The digital-first shift
29 August 2025
Reading time: 4 minutes
Most businesses today are under pressure to move faster and not fall behind.
So when people talk about going digital-first, it's about what's actually keeping businesses afloat. Buying new tech on its own doesn’t move the needle. If the way people work doesn’t change - how decisions get made, how often things actually get delivered - then nothing really changes.
Why speed matters now
Most customers aren't concerned with what kind of business you are, they just expect things to work. Quickly, and without hassle. Whether they’re ordering dinner or managing their utilities, they want it to be smooth. That same expectation is creeping into B2B too.
Monzo’s rise in consumer banking, for example, helped shift expectations across the board. People got used to opening an account in minutes, seeing transactions in real time, and getting help straight from the app. That kind of simplicity is now the baseline - and it's no longer just limited to finance (TheBankingScene, 2025).
If you’re slow to test, slow to ship, or waiting on perfection, competitors will beat you to it.
Lloyds Banking Group understood that. As part of their shift to digital, they broke big projects down and started releasing in smaller chunks. That included reworking core customer journeys - like how people open accounts or get support - so teams could improve them one piece at a time. It meant they could get things in front of customers faster and respond to what people needed (McKinsey, 2020).
Making digital-first stick
Speed is about clearing the stuff that gets in the way. And most of the time, it’s the culture:
- Too many sign-offs.
- Teams stuck in silos.
- No room to try things that might not work.
That’s where leadership comes in. Its role is to remove the obstacles that slow teams down. Clear the space, cut the noise, and let people do their jobs.
ING, one of Europe’s biggest banks, wanted teams to move quicker and cut through internal blockers. They scrapped the old department model and set up small cross-functional squads that owned their work from start to finish. The teams had more freedom to make decisions, while still staying aligned through a wider structure. It gave them a way to move faster and try new things without everything needing sign-off from the top (McKinsey, 2017).
B2B-wise, Siemens reorganised parts of its manufacturing operation under what it called the “Lean Digital Factory” programme. They moved teams into more cross-functional groups focused on rolling out digital production tools. That shift helped them break down silos and create more space for ongoing improvements across the business (Siemens, 2021).
Simple over perfect
Digital-first doesn’t have to mean complex - it often just means being clear on what matters and cutting the rest.
The best services are the ones that feel obvious, not because they were easy to build, but because someone did the hard work of keeping them simple. That only happens when teams are:
- Close to the problem.
- Given the freedom to make changes often.
- Backed to act on what they learn.
Vodafone Germany took that approach when they started using an AI assistant to deal with common customer issues. Instead of trying to overhaul everything, they picked a few journeys that mattered and started there. Service got faster, and they didn’t need to rebuild their entire system to make it happen (Genesys, 2023).
The takeaway
Digital-first only works when it changes how the business moves, and how people are backed to move with it. Less control, more clarity. And you don't need to do everything at once. The point is knowing what matters and getting it out the quickest, with teams that are trusted and clear on what they’re trying to do.
Where to focus next:
- Look at where decision-making gets held up. If it doesn’t need to go up the chain, give teams the autonomy to act.
- Break big initiatives into smaller and testable chunks. Speed comes from momentum rather than size.
- Make simplicity the goal. What can you strip back to make things work better?
- Don’t wait for perfect. Start small, test something in the real world, and improve as you go.