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Frenicity and Flow

What if we stopped and said ‘just give me one thing that would give me energy, efficiency, results and elation?’

You surely would be tempted to think ‘we’re talking about narcotics are we?’, or maybe you might think ‘are we referring to those spiked-up energy drinks?’ Perhaps, and even hopefully, you might even reflect that the genesis of such satisfaction should and surely only could come from the warm embrace of a loving relationship. But what if we said it was how I experience my work? Wouldn’t that make life all the more merrier, and assuage the almost perpetual frenzy of madness that we encounter day to day, as we try and elastically fit more into the seams of life. At least that’s what many of my days feel like.

A thing called flow

The antidote, or certainly a big relief for the constant state of frenicity that I have found one can suffer from these days, is a thing called Flow. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, and definitely experienced it. Whether that was a time when you lost hours doing a jigsaw, or just couldn’t get away from that book on an autumn afternoon nestled in a comfy chair. But let’s start with understanding more deeply ‘what is flow?’ Flow is a concept introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly in his 1990 book titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In his research, Csikszentmihalyi described flow as a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity, leading to a sense of ecstasy and clarity. His studies were foundational in positive psychology, exploring how individuals can achieve happiness and optimal experiences through deeply engaging activities.

In his book, Csikszentmihalyi encourages the reader to find their flow, rather than go with the flow. To take charge of setting a positively controlled environment where you behold clarity of purpose, fine-tune of senses, dismiss self-consciousness, gamify work and choose enjoyment over gratification. I believe in all those things, but being time-starved as I am, I’ll cut to the chase here and share how it’s worked for me. And that’s by applying routine discipline, immersive attention and activity demarcation.

Flowing

In my client work, I will try and schedule big blocks of time on certain activities that require immersion – a big piece of strategic analysis, developing a milestone board deck, writing a complex storyline etc. When turning into those windows of precious time, I treat them as just that – precious. I turn notifications off, I ensure that there isn’t a meeting that I need to ‘nip out to’, and I resist, as difficult as it is, checking in on mails, messages and social feeds.

In my task-prioritisation, I recast my to-do list as many as 3-4 times a day. Sure – you can become a tick-junkie and slavishly succumb to the dopamine hit, but maybe that’s not so bad. A bit more importantly for me, I find the refresh process helps to percolate the urgent versus the important, and allocate time accordingly, and definitely what I’m procrastinating about. And when I am procrastinating, and maybe dreading that next big ‘think-through’ that needs to be done, just getting started is the best soother I’ve found. If I focus, calculate and commit to the first step, and free my mind from the other distractions all about, all of a sudden I can be half way there and feeling like I’m winning.

And in my personal life I have become much better at ‘closing the mental doors’ between work, family and play. When I’m doing one, I’m not doing the other, or I’m certainly trying not to. This kind of compartmentalisation helps me be present in whatever I’m doing, and the immersion that follows frees the mind, inspires the creative and fuels productivity all leading to a deeper sense of satisfaction and dare I say wellness.

The Rub

Flow is a powerful state of mind borne from practical practices and mental discipline that is actually quite easily architected, but when harnessed can lead to joyful achievement, and enhancements in both personal fulfilment and professional productivity. I don’t know, but my reflection for the day is, why don’t I flow more? Do I believe that perpetual context switching, chasing and driving across a complex landscape of pursuits, thus continually pivoting (as they call it) and adjusting, is healthy and hasteful? No. Do I think that applying the kind of discipline I espouse, to enjoy the benefits I relish, is right? Yes. Maybe we all need to flow in unison, as it appears to me that it’s the necessity to synchronise that might be the secret, enabling us to flow as one.

The US observes every May as Mental Health Awareness Month, so this short perspective is perhaps timely. 1 in 8 people are estimated to be experiencing some degree of mental health challenge, exacerbated by the stresses and strains of modern life. So stop a moment and do what you can to mind yourself, and those around you, to help safeguard against one of the most inappreciable and disabling spectrum of illnesses we know.

Garvan Callan is a Board-level and c-suite transformation adviser, speaker, lecturer, Non-executive Director and author who works across sectors and regions to bring strategy in to execution, the power of digital culture and innovation to the fore, and help leaders and their businesses prepare for tomorrow, today. He is the author of Digital Business Strategy: How to Design, Build, and Future-Proof a Business in the Digital Age.

Reflecting on the pursuit of better (through GenAI)

‘Education is the passport to the future’, Malcolm X once proclaimed, to articulate an innate belief that persistent rediscovery is necessary in the pursuit of true identity.

This is more than ever of relevance today. With the treasure trove of technologies that are increasingly empowering us to redefine business and society, the latest of those being Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), we find ourselves in a constant pursuit of what we can be and believe in.

At the heart of this pursuit is education and exploration, and in the past week I have been working with the good folks at Lucky Beard to understand how GenAI, which I increasingly articulate as my super-colleague, could help reimagine roles and the pursuit of value.

Being fellow consulting firms, we of course are deliberating and conceptualising how GenAI could reimagine consulting, which there is much merit in and we are steadfastly working that through. But being bed-fellows in a passion for education, we are also asking the question ‘what is the role of GenAI in building the programmes of learning to help those who are curious about the opportunity of GenAI, and willing to learn about it?’.

A tongue-twister of sorts, but In essence – can GenAI help us to understand how GenAI can help us?.

Disruption, yes – liberator, surely

Steve Andriole, Professor at Villanova School of Business and author of The Digital Playbook: How to win the strategic technology game, argues fiercely about the disruptive forces that GenAI will have on education in his 2024 Forbes ‘How Generative AI Owns Higher Education. Now What?’. Painting a picture that Professors could be reduced to mere ‘roll-callers’, and students could have little more to do than prompt-engineer their way through to graduation, he paints a disturbing picture for educators, and perhaps a rosier one for the learner.

But I am an optimist on all sides of this spectrum. Surely GenAI, like all general purpose technologies, can play a liberating and powerful role in supporting the professor gather the knowledge of the world, and filter it to create robust and impactful learning outcomes. And surely the student can embrace it to enhance, accelerate and challenge their learning journey. All with the right checks and balances to make sure it’s ‘for good’, and the systems that uphold our standards and decrees are held intact. This is too what Andriole is aiming at positioning in his well-constructed piece.

The Rub

But this isn’t just a conundrum for education. This ‘circular’ debate is in fact one for all businesses and leaders I believe. As your research, creative and educational super-colleague, what role could GenAI play in helping you reimagine what you do, so that you and your super-colleague can reimagine what you do, for your clients and users?

What is your reflection. One to ponder, and more to come.

Demystifying the ‘D’ words – Disruption and Digital

For many in the business realm, particularly with an interest in or requirement to participate in strategy, digital disruption has become a repeatably prevalent if not pervasive pursuit. Why? Because information technology, born in the middle of the last century, took on new meaning at the end of the first decade of the 21st century as it started to be termed ‘digital’, and at a pace previously unseen and unfathomable, which together have catapulted us into Industry 4.0 and a new era of strategic reality.

