Digital 2.0 Episode 3: Miloš Topić, Chief Digital Officer at Grand Valley State University

“Digital transformation” is a catchy phrase. But it’s also a phantom—and everyone’s chasing it.

To illustrate the point, travel back to 2017. At the time, General Electric was making headlines for its preemptive decision to transition to digital ahead of its competition.

They made headlines. The tech industry applauded their ingenuity.

A year later, the company was up for sale. Why? They couldn’t weather the revolving door of leadership changes, dividend cuts, credit downgrades, and a killer stock crash.

Technology didn’t save General Electric, and it won’t save anyone—unless it’s backed by vision, purpose, and people.

Miloš puts it brilliantly: “Digital is actually analog.”

Emerging technology comes along every day.

But for Miloš, tools and technology don’t matter—at least not on their own. And neither do policies, procedures, and guidelines.

“If you can’t influence the culture or help people reimagine themselves, you can’t make the magic happen. It’s still about people.” 

It goes back to the old adage: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, bring others along.

It doesn’t matter how good you are, Miloš says. “If you’re really looking to transform your business, you can’t do it alone.”

Every year, we see more than 5 trillion ads. And every day, the average consumer attempts to process more than 100,000 words.

We’re inundated. So when an ad comes up, we fast forward, hit mute, or pick up our device and go to the bathroom or kitchen.

We’ve stopped paying attention—partially because we’re overloaded and partly because people haven’t mastered the art of storytelling.

The art of storytelling has implications that extend beyond marketing—and Miloš argues that it would behoove the tech industry to master its narrative.

“If you want to be around in 10 years, you better know how to tell a story,” he says.
“And we’re not talking used car-salesman stuff, either.”

To succeed, you have to move people out of their comfortable seats. You must know how to encourage risk-taking. Get people closer to the edge. And do it with a story.

Or there’s the inverse: Clients want what is best for them but not necessarily in the company’s best interest.

During our conversation, Miloš dug into his past and pulled out an amusing, and somewhat disturbing, story to illustrate such a case.

“Almost 10 years ago, I was part of a five-person team,” he said, “and we were consulting for a big company that I can’t name.”

Miloš and his team worked with the company for months, and after a week-long series of meetings, the team presented their report.

“It’s about six o’clock on a Friday evening now,” Miloš recounts, “and I’m on the 50th floor of the building with the CEO, who opens the bar and pours me a glass out of a $12K bottle of Louis the XIV.”

Then the CEO says, “I see we need to make a change. But I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Why? The answer is two-fold.

First, the CEO was a year away from retirement. Second, he needed a new boat. 

That’s not all. See, the CEO had a strategy for raising the company stock price—and if he hit his numbers, he’d cash in on a $14M bonus.

Here’s the lesson:

You can tell a great story. You can present the results and use logic and common reason to convince people to change. But no matter what you do, you’re going to have to battle emotions—and boats.

Learn to accept it.