As Your Digital Transformation Leader, What Would I Do?

How I Would Lead Your Project Team for Digital Transformation?

If you were to hire me today to manage your Digital Transformation you may wonder what I would do.

What would I do that might be similar or different from what you are planning to do.

That is what I have planned to write in this article.

My name is P.K. Saxena and I am CTO of Sofcon Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

Sofcon Systems is having 27+ years of experience in the field of Automation Solution and is located at NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh, India.

My guide for this journey will be Eric Kimberling.

Eric is the CEO of Third Stage Consulting which is an independent consulting firm that helps clients throughout the world reach the third stage of success in their Digital Transformation journeys.

In fact if you were to hire me to manage your Digital Transformation then I would do lot of things.

For instance I would like to highlight in this article all the things that I would do to get started on a Digital Transformation which will really set the path for success.

Of course the reason for this journey is very important.

Because the things that I would do to start your project or your transformation are the things that will ultimately determine whether or not your project is a success or a failure.

Indeed you need to make sure that you concentrate on execution part of the project throughout the entire transformation.

However the early steps you take and the early mistakes you make during a Digital Transformation even before you really get started are the things that are going to determine whether you are a successful person or a failure one.

Before I list out things I would do to start let me list out the things I would not do.

List of Not to do Things

Basically one thing I would not do is that I would not go out and just start contacting software vendors to see what kind of software they have.

Surely I might go to the internet to look at various options for available software.

Then I might talk to the people and get some informal research done for different options in the marketplace.

Moreover I would not go out and start contacting vendors and getting demos.

Also I would not reach out to the large system integrators.

Because they are going to be biased.

Also they are going to have their own agenda.

Because they have got their partnerships with software vendors.

As well as they are going to suggest certain product that may or may not align with your strategy.

Finally the last thing I would ensure that I absolutely did not do is that I would not contact biased parties to figure out what my Digital Transformation strategy should be.

Since I have already mentioned that a couple of biased parties could be software vendors and system integrators.

Of course they are two very biased parties.

In fact any sort of implementation partner or value-added reseller of software is going to be biased.

Moreover most ERP consultants in this space are also biased.

They focus on one technology

They focus on one sort of deployment.

Hence that is something which I would avoid.

Because it is going to create biases within my organization as well as within my decision making.

So instead I would focus on a more objective view of getting started on my Digital Transformation.

In short I would not do the things I listed above.

Likewise let me list out the things that I would do to get started.

Strategy Alignment Workshops

If you hired me then one of the first things that I would need to do is to understand what your strategy as an organization is.

What is it that you are trying to become?

Where are your growth priorities?

What kind of culture are you trying to create?

What are your operational pain points?

And what are your operational opportunities for improvement?

Also I would like to just really understand who you are as an organization today.

As well as where you are headed as an organization tomorrow?

I would like to make it clear that I would not even dwell upon technology as a first step.

Moreover I do not really care what systems you do or do not have.

Or what systems you could or should be using.

What I care about is that what your business is?

Who you are?

What you are trying to accomplish?

Once I understand all the things mentioned above then I move forward.

Overarching Strategy

Then I start to drill down into how that overarching strategy as an organization translates into Digital Transformation strategic comparatives.

For example if one of your goals is to create a common operating platform across multiple locations throughout the world and you want to have standardized business processes.

Then I am probably going to lean more towards a single ERP deployment.

As well as I will be looking at enterprise-wide technologies that can create that common platform.

If you are working in an organization that is really trying to maximize your operational flexibility then I might do the opposite of that.

As a result I will go to look at point solutions or look at best of breed solutions that allow us to accomplish that strategy.

So that is just two quick examples of how I would start off by doing these strategic workshops to understand your overarching strategy.

And translate those into specific digital strategies that will help you to get the project started on the right direction.

By the way what is the reason why this is so important?

Because one of the biggest reasons why transformations fail is due to strategic misalignment just like flying an airplane when you have headwinds.

Since the headwinds can get so strong that it slows you way down or in some extreme cases can cause damage or failure.

In the same way that is how Digital Transformations are.

We have got to figure out how we convert those headwinds into tailwinds.

Consequently one of the best ways to get those tailwinds is to have strategic alignment.

Hence if you invest your time up front to get that strategic alignment then it is going to save you a lot of time and money and heartburn later on.

Business Process Review

Afterword once I understood your overall digital strategy and your strategic imperatives as an organization then I would start to dive into understanding your operations.

How do you work each day?

What is working well today?

Where are the pain points?