We know this of course, but I often find in my travels and teaching that we are sometimes at a loss to understand the more precise drivers and manifestations of why and how this has come to pass. So in this article, we break things down and present both the ingredients of the digital age, and critically, understand the pace that has propelled the disruption that has ensued from their utilisation and adoption.

The Lineage of Disruption

It’s origin is tied to the broader concept of “Disruptive Innovation,” a term coined by Clayton M. Christensen in the mid-1990s. Christensen’s work focused on how smaller companies with fewer resources could successfully challenge established incumbent businesses. He explained how these smaller entities often entered the market with new technologies or business models (how businesses actually charge and create profit) to steal market dominance, while incumbents were slow to adapt, or defend against such threat with counter-innovation, and eventually fall away to the side.

As the virtual digital technologies of Industry 4.0, including the internet, mobile devices, analytics, platforms, and cloud computing became more prevalent and extended from Industry 3.0’s ‘computing’, they began to cause significant disruptions in various industries, from retail and media to transportation and finance. I call this collective of technologies IMPACT, given that’s exactly what they have manifested in – in capital letters! This digital version of disruption however was more than just technological – it altered consumer behaviours, opportunity for innovation, underpinning business models, and even entire markets never mind creating brand new ones. Thus, the term “digital disruption” came to describe this specific kind of transformative change driven by digital technology.

The term gained popularity in the early 21st century as digital innovations became increasingly influential in reshaping industries, prompting business leaders and strategists to focus on the challenges and opportunities these changes presented. But why does the term resonate and come to describe our incredulity with the forces of these new digital technologies? That I would suggest mainly relates to not the what, nor the why, but the ‘how fast?’

The Exponential Growth Curve

Our linearly trained minds are simply not conditioned to deal with exponential development. And understanding the pace of exponential versus linear growth is central to demystifying this ‘digital disruption’ we speak of. Both our historical schooling, and our look-back experiences in life (pre-computer science), have framed for us that change is gradual. Our experiences have been historically evolutionary with seismic shifts in world order happening for sure, but over millennia or centuries pre-Industry 3.0. Homo Sapiens are circa 300,000 years old, and up until the 3,000 years ago we very slowly transitioned from being hunters to gatherers, gradually harnessing wood, stone, mud, minerals and metals to ply our trades, build our homes and depict our world.

Things started to change gear through Industry 1.0 when we adopted steam, and later in Industry 2.0 with electrification being the general purpose technologies that paved the way for new eras of growth and prosperity. However since Industry 3.0, the pace of change has entered a new era. Since the latter 1900’s technology prowess, availability and ultimately adoption, has grown exponentially and has paved the way for the disruption decades we have just witnessed and are in the midst of living through.

We all know the Netflix v Blockbusters, Apple v Nokia and Kodak stories and many more prevail – incumbent organisations get pushed aside in what seems like instantaneous dismissal by newcomers who see a gap in solving unmet needs, utilising clever combinations of the IMPACT ingredients. Or these pioneers create whole new markets and the means to derive massive value, tooled up with digital technologies that didn’t take millennia to hone but merely a fraction of that time, accompanied with a bold vision for solving big problems, and war chests supplied by financial venturists.

To make this tangible, let’s compare linear versus exponential change, and to do this we will do what pretty much all of us do, and were schooled to do – count money. Let’s get started with a simple sum – if I count €1 coins in a linear sequence I get to, well yes €10 – no prizes there (1,2,3,4 …10). Now if I count €1 coins in an exponential sequence, which is where every subsequent count is double the preceding one, I get to … €512 (1,2,4,8 … 512). Seems like a big hop alright, and of course I’m probably starting to like the idea of creating money exponentially v’s linearly!

But let’s go another 10 counts, and now I’m comparing €20 to €524,228 – that’s over half a million in the difference!!! Go again by 10, and I am now comparing €30 to €536,870,912 – now we’re talking more than half a billion in my chosen currency in difference. And it keeps going, but not how you might think – €40 counts now compared to € 549,755,813,888, and we’ve passed the half-trillion mark, or roughly the GDP of my own little country Ireland. It starts to get both scary and cognitively stretching now, and that’s because it’s not normally how we ‘do the math’ is it? No fault or qualms is associated with this statement, it’s just a reflection of where we have come from, and how we have been conditioned to think about building up value, or counting progress.

The Rub

The base general purpose technology of Industry 4.0, the internet, has been with us for over 40 years, so let’s think of that timescale. And then let us for illustration adopt the general principles of Moore’s and Metcalf’s Laws, which is that the power of the computing doubles every 18 months, while the cost corollary decreases, and that the value of interconnected networks grows exponentially for each user by the number of users to the internet. We might then as a result of applying this exponential growth curve across that timescale accept that the power, application and adoption of the internet has grown to factors exceeding millions and perhaps into trillions.

Using the internet as a proxy for all the manifestations of the associated technologies powered by the internet, and therefore change in commerce and society, explains why we use the ‘D’ words disruption and digital to articulate how exponentially progressing technologies are redrawing the boundaries in the internet age. And that’s why we need to think of strategy in the context of keeping pace with exponentialism, and recondition how we might look forward.

Right people, right topic, right questions

Coming to the end of January, and the first notch of the 2024 belt already punched, I’m reflecting back on the month that was to recall the things are that simply, but really, making a difference in life and work. And my intuitive but resonating conclusion is that getting the ingredients of engagement right is what moves life, debates and topics forward.

Why do I say that – well let me give you an example. I have had the pleasure of working on and off with the wonderful charity Dublin Simon for the past number of years, who are a most professional and passionate team. The people working there, their sponsors and the army of selfless volunteers who run programmes and activities that help more than 5,000 people every year in the crux of homelessness are simply wonderful, and unfortunately ever more critical as the divides in life widen. Their work span services that prevent, intervene, comfort and very importantly help people on the streets get back into a home so that they can be safe, well, and have a chance to participate in and benefit from their communities.

Delivering real, tangible impact at scale clearly couldn’t happen without a wholesome drive to do the right thing, and of course money to fuel and pave the way. And it’s with the Fundraising Team where I have been most focused. Their strategy for funding is built around a brand that resonates, propositions that connect and make it easy to support the cause, which is underpinned by efficient delivery, and powered by talent, digital and data. The team at Dublin Simon are one of the most progressive I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and to give you a glimpse as to why, just have a look at the wonderful AI-created video of Justin Cannon’s story.

Dublin’s Unfair City: Justin’s Story told through Artificial Intelligence

In Dublin’s Unfair City, published in 2023 and on the eve of the Generative AI dawn, creative machine learning techniques were put to use (with the support of BBDO) and converted Justin’s own words which you can hear in the video, into a compelling visual experience. The poignant portrayal brings a tough yet hopeful story to life, opening up the unfortunate circumstances that often results in homelessness, and how Dublin Simon tirelessly turn such tribulations into a return to society and light.

