HBR Article: How Midsize Companies Can Drive Digital Transformation

The last few years have brought unprecedented challenges, opportunities, and evolution for companies of all sizes. The middle market is no exception. In fact, the pandemic served as an accelerator for a number of initiatives that were perhaps just wishes and dreams for mid-sized companies a handful of years ago, but are now very much the reality for these businesses today. By far, no other force is driving more significant change, and subsequent ramifications, than digital transformation.

Digital Transformation Is Different in the Middle

The National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) actively monitors the state of technology implementation and digital change at mid-size companies — a focus that began in 2019 even before the pandemic hit. We define the middle market as companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion annually, a wide range, for sure, but representative of the middle-third of the U.S. private sector in terms of GDP and employment. While the scale of technology investment can vary greatly across middle-market companies of different sizes as well as industries, there are still common issues prevalent for mid-market leaders across the spectrum as they consider making a move toward an increasingly digital future.

Perhaps most notably, resources — capital, people, time — are always an issue. Resources are typically more constrained in mid-size companies than in a larger enterprise where digital transformation is often strategically managed by a dedicated department or team. On the other end of the spectrum, small businesses aren’t typically in a position to even need such platforms, so the resource challenge is unique to the middle market. Another challenge is the reality that, in most cases, the “trendy” digital systems and tools are either (1) too expensive, (2) not scaled appropriately for current needs, and/or (3) require a great deal of support to implement (and possibly maintain).

Read the full article on hbr.org