What could or should you be doing better?

What are some of the things that are blocking you or preventing you from providing a better customer experience or a better employee experience?

These are all things that I would be looking at internally.

However many times the process organizations want to avoid talking about the way things are today.

Also in other cases they only want to talk about the way things are today and they do not want to look at the future.

So what is the thing to keep in mind?

In particular I would suggest it is important that you consider both and keep both things in mind.

That means you have to look at the way things are today and also look at the way things could be or should be in the future.

Moreover one of the reasons why looking at today’s environment in the operational setting is so important because you need to understand what your strengths are in terms of your competitive advantages and things that make you operationally superior to other organizations or to other peers.

And on the flip side you want to understand what those weaknesses are

As well as you want to understand the things that need to be improved or could be improved with a Digital Transformation.

So that you can eventually prioritize what the biggest opportunities for improvement are.

Operational Layout

Hence it is critical to understand the operational layout of the land.

And of course as we are doing this operational assessment we are doing so through the lens of the strategic alignment that we have already established.

So that strategic alignment should provide the foundation and the lens by which we analyse your current business processes.

In short we can ultimately look at your operational model going forward and what that is going to look like.

As well as continuing with this theme of not jumping ahead to technology but rather looking at who we are today and where we are headed as an organization.

Change Readiness

In the same way the next thing I would do is to do a change readiness assessment.

So I would work hard to really try to understand what your culture is today.

And what you are trying to bend your culture to be in the future

Also what the overall change readiness is of the organization.

Moreover by change readiness I do not mean that we are ready to go live with new technology today.

Because yet we do not even know what the technology is.

Also it does not necessarily mean that our people are willing to change.

Because probably they are willing to change but the challenge is that change resistance comes later in the process.

But instead we are looking for the indicators that there might be challenges to adopt to change.

Therefore we are looking at cultural considerations.

As well as we are looking at internal priorities in politics and things that can really get in the way of any sort of transformation.

Further by the way every organization has something that adds to the change resistance within the organization.

Even if people on the surface are telling you that

–Yes we want to change.

–No we do not like our old processes.

–We do not like our old systems.

–We want something new that is on the surface / below the surface / underneath the iceberg.

You find that there are other things.

There is fear.

There is lack of information.

And other things that contribute to resistance.

As well as that contribute to change

And that is what we want to do.

Reasons for Resistance to Change

We want to get below the tip of the iceberg and understand where the resistance to change might come from and how much really ready the organization is.

Also we want to look at how fast the organization can change too.

Even if we assume that your people are ready for change.

Then maybe they are like that because there is not a whole lot of resistance for change.

Moreover some organizations take longer than others to adapt to change.

Because it is not that they do not want to change but that is just their culture.

In addition it maybe that they are risk averse type of people.

For instance you might have a firm that is an engineering-based firm.

Or it is driven by many financial type of people who are more risk averse type compared to others.

Or you might have a sales driven organization that is very entrepreneurial and moves very fast.

However any sort of structure or discipline that you introduce in that environment might create some tension.

It might slow down your ability to change.

Hence these are some examples which you want to understand in terms of change readiness.

So that it really helps you to understand how long this transformation is going to take.

Indeed you should just be clear that the duration / the cost / the risk of your transformation has more to do with your change readiness than it has to do with the technology.

Basically this is the reason why I have not really brought up the word technology yet in this article.

Objectively Evaluate Alternatives

Once I have completed the foundational aspects of the first three things which I have mentioned in this article then I would shift gears and start to look at actual technologies.

I would start to evaluate potential alternatives that might best align with what I see in those first three steps that I have taken.

So this is where I look at specific technologies.

Even if I am not looking at specific vendors then I am looking at types of technologies.

Hence I might have a few different options.

For example I might have a single ERP system as an option versus a best of breed option.

Or I might have an enterprise wide ERP system option versus a supply chain driven sort of option.

So there are lot of different technologies and options you have in the marketplace.

As a result you want to objectively look at what are your options and what are the pros and cons of each and how does each one align or misalign with your overall strategic goals and imperatives.

Hence when you are evaluating your alternatives then it is important to understand that you are not going to find any one option that meets with 100% confidence of all the strategic criteria that you are trying to accomplish.

Analysis of Options

There is going to be strengths and weaknesses for analysis of options.

There is going to be pros and cons which is why you want to do this exercise objectively.

However you are likely to find one option that the organization and all the key stakeholders within your team are going to gravitate toward it.

Because it best fits and aligns with your organization.

And what are now some of your strategic goals and imperatives?

