Digital and sustainable value chain and process transformation refers to the process of integrating digital technologies and sustainable practices into every step of a company's value chain and business processes. The value chain consists of all the activities involved in creating and delivering a product or service to customers, from raw material sourcing to end-of-life disposal. The goal of digital and sustainable value chain transformation is to optimize the value chain by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and improving the sustainability of the entire process.

Digital transformation involves using digital technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics to streamline business processes, increase efficiency, and improve decision-making.

Sustainable transformation involves incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into business practices to reduce environmental impact, ensure social responsibility, and improve long-term financial performance. A concept called a "sustainable value chain" focuses on global issues including human rights, climate change and the melting of the polar ice caps, ethical labor practices, marine pollution, shrinking forest cover, plastic pollution, air pollution, etc. The key characteristics of appropriateness in the global value chain are environmental, economic, and social factors.

In summary, digital and sustainable value chain and process transformation is essential for companies to remain competitive, meet sustainability goals, and comply with regulations while providing a better customer experience and reducing costs.

Businesses that use the strength of significant new technology to provide an entirely new level of innovative service or brand-new products are known as digital disruptors. They offer a whole new level of ground-breaking service or brand-new products, harnessing the power of important new technologies. These are the emerging businesses that have received a lot of money and may potentially be on the verge of becoming the next unicorn.

What’s keeping them back?

These digital disruptors can’t reach the next level because of the bottlenecks that come from operational inefficiencies. Many realize that they are not sophisticated in their operations capabilities. They’ve done a good job in establishing scale, but when operations issues start to balloon, they don’t have the capacity to manage those challenges, and more importantly, remove the roadblocks to growth.

These operational challenges hit companies of every size at some point in their evolution, especially as they reach a stride in their customer growth.

A self-driving value chain is already being implemented by leading businesses. Companies need to change their end-to-end operational model in order to stay competitive.

Sustainable value chain transformation strategy is a mechanism for accelerating science-based policy action on sustainable consumption and production. In order to limit the use of natural resources and the environmental effects of production and consumption, the strategy identifies critical sites of intervention within economic systems and establishes a shared agenda for action1. Businesses may contribute significantly to the transition to an economy that respects the limitations of nature and people by adopting a sustainable strategy and creating long-term value.

Define the strategy, which involves identifying the goals and objectives of the digital and sustainable value chain initiative. This includes understanding customer needs, identifying the most critical business processes, and setting targets for improvements in sustainability, efficiency, quality, and customer experience.

Assess the current state of the value chain, including the existing IT infrastructure, business processes, and technology landscape. This involves mapping data on natural resource use and environmental impacts, identifying key hot spots, gaps and areas for improvement to align with the digital and sustainable strategy.

Identify a common agenda & prioritize actions for all actors along the value chain. Consolidate existing action & identify opportunities, This involves identifying the most important digital technologies and tools required to enable the digital and sustainable value chain, such as automation, AI, and data analytics.

And the next step is to implement the digital and sustainable value chain. This involves developing and deploying the necessary digital technologies and tools, integrating them into existing business processes and IT infrastructure.

Once the digital and sustainable value chain is implemented, it is essential to monitor its performance continuously. This includes collecting data and feedback, identifying issues, and optimizing the digital value chain to continuously improve its efficiency, quality, and customer experience.