Will your organization be able to sustain and grow market share for the next 10 years?
If the competitive landscape changes, will your business growth or revenue be impacted?
If a competitor offered your clients the same quality at a better price, or faster, would they go or stay with you?
These are questions that businesses deal with at a micro and macro level and whilst you can never fully future proof, it is important to have answers and a plan. Blockbuster’s fall to Netflix is a good example of how organizations become comfortable with their success, power and dominance and do not recognize disruption.
If you do an internet search on “companies that failed to innovate” the search engines will return a long list of lost market share and inevitable liquidations. Innovation or the lack thereof is an issue that directly relates to sustainability, profitability and competitive advantage.
To stay abreast, companies need to evolve product offering/ service, embrace future concepts and innovate in order to be sustainable and, if a company wants to grow then it needs to do this at a faster rate than its competitors.
Evolving your product and service
Clients engage your company for your products and/or service. Understand why your clients continue to use your service and why you are losing clients, even if it’s small margins of churn. Use the client feedback and market data as inputs to your future product blueprint.
The blueprint paints a picture of the future, the vision, the product criteria and long-term objectives that quantifies the journey you are about to take as an organization. Identify any future capability needs and add it to your blueprint, for example maybe your product needs a mobile app in future for seamless 24/7 consumer contact.
A word of caution: don’t be too academic about it, just start. It’s a work in progress and can grow over time. It also a set of documents that should be reviewed frequently (quarterly/ bi-annually) to measure against and improve on.
Embrace future concepts!
AI has been around for years, but because of generative AI and the tangible impact it has on the consumer, the scale, the speed of investment and the evolution is so much faster. These concepts are becoming relevant, so make sure you understand digital products, AI, Cloud, mobile, automation, to name a few, as they are driving change in your sector or industry. You are part of a digital transformation, whether you are actively involved or not. If you are not currently actively involved then it’s time to embrace future concepts or simply put, get with the program.
Accenture defines “digital transformation as the process by which companies embed technologies across their businesses to drive fundamental change1“. This is not very different to most definitions currently available, but I would like to use this definition specifically, because it’s comprehensive.
Digital Transformation is:
I. Not just focused on technology as a capability, but the process of implementing in a way that enhances the business. Technology alone will not magically fix your business.
II. The catalyst to fundamental business change, but it’s important that the driver is still fundamentally a business decision. The business justification is the most important and if something does not make ‘business sense’ then don’t do it.
III. Is holistic and inclusive. It must be embedded “across the business”. It’s not just for certain parts of the business only. Neither is it a one-off project with no further development. Future ways of work, design thinking, lean six sigma, these are all focused on product for a reason, because the client is still ultimately the most important part of your business and the client journey cuts across sales, product, operations, finance and all the other ‘important’ functions. Your client does not care about the functions in your business, they see you all as one, so don’t waste your time fighting for glamour, you are all equal in the customers’ eyes.
Innovate!
When I lead my first Robotics Process Automation team 10 years ago, you could count the low code applications on one hand. Now there are hundreds of competitors in that space, and it’s not so easy to distinguish which is ‘fit for purpose’ and ultimately the best buy. Selection is key but so is time, so test the options, innovate, prototype in a sandbox and if it does not work you would have at the very least “failed fast” having spent the least amount of time and investment.
Think about your Delivery Model as it will inevitably become the backbone of your operation. Are you using a model that’s driving autonomous decision making and empowering your teams to think and be creative or, are you and a few select others (maybe) the only magic in your business?
I. People are the most important. Take them along on the journey. Do not exclude anyone, it’s just not cool and will have detrimental effects on the business. This also help with setting the culture and the higher up the culture change, the more impactful and successful it will be.
II. Ways of work can be challenging to navigate but is a must. Does your current change capability suffice? Are you happy with the speed of delivery? Many organizations pivot from waterfall at this point, taking on agile methodologies or frameworks and instituting innovative activities such as hackathons, design sprints and prototyping. These are exciting, great for collaboration and significantly drives down the investment to value ratio.
III. Processes and operating procedures are the “litmus test”. These are twofold, firstly the processes that are directly involved in the delivery and secondly the ones impacted through the delivery. Either way, changes that are processes or operations worse are bad for business, if you slowed down the process for nice new shiny systems or additional quality checks then you failed. Business architecture is more important, period.
Overall success requires executive level buy-in and works best if the CEO leads with the endorsement from the board. The journey of digital transformation is a long-term strategy and the journey needs to be communicated clearly and constantly reinforced in a psychologically safe and empowering working environment. Ultimately, this should be fun and exciting and be an opportunity reignite employee livelihood and purpose.
Julian Abrahams
Julian Abrahams is Global Head – Digital Delivery at Walkers. With over 15 years of experience in building and scaling digital capabilities, business agile, lean thinking, and future workforce. Julian is a digital transformation and enterprise strategy leader, qualified in digital business, agile product management, programme and project management. He leads digital strategy, portfolio delivery and innovation in LegalTech, RegTech, and FinTech.