In addition to looking at the more functional strengths and weaknesses of technology and the different options you have.

You also want to look at the implementation time, cost and risk of deploying each of these options.

Because ultimately that may influence your decision.

As well as there might be some options that are going to take you longer or introduce a higher risk profile.

But they could also introduce you a higher business benefit profile as

Well.

So you have to look at the cost and the benefit of these sorts of decisions and options that you have in front of you.

Moreover once you have landed on a general direction then you are going to go where you can really start to dive into specific software vendors that fit that criteria and that path that you are going down.

Project Governance

The next thing I would do if I was running your Digital Transformation then I actually might do this in parallel with some of the other activities which I already mentioned is to establish project governance for the overall transformation.

This is where I would start to define roles and responsibilities of everyone from your executive steering committee to your project lead, to your core project team, to your subject matter experts and other stakeholders who are going to be required to make the project successful.

Moreover I would also start to look at empty boxes in your project organization chart that you may not know who is going to fill yet.

But there are external roles that might be filled by your software vendor / your system integrator / outside third parties like Sofcon Systems or Third Stage Consulting and other firms that might be able to augment your team and provide the expertise you need to make your transformation successful.

So I would start defining those roles and responsibilities early on.

Even if you know you cannot fill them right away.

Or you are not ready to fill them right away.

Because that is going to give you a clear vision of how the project is going to look.

Also importantly it defines what the roles and responsibilities are.

So you start to carve out the roles and responsibilities of different players and different stakeholders on the project.

In addition to providing clarity on roles and responsibilities, project governance should also provide clarity on how decisions get made.

Who makes what decisions?

And how do certain decisions get escalated?

Examples of Project Governance

For example your steering committee is not just there to get project status updates and to sign the cheques for the project.

They are also there to make strategic operational and technological decisions in most of the cases.

Hence you should ensure to define if you are changing your entire operating model then who is going to approve ultimately that new operating model?

Further that sort of project governance around decision making is just as important as the roles and responsibilities in the boxes on an organization chart that you need to define.

Moreover the better job you do in the project governance phase then the better you are going to have clarity on how decisions get made and it is going to speed up your project.

But it is also going to provide more ownership of the project for you internally.

Hence rather than just outsourcing the entire project to a third party like a system integrator or a software vendor you are actually taking ownership of the project and providing that overarching project governance that the system integrators will support rather than run themselves.

And that is a really important part of a successful Digital Transformation.

In fact it ensures that you have this level of internal ownership of the project.

Building the case for Change

While I were taking care of your Digital Transformation then the last thing I would do is to start building the case for change.

This is where I would look at the quantitative case for change in terms of the pros and cons as well as the cost benefit of the overall ROI for the transformation.

Further I would also look at why were I doing this?

Why were I going through this transformation?

What was it I were trying to accomplish as an organization?

In fact a lot of this case for change ties back to the very first thing I have mentioned in this article which is strategic alignment.

And what is the definition of that strategic alignment is what this transformation means to the organization is.

Hence now we can use that messaging to start deploying throughout the organization.

So that the average stakeholder and the average frontline employee fully understands and is aware of how this transformation is going to support the overall goals and objectives.

Hence part of building the case for change is identifying and quantifying the business case itself but also communicating the case for change to the entire organization.

Conclusion

In short if you were to hire me to manage your Digital Transformation these are the six things I would do.

Strategy Alignment Workshops
Business Process Review
Change Readiness
Objectively Evaluate Alternatives
Project Governance
Building the case for Change

These are the ways I would start the project and these are the ways I would ensure that we have a solid foundation and a clear and an effective direction for those who are part of the organization.

You may have noticed that there is no one-size-fits-all answers.

There is no silver bullet that I am bringing to the table.

But this is a process that Eric brings to his clients and this is the process I would bring to you if I was managing your Digital Transformation.

Because I am taking guidance from Eric and his team at Third Stage Consulting Firm who would follow the same process as well.

So I hope you found this information useful.

In fact if you are looking for best practices and other lessons learned from Digital Transformations in general.

As well as if you are looking for ways to think about how you can get started on the right foot with your Digital Transformation.

Then I encourage you to download Eric’s annual Digital Transformation report which is a study report that covers general best practices for making your Digital Transformation successful.

Also it provides frameworks and methodologies as well as independent review and rankings of different software solutions in the marketplace.

So I encourage you to check that out below in the links.

Moreover I have also included a number of other resources that are meant to help you through your transformation and provide other best practices to help you along the way.