Digital culture is no longer an optional addition to the corporate one: it turns into its key element. Today, it is the level of employees’ digital maturity that determines a business sustainability, the efficiency of processes, and companies’ willingness to change. These issues were discussed by the participants of the Panel Discussion «The Employee’s Digital DNA: I’m not an IT specialist, so what?», organized by BUSINESS ACADEMY B1 LLC as part of the SPIGF-2025 business program.

Research shows that most Russian companies still face the same barriers during digitalization. The main ones remain the shortage of financial resources, the lack of digital competencies and no packaged solutions in the market.

However, as Tatiana Suslova, CEO of BUSINESS ACADEMY B1 LLC, emphasized, the problem is not the amount of resources, but how companies manage them: «There are always not enough finances. Herewith, the majority of companies waste their efforts, not tracking priorities related to digital transformation, which results in not completing initiatives».

Ashot Mosesyan, Advisor to the CEO for Digitalization and Automation of BURSERVICE LLC, confirmed this thesis, «The problem is not the lack of suitable technologies, but the top managers’ inability or unwillingness to immerse deeply into digital initiatives, identifying priority points of applying effort and managing the changes while implementing such projects. Not focusing on specific problems, the organization tends to do everything at once, and that’s why it doesn’t achieve results».

The experts have noticed that many companies are abandoning packaged digital solutions in favor of customized ones. However, their development is entrusted not to qualified vendors with the necessary subject expertise, but to common IT companies that lack such knowledge and experience by default. Accordingly, customers are forced to provide their own staff as algorithmists and analysts. This results in their setting the task by themselves, independently figuring out how to solve it, and it is they who accept the finished product. Moreover, no one usually removes current engineering tasks from them. Hence the constant budget overruns mentioned by the respondents, and the damage to the customer’s core business, which often remains behind the scenes. This approach to developing takes a lot of time, since there are many bottlenecks in the process organized in this way. By the way, everyone of us sees how rapidly IT technology develops, and with long development periods, the product sometimes becomes obsolete even before its release. «Imagine a person who wants to dress in fashion. He buys an expensive suit in a store, puts it on, goes outdoors, and this style is already outdated! This is exactly the situation we are witnessing in the field of information technology», gave Ashot a good image.

According to the research presented, 57% of large digital programs fail to achieve their goals due to the lack of partnership between business and IT. This is complicated by the lack of digital competencies in business-unit managers.

Aleksander Piskarev, Deputy General Director for IT at KOMOS GROUP LLC, is confident that 90% of the digitalization success depends on people, not technology: «Line managers see the problems, but are afraid of talking about them to top managers for the fear of being accused of incompetence and mistakes».

Jimsher Chelidze, expert at the Gazprom Burenie and RusGazBurenie Groups of Companies, listed five key digital competencies needed by a modern leader: digital literacy, data handling, flexibility in the interaction with experts, information security and content production.

Jimsher emphasized, «Often, due to the heavy operational workload and the lack of basically understanding the technology, the first person cannot appreciate the solution to be brought to him for approval, which requires allocating investments for. And the companies miss the software and IT products they need.

Moreover, the company’s director often believes that he does not need to delve into this, because there is an IT director for this purpose. And then the question arises: why should the IT-director think about new solutions, creating new projects and problems for himself, if the company’s first person does not need it, and no one can control the process and the result when implementing this initiative? After all, it’s just a human desire to make your workload a little bit less unload, ensuring comfortable life for yourself.

This results in IT to remains magic for everyone: there is no way of communicating with IT in the same language, but you need an outcome. Herewith, the company’s competitiveness – operational efficiency, independence from individuals, the brand of both the employer and the entire company (the cost of engaging people and their accessibility) and the company’s position in the market – often depends on automation and digitalization».

The problem is complicated by the low level of investments in training «non-IT employees». According to research, most companies are still reluctant to develop digital skills of their business-function employees. However, it is awareness in this area that becomes the driver of sustainability: it is important to be able to interpret data, understand the architecture of the processes and evaluate the economic efficiency of the technologies.

Experts call no-code tools, platforms that allow employees without technical education to create their own digital solutions, one of the ways of resolving this situation. «Modern employees live in the digital world today, so this experience needs to be transferred to business», said Natalia Sokova, Head of Innovative projects at BUSINESS ACADEMY B1 LLC. «No-code platforms make it possible for everyone to become a co-author of digital changes without waiting for developers».

Vadim Dumov, Digital-Sector Curator at BUSINESS ACADEMY B1 LLC, added, «No-code is not about saving on IT, but about speed and engagement. When business employees create the solutions they need by themselves, they begin understanding how processes work and take responsibility for the result. This is true digital maturity – not the ability to write code, but the ability to think like an analyst and act like an entrepreneur».

The experts agreed that digital culture is not a matter of IT systems, but a matter of thinking. Where managers are willing to learn, experiment, and trust employees, digitalization integrates in the company’s DNA.

«As for me, digital culture is still the younger sister of corporate culture, but it will soon become the elder one», concluded Natalia Sokova figuratively. «Because it will determine how the business of the future will be organized».