At the recent business breakfast on ‘Digitization’ on November 15, 2019, organized by WTC Eindhoven business society, Baltan Laboratories got invited, on behalf of RegionArts, to animate a round-table discussion on the synergies between Arts and ICT. During the plenary sessions of the event, some key elements and challenges surfaced that SMEs face when embarking on the journey of digital transformation.
For example: while more than 80% of consumers shop online, and a similar number of entrepreneurs understand the value of digital technologies, only 15% of all companies offer online sales and an equally low number has a strategy for digitization in place.
From the dialogue with the audience, it became clear that an important reason for this discrepancy is the (perceived) complexity of digital transformation and the (perceived) lack of low-threshold guidance and assistance. As digitization can potentially impact and improve all aspects of a business, a lot of SME entrepreneurs in the room testified to have questions such as: “Where should I start? And where do I stop?”. Also, while a lot of support measures and policies appeared to be in place, they weren’t always known to those who could benefit from them.
Another recurring aspect was the balance between top-down and bottom-up. While a digitization strategy impacts the corporate level, everyone agreed it would best be developed and implemented from the bottom-up: involving the employees that on a daily basis act within certain procedures and therefore are best positioned to detect the opportunities for improvement.
At the round table during the break, some participants agreed that more conceptual and artistic approaches could generate value in the context that had been put forward. Where traditional analytic approaches reach their limits, artistic thinking could open up new avenues. And also in the empowerment and self-awareness of the all-important employees, creative and artistic thinking could play an important role.
Overall an insightful morning for RegionArts in a context surrounded by SME entrepreneurs and ICT professionals. No doubt to be continued…
