First and foremost, digital transformation means consistent customer focus. We consider ourselves good at this and aim at staying that way. And here we are facing the same challenges as many companies that developed from small family businesses to global corporations with thousands of employees: In order to continue working successfully with our customers in the future, we have to flexibly adapt to changing conditions.
These include more complex internal structures as well as changing customer requirements, higher speed in R&D, shorter innovation cycles, more differentiated customer requirements or more diverse points of contact with existing or potential customers. Ultimately, the working conditions of our employees are changing and a new type of relationship with our customers is emerging. For these reasons, everything we do within the scope of our digital transformation journey aims at focussing on our strengths and developing new skills.
This means further developing cooperation and constant exchange. It is about the courage and confidence to try things out or the willingness to see mistakes as opportunities. The focus is also on new, digital business models: this ranges from comprehensive customer advice, service-oriented thinking in customer journeys to concrete technology-supported services.
We have to deal with the worries and challenges of our colleagues, solve their problems and invest in persuading them. That is time-consuming. But taking all employees along is key to success in digital transformation.
That is why we have created a digital agenda that is precisely tailored to our requirements and to our corporate culture: With the slogan "digital for future", we are taking the next pragmatic steps. Our roadmap has three fields of action, which we will systematically address in the coming years:
All three fields mean an intensive and exciting change process for the company and its employees. Such changes require a lot of communication, openness, patience and mutual trust. In parallel to this long-term perspective, we will optimize our existing core processes in the short and medium term and thus noticeably increase our efficiency. We will achieve this through intelligent IT solutions in all areas of the Coroplast Group – from development and production to administration, human resources and marketing.
In doing so, the value-added processes, associated IT projects and the three major fields of activity must be connected meaningfully. In this way, digital entrepreneurship will develop throughout the Coroplast Group.
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) sees itself as an interface, a source of inspiration, moderator and advocate for our clients. The DTO drives process optimization, innovation and new ideas to support the strategies and goals of the Coroplast Group. "We want to promote a culture of openness to new approaches. In doing so, we do not see digital transformation as an IT-driven project at its core. Digital tools are ultimately the consequence and not the starting point of our work. Digital transformation must also not become an end in itself, simply because we want to follow a trend. But Coroplast is so successful precisely because in the past we always focused our actions on a goal, on a concrete benefit. And we all have this clearly in mind for the digital transformation," says Michele Lagnese, our Head of Digital Transformation.