Digital investment has one characteristic: its effects usually do not show up in the short term. This makes companies prone to hesitation in the process, and their direction is prone to repeated adjustment—this year they jump into livestreaming, next year they switch customer service systems, each time a single-point attempt, and the data ends up more fragmented instead. Discussing long-termism is really about solving this problem.
Why the short term shows no results
Digitalization often changes processes and ways of collaboration, not the efficiency of one particular link. Process adjustments take time to land, and data accumulation also requires cycles, so the input-output in the early stage is often not obvious. Only when the underlying data reaches scale is there a basis for judgment and improvement.
This has little to do with whether the technology itself is advanced; it depends more on whether the accumulation is continuous.
What kind of investment is more worth sticking with
- Data collection and unified definitions: this work is the most tedious at the start, but it determines whether all subsequent analysis can hold up.
- Sorting out processes: record the current state clearly, so that every later adjustment has a baseline for comparison.
- Cultivating people's habits: whether a system can be used continuously depends on whether people truly rely on it in daily work.
- Security and backup: these are routine expenditures, with no visible value in normal times, but their role shows when problems arise.
Patience and verification need to be present at the same time
Long-term investment does not mean doing no evaluation. A more feasible approach is to set verifiable goals in stages, such as the processing time of a certain process, the completeness of a certain type of data, or the number of manual interventions in a certain link. These indicators reflect changes in capability, not short-term performance.
At the same time, avoid another extreme: being long-term for the sake of being long-term, and keeping solutions that are clearly inapplicable or already outdated. Regularly reviewing and eliminating ineffective parts is also part of long-termism.
Back to the business itself
Digitalization itself does not create value; the way it creates value is by making a company more accurate and faster in judgment and execution. Therefore, to assess whether an investment is worth sticking with over the long term, the ultimate question must return to specific business issues: does it solve a difficulty that has always existed?
Steady the pace and build a solid foundation—it looks slow, but it usually gets there faster than frequently changing direction.