"

Genís Roca puts digital culture ahead of technology as a key to success in the new business environment

Genís Roca
Genís Roca
Pau Garcia Fuster / Translation: Neil Stokes
10 de Maig de 2016
Act. 10 de Maig de 2016
In the era of the Internet of Things, of sensors that control everything and of applications of all sorts, it would be easy to hand over any project to technology. Genís Roca, an expert in digital transformation, warns that rather it is an issue of business management and culture. "The driver for change is not digital technology. A competitive advantage based on technology is not sustainable, you will soon be overtaken," he said in the latest Fòrum de Recursos Humans organised by Aedipe Catalunya.

"The driver of change is digital culture. If Airbnb has gained it is not due to technology, but rather due to a director general with digital culture." In the end, he says, "its technology is no more complicated than that used by Hotels Melià. Its competitive advantage is this digital culture and another way of understanding business." Roca encourages companies not to rush in and digitalise processes. When it is done, "it needs to be carefully thought out".

The partner-director of RocaSalvatella says that "each time I have changed the transmission of knowledge there has been a revolution in the way society is ordered." He is clear that we are now experiencing one of those moments that "have only happened seven or eight times in history." The beginning of writing or printing also marked "a change of era that attracted power around the new capacity."

Although change is always frightening, Roca plays this aspect down. "Each generation adapts to its own change. From handcrafting to industry, internationalisation... and now it is the turn of digital transformation." To his mind, "the Internet is a space of activity in which we should play. It is looking at this space that you find Airbnb, not by looking at the technology."

Who digitally transforms the company?
"Before you knew they hated you if they put you in charge of the intranet. Now you know it if they put you in charge of digital transformation," jokes Genís Roca. To understand what this transformation means, he goes over the stages of the Internet, insisting we are on our way to the third phase. "From 1995 to 2005 we talked about the Internet, but only large institutions were on it," he recalls. From 2005 to 2015 was the era of the web 2.0, in which "the technology and public access to the Internet was simplified." From 2015, he suggests, "began the era of digital transformation. Now, whoever connects to the Internet, begins to become the object." For Genís Roca, each stage has had a different part of the company responsible for it. "First it was an issue for the technology department, then it was marketing, and now it is a management issue."

Yet, how do you know if the company management has digitalised correctly? Roca puts forward the methodology proposed by MIT, in which the first thing to evaluate is if the management team has a clear vision of how the digital world will impact the business. "It is very hard to achieve this vision. Opting for a single vision is complicated, and finding consensus on it among the entire management is even more so," Roca warns.

Once this is achieved, the second thing is to act and take decisions. "It is especially hard in large companies, even if there is a vision," he points out. And what's more, even if decisions have been taken "it is essential that teams pay attention and carry it out, achieving good engagement." The last thing for the digitalisation of management is to see how the executive team takes advantage of the new technology to renew the vision. "The way that the management handles the novelties says a lot about real digital transformation," insists Genís Roca.

A moment during the speech by Genís Roca. VPV

In all, the expert recommends that the project of digital transformation should be led by a project manager. "His or her work has to be to check how the digitalisation is going in each section of the company." For Genís Roca, this person has to have enough influence to be able to let managers know which areas are not complying with the plans. It all has to be done with foresight "of two or three years, which is reviewed every few months."

Digital skills
"There is no talent, the good ones are not unemployed," says Genís Roca about the human capital needed when it comes to focusing on this whole process. "We begin to see that they are good and that perhaps the best thing is for them to work by project. Therefore, brands do not only have to be attractive to clients, but also they have to be so to candidates, in order to win them over," he adds. Yet, he reminds his audience that the basic skills required from here on, which were recently listed by the World Economic Forum, are not technological. Thinking, reading, the capacity for synthesis or leadership will continue to be important. However, he does highlight the fact that "they have to be validated in the digital environment because it has changed them."

One of these skills is writing. "Email is the notary that we have provided for organisations," Roca says ironically. "Young people begin using it when they enter the job market. At work we use it because it is a notary system of auditing in which everything is recorded."