This kind of creation doesn’t happen by chance, in fact is was one of many initiatives that came from debate, push, pull and exploration when the fundraising team took time out of a normally hectic schedule to ask the questions “how do we tell the story of our clients (Justin) to help donors see the need and feel the plight?”, “how do we tell that story so that it get’s cut-through?”, and “how can we leverage the advances in digital and data technologies to our advantage?”

And voila – getting the right people into the right room with the space and inspiration to think unabated, with the right questions to push this deserving topic forward, were the ingredients that baked that cake. And the examples don’t stop there. In recent pursuits the team moved on to the complex topic of ESG (the Environment, Society and Governance), and how can Dublin Simon both be the standard bearer as a responsible business, and partner with their donors to help them do the same, hence creating a win-win-win symbiosis.

In a pleasant evening setting, a panel of thought leaders joined the fundraising team and committee to share their experience on the thinking, trials and trends that are facing business leaders and their organisations when it comes to ESG. Post insights and debate, ideas and opportunities were gleaned by the participants in a round of exercises which asked “how do Dublin Simon display and evolve their credentials as a responsible business and community leader?”, and “how can Dublin Simon provide a proposition that solves for others ESG needs and ambitions, and as a result help the mission of Dublin Simon and better the circumstances of it’s clients?”.

I won’t give any more away at this stage, as that’s a recipe that is still in the making, but let’s just say that with the guiding purpose of the team driving them, their professional passion enabling them, and the right ingredients in the mix, a nutritious and wholesome product will ensue.

And the rub – don’t make it any more complex than pausing for progress and gathering the right people, around the right topic, with the right question.

You can find out more about the work and mission of Dublin Simon, and also make a contribution to the cause here

The Fundamentals of Framing

Getting Perspective

In the summer of 2023 I had the good fortune to visit Guernsey, and spend time with family there. Despite some off-norm weather, a more frequent occurance these days and a reminder of our planets rebuke, we had the most relaxing of times on an island that is laden with natures delights. One of those is the coastal walks of the Moulin Huet Bay on the islands south east, just a ramble from where we were staying, which meanders along a rugged coastline revealing the most stunning views of the English Channel atop steep lush forest descents that run down to the sandy beaches.

On one of my morning rambles, I was stopped in my tracks to find a freestanding rusted steel picture frame at an opportune opening in the foliage (pictured above). One of 5 such ornate apertures I later found out, placed along the walkways in the area to commemorate Renoir who lived and worked in the vicinity in 1883, producing 15 paintings of note and celebration. On first encounter, I circled the edifice numerous times, almost pretending that I was Renoir himself looking for that picture perfect view. But later it got me to thinking as well as being a very clever tourist attraction, how important framing is, not just art, but in every walk of life.

Everpresent and Influential

Framing is present in every facet of our being, from the advertising we perpetually and oft subconsciously consume, to the way that we pitch for favour, to how we debate and influence one another in our day to day endeavours. There is even a Framing Effect, which exposes the framing biases we observe in our behavioural economics such as the likelihood to opt for loss avoidance over gain potential. The image below, thanks to The Decision Lab, illustrates this and how our decisions are influenced by the way information is presented. The rub being equivalent information can be more or less attractive depending on what features are highlighted, and thus sway our decisioning.

Extend this to the business of business, and strategy in particular, where we could observe that the decisions we make in enterprise and innovation on a day to day basis are a product of our framing, and our resulting cognitive responses. Hence the importance of reflecting on the importance of this implicit and influential activity, and how it can be a companion if we choose to embrace it, or a lost opportunity should we not.

The Fundamentals of Framing

Let us now unpack how framing can be our friend, and our tool of choice architecture in strategic business decisioning. Across 3 layers, we see 6 fundamentals of framing that could and should be observed and leveraged to put forward the best cases, and therefore extract the best decisions at the heart of day to day business dialogue. These are as follows:

Layer 1 – Foundational Framing: Context, Consideration, Consequence and Choices

The first 4 fundamentals of framing that we present here are what we might suggest are the departure points of strategic analysis to support business decisioning from a ground up level – they are:

Conundrums: at the start of any strategic exercise and examination is the framing of opportunities and/or threats, which present both context and consequence. For instance, a competitor introducing a superior product at a lower price point that could erode ones market share
Questions: based on the conundrum at hand, a well designed question set enables disciplined exploration of the key considerations and consequences. Following our example, an illustrative questions set could include:

1. How are clients likely to respond?
2. How will other competitors react?
3. Is such a cost-cutting move sustainable, or a short-term opportunistic tactic?

Simulations: the question set allows us to model the myriad of permutations that are abound, and shape the range of potential options at hand. Continuing to pull the thread, we could imagine that said competitor has found an innovative means to shift the market dynamics e.g. a new materials innovation that is protected by IP
Scenarios: based on the simulations extracted, we can now extract the pros and cons of various responses, and lead to an ‘educated’ position (as opposed to a ‘guess’). So in our thread, we might consider a cost war response, or an array of feature counter-measures and perhaps even market withdrawal – each offering a set of choices for consideration and ultimately decisioning

The 4 inquisition steps of framing as outlined in layer 1 could be said to be the fundamentals of strategic decisioning, but that’s not wholly the case. They are surely foundational steps in the strategic analysis process, but are often only facilitative of incremental or tactical response and don’t equip market shapers with a prism to reimagine the world, and their role within it.

Layer 2 – Strategic Reframing: Brand, Market and Model super-positioning

Hence we move on to layer 2, where we suggest that there is macro and market level framing that can be pursued – our 5th fundamental, and the method of reframing. Here we suggest that proponents use framing as a stand-back mechanism to ascertain an aggregated and expansive overview of a market landscape, and then through reframing create a market-level response that helps strategic repositioning and what is often referred to as transformational response or pursuit.

Let’s take a couple of past examples to bring this to life:

Consider Coca-Cola’s response to the New Coke debacle in 1985, when in response to Pepsi’s intense rivalry it launched a new taste formula and brand position to rival the sweeter alternative. Consumers reacted vehemently, stating heresy and betrayal, but Coke executives responded rapidly and reinstated the old product but with new positioning (Coca-Cola Classic) and solidified its position as the #1. By reframing the situation as a reaffirmation of the public’s love for the original formula, Coca-Cola turned a marketing failure into a success story – and you could say that Coke Zero is the modern reframing that has helped the brand transverse into the era of increased health and wellbeing consideration
Apple through Steve Jobs reimagined their business as one of empowering contemporary lifestyles as opposed to being merely another tech company, and through ‘experience design’ stole the market march. Indeed it’s a formula followed by so many other tech giants including Tesla whose vehicles are thought of as status symbols just as much as green transport
Lego, the decades old toy manufacturer in the face of impending financial crisis, reframed their business from a sprawling toy producer extending into theme parks back to being a lean manufacturer and global leader in creative play and learning. The business has been one of the most notable turnarounds in recent history, and in many ways its reframing was putting the original frame back in focus. Led by CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp it has returned to its original purpose and prospered since – “LEGO” is derived from the Danish words ‘leg godt’ which means ‘play well’.

