Looking at those who succeeded in digital transformation and predicting who will win in 2019
Each year, around Christmas, I have fun reading the predictions for the following year, and, depending on what I read, my mood balances between amusement, doubt, glee or even sometimes anger. In 15 years of experience in digital, I have seen the “hype cycle” of Gartner evolve through time, right or wrong, too optimistic or too pessimistic. But its easy to criticise and never do the exercise - so this year, it’s my turn to dip my toe into it and we’ll see in the coming years if I was right or wrong.
What will will be the next big thing in 2019?
I won’t answer to what everybody will be doing (If you are interested in that, all you need to do is analyse google searches, trends of topics and analyse linkedin posts of thought leaders of agencies & consulting companies who will be drumming the beat on problems they’ll conveniently be able to solve through consulting next year). What interests me is to think on what the successful companies (a.k.a. those who actually make the best of digital to bring business and customer value) will be working on next year and see if my projections are actually spot on. For that, looking at those who have successes is essential
Who won so far in digital?
To work that question out, I looked at who - in my point of view - scored achievements, started making impact and effectively brought out results in the past years - and isolated patterns. What do they have in common ?
Those whose have a clear client mission & purpose: There are no endless debates about what value they want to bring to the client and what purpose they want to achieve - each an every member of the organisation knows what the company stands for and it is expressed in terms of value for the client. Debate & time is eventually spend on how to prioritise different initiatives reinforcing that purpose & mission, on what to focus, but no debate on the why.
Those who are aligned and focused: Everybody is aligned on what needs to be done and how it should be done. What is important, trivial, priority, quick-win or strategic. All departments converge and bring their contribution towards making the plan happen and not trying to push their own agenda, regardless of the plan. They are focussed, they don’t go in all directions and work on the elements that bring the change forward & make impact, not losing time on details. They have the burning platform, the strategy and they go for it.
Those who pragmatically deliver: This is where I see most organisations fail. “We develop great strategies, we have a plan, we know what are the basics to fix, what are the enablers to setup. But we make gigantic, monstrous IT transformations because our IT systems will not be able to sustain our digital vision” Well yes, maybe on the long run it won’t. But rolling out a plan on a 3 to 5 year model with value only truly achieved at the end of the process with substantial cash burned in the process is reckless. It takes time and resources and in the meantime you are losing valuable time & ground to grow. Those who succeed: they walk the talk, launch small concepts in quick & dirty mode, test, iterate, grow and stay focussed on the growth. Digital growth and changes start as from day 1, in very pragmatic ways and hands-on approach.
Those who manage to think on the long run And there: Kudos to family businesses - Family businesses often have this great capability of thinking on the long term and deliver pragmatically. They’re truly the best to think in terms of lifetime value, building for the future to pass an asset to future generations, stronger than what they inherited. They invest in the future, they know everything won’t arrive the next day, but clear the path to make it happen
So who will win in 2019?
Those who manage to develop a sharp & clear customer experience strategy, translate it in new customer experiences & products in a coherent way and understand how digital (among other assets) will be able to enable the plan and create more value
with the right customer experience strategy & methodology you can design a compelling vision & purpose, link it with acts & interactions bringing clarity to the organisation on what matters, understand how digital will be able to make some elements of the experience happen, where it makes sense or not, and align the organisation towards delivering one objective.
Those who will be able to organise to deliver fast, then grow and scale. In other words - identify elements that can be done rapidly to already make some impact, walk the talk and learn while walking. By being able to continuously rollout changes connected to the strategy as from the very beginning, not only your organisation is encouraged to continue and do more, but you already can make impact on the market and steer plans. You can kill what shows little potential or focus on what really works. So no big organisational discussions, no long term transformation of the IT infrastructure - we’re looking for results. We’ll scale and strive for perfection (or automation) later. I’m thinking for example about chatbot meetings: everyone wants AI and chatbots, but nobody actually managed chats to really assess what works/counts/brings value. Start manually, figure out what makes sense and only after that, automate. In terms of people & organisations, small squads and teams can make it, but only at the condition that they are empowered, have means to deliver and influence the business (not building a side “speedboat” that afterwards everyone wonders it has to do in the company, and years down the line somebody finally decides to pull the plug of the project). Build a transformation plan and see what processes/governance/skills need to be on-boarded at each step of the plan, and follow through as it comes.
Those who will do things step by step and remain focussed. If you chase multiple objectives at the same time, if you engage teams into building plenty of initiatives in parallel, you are dispersing. If you are dispersed, you progress slowly and nothing makes impact. If you don’t make impact fast - especially on a topic like digital where a lot of executives are still to be convinced on the real value of these plans - your chances that your program will be killed rapidly are greater. Make sure not to do everything or implement everything but only activities that will contributed to build up the masterplan - step by step. If you are dispersing, it means you are chasing multiple targets at the same time and have no strategy. You are squeezing resources out of the organisation, but without bringing actual value.
In other words, the answer is simple : those who will win don’t throw away cash investing heavily in systems or training people hoping that somewhere down the line magic will happen and a transformation will operate. They have a plan.
Have a sustainable customer strategy with a clear stepped transformation plan, and make room for teams to deliver.
Each year, around Christmas, I have fun reading the predictions for the following year, and, depending on what I read, my mood balances between amusement, doubt, glee or even sometimes anger. In 15 years of experience in digital, I have seen the “hype cycle” of Gartner evolve through time, right or wrong, too optimistic or too pessimistic. But its easy to criticise and never do the exercise - so this year, it’s my turn to dip my toe into it and we’ll see in the coming years if I was right or wrong.