Here we can see how leaders use framing and reframing to invent, reinvent or reposition their brands into enviable market leadership positions. But it is not just market positioning that is shaped and determined by framing, so too is culture and mindset, which brings us on to our 6th fundamental, which sits in layer 3.

Layer 3 – Emotional Framing: Social, Political and Cultural identification

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and supper. There is no doubt that the force of emotional intent, especially when legions align as one under a common mission or promise, is the most magnificent and significant weapon of enterprise. Organisations and leaders that create stories to illicit such followership do so with our 6th fundamental – emotional framing. To illustrate, let’s look at a mix of social, political and business figures who wield the frame of desire, choice or necessity to imbue action and loyalty:

Nelson Mandela’s demonstrable personal framing of forgiveness, willingness and reconciliation ignited the long road that led to a nations shift from division to unity
Winston Churchill’s framing of the British response to World War II as a fight for survival and freedom galvanized public support in a time of hurt, crisis and fear
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign framed his candidacy under the banner of hope and change, a message that resonated deeply with voters who were seeking something new and invigorating at a time of disdain of the old order
The shift in Microsoft’s strategy and culture under Satya Nadella from a software product-centric seller to a cloud-first service business fuelled by intrapreneurship is a classic example of reframing in response to market evolution, and the necessity for a new culture for a new time

Choice and Decisioning

So framing at all levels, when thought of like this, can be seen as a means to help us evaluate and ascertain choice, develop new pathways of opportunity and create new calls to action. All so that better decisions can be considered and concluded upon. Framing will not make the decisions – that’s for us humans, or maybe AI in time, and certainly jointly for now. But it should, could and can make better decision-making easier, more complete and more considered. I encourage you to consider your frame of reference for how framing can serve you in your pursuits. And while we have leaned towards the business application here, the fundamentals and levels are I would say just as applicable to all dimensions of life – career, family, love and even legacy.

The Change Conundrum

In a world where change is the only constant, understanding and navigating through it is a table stake for both individuals and organisations. But we find change hard, and it is perhaps the most consistent, and gnarly business dynamic of our time. The following insights aim to demystify the complexities of change, offering a distilled perspective on how to not just survive but thrive in an ever-evolving and increasingly accelerating landscape. Drawing from personal experiences, I present five core critiques to guide us through this relentless tide of transformation

The 5 Core Critiques of Change

Change is inevitable and accelerating – humans are hardwired to improve their existence, and harness the tools and resources around them to do so. We have done this since our genesis. Technologies, materials and knowledge have been the lightening conductors, and along with the desire to embellish, they have propelled humans in an ever-continuing upward momentum. But because of the exponential growth in technologies that has emerged through the Industrial Revolutions, change is no longer linear. We are witnessing an ever-fastening velocity. This is why we feel that it’s revolution and not evolution, and what’s more we may only be at the very beginning of the very start (see Ray Kurzweils Law of Accelerating Returns for more)
Resistance is Natural – protecting what you hold is the foothill of betterment. We innately know the fragility of prosperity, we are hardwired to protect it and we put great store in the effort dispelled to win what we have won. So as we are coded to drive onwards and upwards, the potential of going backwards is a fundamental threat to our very endeavours – the emergence of such prospects draws out therefore the most primal of responses. Acknowledging this, and allowing time and discovery as to the potential or inevitability of change, is the only means to soothe this most natural state of anxiety and defence
Adaptability is the new rule – people, organisations and society have thus far navigated much change, and why wouldn’t they. They have forged it for progress and prosperity, if we by and large accept that the total sum of the world is on a trajectory of advancement. The delineation between necessity and discretion is important however. Change is often seen as necessary, in response to factors out of our control, and therefore an imposed consumer of time and resources than we otherwise intended. Hence forced change is most often experienced as a negative. But for those that are in the mode of harnessing it, using it to their advantage, and understanding it can be a catapult of competitive advantage – they are the champions of and benefactors from change. They understand that embracing the new is the means to creating the new – creating propositions, value and an edge against the rest (see Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile and the many cited cases such as Amazon for more)
Purpose is the anchor – becoming the champion of change, and using it to get ahead is an attractive proposition, but with it comes the weight of choice and complexity. Innovation, the ultimate manifestation of change mastery, necessitates forecasting, creative design and investment in the unknown. Without discipline and a means to guide the endeavour, it is easy to get lost in the malaise and meander down pathways of loss and discontent – Google Glasses anyone!. Navigating innovation and all change for that, in the storm of ever increasing choice and acceleration, requires an anchor. A touch stone that guides decision making, but also to rally and command human emotion and endeavour with the end point being to release fear and embrace discretionary effort
Communication cuts through – all change, at least as we know it today in a pre-Artificial General Intelligence world, is human driven. In an organisational setting, to be purpose-driven, adaptable and set up to thrive, the general human intelligence needs to be courted and guided through the resistance and choices we have referred to. Process and participation are key, and in my experience these are the 5 C’s of Success:
1. Clarity – a shared understanding of the why, the what and how change can either be a necessity and a risk, but also a catalyst for betterment is not just nice to have, but a must. Most often it’s in fact both necessary and opportunistic, and time and dialogue are the means to help ourselves hear, understand and process a rationale rather than emotional response to embracing it
2. Cohesion – discussions and appraisals are then required to forge joined up thinking on the choices to be made, to help decisions to be taken and plans of action to be forged. This arc of choice to commitment is how we translate potential to value
3. Confidants – through an open and honest discourse across the community implicit to perpetually assess progress and course-correct, understanding can be unified and allies are built while at the same time sense can prevail. This helps to preserve cognitive load and resources, without which success is often stymied, or certainly made all the harder. But it also builds trust and chemistry, as well as common purpose and friendships who are always much needed when the going gets tough
4. Conflicts – confidants are better placed to resolve the inherent and necessary conflicts that will emerge from choice-making and re-routing. This is a matter of course in change management, and debacles should be dealt with through a mindset of problem-solving and triage – not blame and failure. Learning and the mitigation of potential loss as opposed to lamenting and reflection should be the discourse
5. Confidence – belief in the venture and the intent (the Purpose) and the team is essential, without which cracks will emerge and failure rates amplify. Allowances for the human factors such as fear and resistance are important in that regard. Building confidence around the fact that a lack of confidence will often emerge, and drawing on resolute ambitions and logic as the antidote to inevitable friction can be a saving grace

The Rub

Change is hard, change is necessary, and change is ultimately the pursuit of being better. Change is also positive, if designed and executed with empathy and calculated intent, for it has been the pursuit of humankind since origin, and the dynamic that has led to our prosperity and supremacy as a species. But we find it so hard, stressful and inconvenient when confronted with it. This is the dichotomy we deal with – but like most things, it’s a matter of perspective. See it as a boon, and it will be – see it as an hurdle, and that it will be also. The trick is to turn the potential for toxicity into productivity. Fortune favours the brave, and the brave embrace change – or perhaps we should say favour is the fortune of change mastery

Hosting and Honing a Digital Culture

Expert insights from Garvan Callan, Founder, at ONEZERO1.

The ebb and flow of new themes that Boards are dealing with today continues to oscillate, and the pace is picking up. Climate and the broader ESG agenda, conflict and crisis, social and geopolitical shifts to name but a few – and that’s on top of the day job. But there is one persistent theme that’s emerged at every board table, and that’s digital. Every organisation is working through what the gifts and the perils that the fourth Industrial Revolution has brought to bear. Or if not, they certainly need to be although my experience is that such entities are now in the few.

Defining Digital

What is Digital, and why do we talk about transformation in the same breath?

The third Industrial Revolution of the 1950’s brought us computer science, and we quickly put it to work, using it to digitise our day-to-day communication and workload. At the turn of the millennium, chip advances coupled with networking, device and algorithm technologies built on what went before and sent us hurtling towards Industry 4.0. But the biggest acceleration came through the introduction of the smartphone as we turned into the first decade of the third millennium. The power of a super computer was now in our pockets, and developers and tech entrepreneurs pursued it feverishly.

As this has all happened in such a short space of time, in particular when you look to previous ‘revolutions’, it can appear that it has happened in a blur. Looking through an organisational lens, digital technologies have been put to work across five ‘layers’ of the organisational architecture:

Engagement layer – using digital channels to dial up connection, campaigns ,and customer experience.
Proposition Layer – using digital to create or redefine customer journeys to make it easier to do and fulfil business.
Process Layer – the automation and digitalisation of processes to remove cost, waste, and risk.
Workplace Layer – tools and methods to make work easier to accomplish, insightful through analytics and creative through innovation.
Technology and Operational Layer – migrating from monolithic or using cloud-based systems to access faster, more efficient, and more adaptable applications and infrastructure.

And this has been done to either create new value, capture latent value, or defend inherent value. Digital, therefore, is about using the latest technologies, and employing it to harness or hold value across various components of a business. Making inroads into any one of these layers is a big enough job. But making changes to all five at the same time, which is often the ambition, that’s transformational. And why we call it digital transformation.

Digital Culture

Does harnessing digital need a new culture – is it everything not just the same as before, only digitised?

Digitisation is about converting what was physical to digital. Digitalisation is the (re)creation of new value chains or entire customer journeys. Digital transformation is the reformation of the organisation across the five layers, as explained above. So, depending on the degree to which digital is employed and where, there needs to be somewhere between a little or a lot of new skills and practises. And the ability to chaperone the degree of change in the organisation, into the market and across the stakeholder set, also needs to be cut to size. So, I would like to suggest that it’s not the same, it’s very different, as are successful digital organisations.

We know in the culture iceberg that skills and practises are what we see above the waterline. The 90% of culture that sits below the waterline, often unseen, are attitudes, beliefs and values. This is where it’s absolutely different – digital businesses don’t just act differently (above the waterline), they think differently (below the waterline).

Defining a Digital Culture

The businesses that define the landscape today, are a mix of old and new of course. But corporate longevity is declining – according to Innosight¹, the forecast average tenure of the S&P will shrink to 15-20 years this decade, compared to 30-35 years in the 1970’s. So, the new are cannibalising the old at an accelerated rate. And these new businesses are inherently and holistically embracing digital. So how have they done this, and what can we learn:

First and foremost, they start with the customer, not the product – the latter doesn’t define the former. The former defines the latter.
They believe in a purpose – they have a defining rallying point that connects discretionary effort with value creation.
They don’t use data to measure success, they define success (e.g. solving customer jobs, an inspiring Purpose, market disruption) and measure progress.
They don’t have a digital strategy – it’s not a separate thing. They have a strategy and digital is a way to get it done, faster, cheaper, and more effectively.
They are nimble and curious – they insatiably look for new pools of value, and focus on getting there first
They don’t treat risk as a boundary, they calculate risk carefully, push the boundaries and elasticate their resources and interpretations
They are constructively dissatisfied – they never acquiesce and always believe it can, and should be, better

In my experience of working in or on digital transformations, these core traits are what define a Digital Culture. And what enable a differentiating and dominating brand as well as employee experiences.

How do Boards Host and Hone this Digital Culture?

The tone is always set from the top. My recent participation in the Chartered Director Programme taught me that, and my experiences uphold it. Setting that tone, and hosting and honing a digital culture requires board members individually, collectively, and persistently to:

Set a Purpose, not for, but with the organisation and hold it out as the perpetual guiding north star – one that is inspiring, not commercial, one that feels right, not sounds right.
Be curious about and spend time with customers, and help the organisation to see and hear what they think, and work with them on how to respond – feedback is the breakfast of champions.
Look for data, look for insights and look for perspectives not reports – go and spend time with the teams on the front line, and see the world through their eyes. See where digital can help or is needed – they have the 20/20 vision.
Don’t put digital in the corner – it’s not a sideshow, make it a persistent and enabling part of strategy. Make it central, and make it collective.
Be ready for failure as its inherent in big change – it’s only from our toils and exploits that we learn what to do, and how to do it. Create time, capacity and supports for failing forward – another way to describe innovation.
And be ready to push some boundaries, but in a calculated way.
If you can’t code, learn to or sit with coders and see what they do – see the agility that modern technology unlocks, see how digital tools and analytics can present real time decision opportunities and see how digital people are passionate about that and the end user (there might be a few outlier’s mind!).
Look at where the chokepoints to progress are in the organisation – old operating models were established for a different era. Identify where bureaucracy and fear of change is or will hold ambition back.

My encouragement to my fellow directors is therefore to participate rather than subjugate, to be curious rather than content and experience rather than observe. I believe this stance, and the ‘below the culture waterline’ encouragements above, are what defines the ‘Digital Board’.

Final word

Transformation is not easy. Change is always hard. And at the scale we are describing, it’s immense. That’s why according to BCG 70% of digital transformations fail² and that’s why scope and sequence is critical. But at the same time given it’s all around, it doesn’t seem like there is much choice. The choice I would suggest is investing in culture – it does eat strategy for breakfast.

Sources:

This article was written for the Institute of Directors in Ireland, and published on their member portal in February 2023

Digital DNA

The real ‘Source Code’ – : a 21st century periodic table for Digital DNA that diagnoses deep and real modern-day digital prowess from exoskeleton digital pretence

I was recently asked to pull together a strategically stimulating presentation on digital innovation for a gathering of senior folks in the financial services industry. In permeating what topics and structure to unleash from the arsenal, it struck me that by now such a seasoned cohort could well be less than enthused by a now well trotted out rendition of the ‘7 golden rules of digital transformation’ or the ‘5 necessary insights for strategic innovation’.

Surely such a prestigious gathering would deserve something better, a new perspective, a practical yet stretching view on how to be digital, not why and by which methodologies or set of principles to dictate to the folks back at the office. To me this was a call to go back to the roots or ‘Source Code’ of what it takes to win in today’s digital marketplace. In other words, look at the very essence of digital leadership, the core DNA, and talk about what it takes behaviourally and systemically.

So I started making some notes, developing out what in my experience makes organisations and leaders digitally brilliant. But I needed something to frame my thoughts – a vehicle to construct a resonating, memorable story. So I went back to the concept of DNA, looked it up and found an insightful article in Medical News Today which states “Virtually every cell in your body contains DNA or the genetic code that makes you you. DNA carries the instructions for the development, growth, reproduction, and functioning of all life. “Nice”, I thought – that could help frame what I’m getting at – being digital, not doing digital.

As I read on, memories of school textbooks sparked alive, prompted by vibrant illustrations of double-helix chromosomes celebrating the ‘ladder of life’, on which our lineage and individuality is built – what a great structure to hang my concept upon. But wait – there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in every human, each containing one DNA molecule ! I can’t expect my audience to consume 46 molecules of wisdom, if I in fact could come up with them. The plan was backfiring!

But being a strategist, I said surely there has to be a framework, a grid even, to solve this and that’s when it hit me – Double DNA. My periodic table for digital excellence.

Unravelling the strains

Let’s take a walk through the 9 core components of Double DNA for digital excellence, and as you’ll see as we unpack them, I’m boldly going to pose “how digital is your DNA”.

Design 4 Digital – the digital movement started out in channels, with the rise of the web powering alternative access to products and services, and then smartphones and their apps, exponentially increasing digital engagement. But soon after digital marketing brought the new CX hungry hordes to the front door, new digital products and services were imagined, built on digitised processes by digital workforces emancipated by digital technologies. The necessity for digital to infiltrate and power an organisation at every level is now a prerequisite. Only organisations that take a 360° approach to digitising their business can truly meet the benchmarks of digital excellence. The question is do you? You can read more about my hypothesis on Digital 360° here.

Define Northstar – in my Digital 360° hypothesis, you also read about my views that the customer is the touchstone for enabling digital transformation. A touchstone is a fervent reminder, and a re-energiser for leaders and teams navigating a tough transformation journey as they reorient from product to customer. So go back to the customer to go forward is my message. Equally and necessarily our vision needs to be forward looking, fully immersive in a purpose of meeting customer desires, and creating a better environment for all stakeholders. Our visions or ‘Northstars’ should be customer-centric and motivational. Below you’ll find a ‘starter for 10’ set of design principles for Customer Experience that I sometimes use to articulate how to articulate customer needs, but be warned – they are generic, neither brand, market nor segment specific, and every organisation nay proposition, need to develop their own.

Data & Analytics – if you don’t believe that digital is really only the means to ‘datafy’ our economies, organisation and propositions, change that to didn’t. The advances of data science, and scientists, are accelerating post the AI winter of the latter 20th century, and as everything is being digitised, the resulting data-harnessing is moving centre stage. In fact we are seeing the Chief Analytics Officer become the new transformation centre of gravity in mature organisations, steadily taking over from the Chief Digital Officer of the 2010’s – see McKinsey’s view on this here. And in case you need serious convincing, have a read through Leftronic’s article on the 39+ Big Data Stats for 2020. It’s an eye opener, and my favourite is #28 “Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers than their peers”.

Network Diversity – platformisation, enabled by the internet, but really a reimagination of the marketplace by unbounded innovators, has spurred the era of Open. An era where the confines of vertically integrated businesses have now become weak when once strong – proprietary value chains have become chains to growth. Customers now demand value add, extended services to compliment the core product. Operations need to leverage outsourcing and diversification. And CFO’s need new revenue streams. MIT Sloan published a great article in 2007 on Open Business Models – it was mature then, and still just as relevant today. The question is how open are you to using the network to diversify your services, revenue and risks?

Harvesting the external network is not the only reflection under this strain – we should talk about diversity on the inside, and hold the mirror up to establish how well your business, from the board to the front line, represents your customers and your market. If there is a mismatch, you and your organisation are leaving ‘bread on the table’ so to speak – this metric-driven piece from Deloitte on the drivers and value of a diverse and inclusive workplace should help spur you to take a fresh perspective, should you deep down know you need one!

iNNovation – Seeing as I developed Double DNA for a group of corporate leaders, I wanted to speak about Intrapreneurship, albeit I believe the art of intrapreneurialism is apt for businesses large and small. Sustainable business school founder, Gifford Pinchot III, coined the term intrapreneur in 1978 and defined it as “Dreamers who do. Intrapreneurs are employees who do for corporate innovation what an entrepreneur does for his or her start-up.” Being an Intrapreneur is the practise of innovation at its most complex. The ability to dream of new propositions and value exchanges, coupled with the discipline to execute against the tide of conformity, and the nous to apply innovation activity to the strategic and operational demands of the organisation is a tightrope many attempt to traverse, and not all succeed in crossing.

This short article from HBR cites the basic lessons, the essence being “hiring a few talented individuals and hoping for the best, without changing anything about your organization, won’t cut it”. For a deeper perspective on the duality of innovation and move beyond the myths prescribed, check out this deeper and more recent piece from HBR on the hard truth about innovation cultures and consider your level of intrapreneurialism.

Never Acquiesce – I saw a quote once – “there’s no point looking back, you’re not going that way”. Don’t get me wrong, reflection is important and never wasted, but can be an anchor if overindulged. Purpose driven leaders, those who achieve the greatest of feats, look forward and believe in limitless growth. This is beautifully captured in Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset, which is a ‘must’ for both personal and professional pursuits in the modern age, a summary of which you can read here and includes a TedTalk from the great woman herself.

Sataya Nadel is probably one of the foremost advocates of Growth Mindset, having emboldened Microsoft with the philosophy of taking charge. You can read more about Nadel’s pursuits in this article. As for results, Microsoft’s share price has tripled in his time there, which some would say was the most challenging for tech stocks, so perhaps there’s something in this one unless you can counter that kind of growth story.

Advantage thru Democritisation – just think about the most common brands that trip of the tongue of every strategy prophet illustrating the business model leaders of today. Google, Uber, Netflix – the list goes on, and all indeed have managed to build extraordinary audiences and business opportunities in their own ways, but all have one thing in common. They have in one way or another managed to create or play a significant role in the Sharing Economy. They have democratised products and services and created new streams of revenue and audience by maximising access and minimising costs. These 2 vectors, when great User Experience (UX) has been applied, are at the core of what we’ve come to define as great Customer Experience (CX).

A recent and bold foray into the democratisation of money was unveiled by Facebook’s Libra White Paper last year. Their global reach and questionable leverage of personal data has spooked the establishment, and while I have no doubt Facebook’s project will be challenged, I would recommend getting past the noise, and read the paper to understand the admirable intent and downstream consequences of such seismic developments that will surely follow in one form or another. A small point, which takes up but 2 lines at the top of page 9, but caught my eye is the enabling topic of digital identity. I believe the coming years will see, and require, democratised digital identity as a prerequisite for the next wave of the industrial evolution – this topic I believe is one to watch, or one to make happen.

Agile to the Nth – agility is a corporate and leadership mindset, and a way of organising and iteratively developing just as much as it is a methodology for proposition and software development. Agility requires organisational qualities such as adaptiveness revolving around core competencies according to Landor’s Agility Paradox, which studies the underpinning competencies of the most agile brands. But the 7 S’s proclaimed by this Forbes article (Slack, Speed, Simplicity, Subsidiarity, Surprise, Serendipity and Singularity) is a richer lens to gaze through and unpick the traits of the agile organisation, built for longevity and self-determining destiny. Again the question – how do you and your organisation fare?

Always Assure – last but not least, and in fact foundational is trust and security. Leaders that march their organisational troops forward in the battle of the digital market would do well to ask the question – how many events, papers and perspectives on protecting our customers and our cyber defences have we consumed in the recent past. Leaders would do well to ensure that assurance receives the necessary attention. Pick from the myriad of resources, including Accenture’s perspectives, on the sophistication and strength of bad actors – you’ll see this is no time for complacency.

Benchmark

So how does one benchmark their digital prowess – well I don’t believe they should, can or need to! I am of the view that given digital is a 360° thing, that customer-centricity and the Northstar need to be unique, and given the rapid nature of change that is abound, any attempts to ‘score’ oneself or one’s organisation is futile and would be effort better spent on progress as opposed to reflection.

What I would attest to is a test – testing are we in fact being digital or just trying to do digital. Testing how do we fare out against a model such as Double DNA. And testing are we doing enough – are we going fast enough, far enough and faithfully towards a state of ever-evolving digital excellence.

In the words of Aristotle “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny”.

Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today

INNOVATION THROUGH THE AGES:
Since the beginning of time, man has inherently innovated to improve every aspect of life. This is a genetic strain that lives within all animals. Through the Metal Ages, the Agricultural Ages and into The Industrial Ages and it’s many ‘Revolutions’, we have evolved and innovated using the latest known materials and technologies to better our circumstances in the home, at work, in the economy and socially. Digital has exploded

We are now in the Information Age and at the cusp of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Dating since the time of mainstage computing in the 1960s, Moore’s Law has seen the exponential development of ‘information technologies’. These have been applied by individuals, and every type of organisation and system, to harness unforeseen benefits. Innovations utilising these ‘digital’ capabilities has made life for those who can access them safer, healthier, more efficient, more connected and more affluent.

This newfound prosperity consistently brings more of the global population into the realm of opportunity and hope. The accepted forecast is that we will continue to see exponential developments, which in turn will reshape life and industry and the very fabric of our existence.

These developments, both recent and forecast, and the pace and scale at which industries are being reshaped, are often termed ‘disruption’. The emergence of new global industrial forces such as Google and Amazon only adds to this new reality. These organisations, in their own genetic way, are leveraging new technologies through platform business models to redraw the value exchange with customers. In addition, they are enabling a new commercial connectivity. This is changing the essence and economics of business.

In turn, this has led to the phenomenon of ‘Transformation’; a dynamic that almost every industry is facing. More so, transformation has a resulting profound impact on that which makes up every industry and organisation – people.

TRANSFORMATION AGE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES
Leaders in incumbent businesses are already hard pushed to keep pace with this disruption and push through their Transformation Programmes to keep pace with the Amazons’ of their sector. Not to mention the added considerations that new political, competitive and economic environments bring too. Regardless of industry, strategic focus usually revolves around:
• Innovating the customer experience to enable opti-channel, personalised and real time propositions
• Changing the patterns and structure of work to deliver efficiencies and speed to market
• Shift the economic and reward systems to facilitate a new and sustainable business model

As can be seen below (source: Deloitte Research on the Future of Work 2019), industry leaders are forecasting significant changes in the composition and structure of work. The driving forces that need to be catered for and harnessed include:
• Digital and Data Everywhere – all employees will be equipped with the skills and data to leverage technology developments that support the enterprise strategies
• Artificial Intelligence Augmentation – employees will work hand-in-hand with cognitive computing to improve the customer experience, operations, risk and commercial outcomes
• Open Business Models – businesses will open their doors to work with new partners in new ways to create new propositions and business value
• Gig Economy – human capital will be managed in a new way across both on and off-balance sheet workers
• A New Employee Proposition – as the demographic and expectation of our societies rapidly evolve, careers will be purpose driven, evolve many times, be longer and blend into retirement

However, we can also see from above that leaders are reporting that their plans and progress has yet to match their anticipated needs. This lack of preparedness can also be seen at the individual level, with recent insights from research conducted by the Institute of Banking (see summary below) showing that 90% of the professionals that responded rank digital skills as important or very important, yet only 7% rate their digital skills as very strong.

LIFELONG LEARNING
Lifelong learning is the centrepin strategy for both leaders and professionals to transcend and thrive in this new age. It’s also necessary given the current and anticipated rate of change. But what is lifelong learning ? Lifelong learning is defined as the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Sounds grandiose. So let’s unpack it for individuals and their businesses given the realm of transformation we find ourselves in:

Individual Organisation
The necessity for continuous learning to keep pace with changing expectations in the workplace and enabling skills Prepare the skills base to enable Transformation and the workforce of the future
Retraining for careers yet to be invented or that will replace the jobs of today e.g. the Business Data Scientist Investing in talent and personal development to build employee advocacy, innovation and productivity
Pursuing purpose-driven interests and potential entrepreneurial pursuits beyond the world of traditional work Empowering professionals to pursue their passions within the workplace and enabling a Growth Mindset organisation

Complementary and enabling conditions are required to facilitate lifelong learning. These include the availability of the necessary learning programmes, built to be accessed in a mobile ‘always on’ world, and constructed to cater for the busy lives of today. This sees education move beyond formal, accredited programmes delivered in the classroom which are akin to irregular and luxuriant fine dining. Education will need to be delivered and consumed digitally in short sprint and micro-learning formats, where students lunch and snack on the go, and harness virtual class and project rooms.

EMBRACING THE CHANGE
We are living in the era of the ‘career for a year’, and no longer do we think of a ‘career for life’. Technology is responsible. And success for the professional and their organisation depends on a response to this.

So what should we do ?
• Individuals need to diagnose their current skills profile, project that onto the future of work and develop career paths, and the associated learning paths to ensure they are planning for a stimulating and rewarding future
• Enabling individuals to participate in lifelong learning should be at the heart of the human capital and overarching people strategies of all organisations, large and small – the question for leaders is does your organisation have the plans and facilities in place
• Building lifelong learning products and supports to diagnose career and learning paths, designed for the pace of change, busy lives and digital consumption should be at the heart of the education community

These are just starting points, and are not easy for sure. However, and just as with the inevitability of innovation, it is not a case of if, but when. As Malcolm X is quoted to have said, “Education is the passport to the future – for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”.

What ‘digital transformation’ really means

Reclaiming the ‘Transformation’ Title:

If the Olympic Games handed out medals for buzzwords, ‘digital transformation’ would surely bring home the gold. However, the ubiquitous overuse of the term has also removed all clarity from the concept. It doesn’t matter who is to blame, though software vendors and marketing overlords selling digital transformation as the stairway to heaven do look a little guilty. What is important is that we reclaim digital transformation from its superficial buzzword status and fully understand why and, most importantly, how.

Full Contact – Not A Spectator Sport

One of the first pre-conceptions about digital transformation is that it arrives in the cloud, in a box, through an app or in lines of code. While technology solutions play a part, they don’t deliver digital transformation on their own (far from it) but are critical enablers in conveying a modern strategy and ambition.

Nor does digital transformation arrive on a PowerPoint deck from a strategy guru or a social media article. One must imagine it, develop it, and make it happen – for your customers, your market and your context.

Digital transformation involves a fundamental rethink of how organisations make use of people, processes and technology to improve performance. It is a complete change in how your organisation develops and delivers value to your customers, colleagues and investors. Organisations that truly want to embark on a digital transformation strategy start and end with the customer, creating a working environment that nurtures creativity, drives growth and delivers new arcs of value.

The 360° Approach

Figure 1 depicts a 360° approach to digital transformation, split across five layers. At the core are the processes, which enable the revenue-creating propositions (features, products and services) that are brought to market through the engagement layer. The workplace is the people, tools and environment harnessed to create those propositions, with underpinning technology making it all possible.

FIGURE1: 360° approach to digital transformation

Processes are at the epicentre of transformation. This is where what is required to deliver your products and services is hard-coded. Therefore, this is also where the costs lie and risks exist. Taking out unnecessary steps (simplification), automating steps through low-cost, mature technologies such as robotics and then digitising value chains end-to-end is a great place to start the transformation. Does this mean it’s not about the customer? Of course not. Listening to what your customers and colleagues say about where the friction lies should drive the change.

The most successful transformations start by reducing unnecessary ‘effort’ anchored in processes, and retiring whole products and services that don’t add, or even destroy, value. This not only improves the customer and employee experience (assuming you hold everyone’s hand through the change curve), but also reduces risk and releases capacity for the innovation of new propositions – constellations of products and services that fulfil customers’ desires, developed from customer insights leveraged from process-transformation analysis, and informed by techniques such as design thinking and the value proposition canvas.

Digitising value chains also facilitates the capture of data, the fuel that powers continuous improvement programmes and the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Combining new data with AI can support a step-change in the personalisation of marketing and improve sales-funnel conversion, automate back-office processing, and support channels in becoming faster and more efficient for the customer.

Executing process transformation also offers brands a range of points with which they can tell the story of change, of building a better business, of listening to customers and responding to needs – message opportunities often overlooked in the transformation trenches.

The Workplace and Technology

Empowering colleagues with the right tools and environment, and enough time to manage the complexities across the transformation layers, is fundamental to the optimum workplace. Harnessing the team’s insights and motivation, and liberating them to make customer-oriented improvements, is the defining prerequisite.

Creating the enabling conditions for such a journey requires strong foundations, and here’s where technology fits in – not last on the list by any means. Technologists and leaders who immerse themselves in the process, proposition, engagement and workplace layers can then determine the technology required, and the operating model needed, to deliver successful transformation and a thriving organisation.

The Customer is the Touchstone

Knowing that you need to implement a digital transformation on this scale is one thing, but where to begin is quite another. Embarking on such a monumental organisational shift can be extremely challenging for even the most experienced leaders.

To find a good starting point, become deeply knowledgeable about what your customers want to achieve when they engage with you, about their ‘jobs to be done’. It is not only the marketeers who should have such insight into the customer experience; everyone involved in digital transformation needs to have a forensic understanding of the customer and how your business does (or does not) facilitate them.

Knowing what you want digital transformation to achieve for your customers, you now need to really roll up your sleeves and ask:

are large organisational changes necessary?
do teams require reskilling and re-orientating?
do hard re-prioritisation decisions need to be made?

You will most likely answer ‘yes’, but beware of procrastination; the time to start is now. Mobilise the effort by making the desire for better customer outcomes the focus. The customer guiding you on ‘what to do and why’ must be the unequivocal and undeniable touchstone to motivate, guide and, if required in the transformation haze, reset the mission at hand.

Getting Digital Transformation Right

Since successful digital transformation is a 360° endeavour, spanning the breadth and depth of the business, each organisation’s roadmap will be different. That said, there are some common principles to abide by:

Gain consensus from the whole team: whether your project/programme involves building the new or enhancing the existing, it’s imperative to have buy-in from everyone involved, leveraging the customer as the touchstone and data as the tinder.

Embrace the unknown with adaptive design: embracing an adaptive design and project management approach allows for tweaks to be made to the transformation strategy as needs arise – and they will arise. Remember, you’re building your transformation strategy around humans (customers, colleagues and investors) and humans don’t act in linear and predictable ways.

De-risk: delivering transformation and building a customer-centric organisation involves taking more than a few risks. Communicate the ambition and the stretch outcomes you’re working towards. Then de-risk by managing the change activity in sprints of two to three weeks. This supports decision-making, seeing progress or calling failure early and learning quickly. Leaders should allow teams to ‘learn as they do’ and build an environment of self-sufficient innovation. In the long-term, this is a great de-risker: smaller projects equate to smaller risks.

Initiate and react: Amazon’s game-changing ‘one-click economy’ has put just about every other industry into reaction mode, attempting to catch up with customers’ expectations. But that doesn’t mean that your whole transformation strategy should be a reactive response to the wider e-commerce forces at play. Get ahead of the game with pre-emptive or first-strike moves to truly future-proof your organisation. Larger, well-resourced organisations that are good at this often use game theory exercises; for smaller organisations, less elaborate scenario planning activities can be equally effective.

Is it that easy?

If it were that easy, everyone would have done it. Most organisations are trying and a few are thriving; some are just embarking and starting to grind it out, while only a few have yet to begin. But let’s be honest, it isn’t easy. It takes years. It takes vision. It takes resilience and it takes persistence. But it is necessary, and it is defining. As Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.

This article was written for Chartered Accounts Ireland, and published in Accountancy Ireland on 10th February 2020