Creating a Digitally Transformed Business Organisation
The Situation
The CIO of a Fortune 500 firm needed to ensure that his aggressive multimillion dollar investment into digital transformation would transform the technically agnostic business organisation into an effective digitally fluent group. The pandemic had forced this leading organisation to suddenly invest heavily in new digital tools to ensure business owners could be effective and make wise decisions about digital investment.
In the past the company had been a victim on digital projects with no clear end goal. Investment into cloud, robotics, IOT, big data and worker productivity tools had little penetration in the organisation as workers were comfortable in using the tools they were comfortable with. This dependence on old tools created inefficiencies in the departments. Questions were raised about the capabilities of the business organisation to work effectively with new digital technology and whether the IT department was sufficiently helping the departments take ownership. A case in point was a £10M investment into a blockchain pilot that had no clear business outcomes and an investment into Microsoft Azure and Office 365 with little take up of the new applications.
There were 450 members of different levels of seniority and experience across Europe, Middle East and Africa who needed to be transformed into a digitally confident group within 9 months who understood how to work effectively with Big data, AI, Blockchain and digital transformation and be able to drive learnings to their wider team members to enhance overall group performance.
The Task
I was asked to lead a junior team to train upskill digital transformation and create Digital Champions in the eleven divisions of the organisation within nine months. Once the digital champions were identified they had to then create digital initiatives for their division to drive transformation success and present their initiatives to the board for funding. The divisional members were from diverse backgrounds of Pharmaceuticals, Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Shipping, Chemical Engineering, Legal, Food Technology, Automotive, Human Resources, Legal, Agriculture and Energy.
The work was in different stages:
- Provide a broad nine month plan and budget
- Identify areas where skills were needed and the tools needed to address the gaps
- Plan how the upskilling exercise would take place
- Demonstrate ongoing effectiveness of the program
- Identify ways to select the digital champions
- Provide a long list of digital initiatives
- Shortlist initiatives for deep dive
- Provide recommendations to the board
The Action / Approach
I was given a ‘white sheet’ to execute the engagement but senior stakeholder buy in was crucial at each stage. Here were the key steps
- Crafted a project plan to nurture a culture of engaged owners, delivery and achievement
- Set up fortnightly calls with the Senior Team to ensure all ideas were considered
- Allocated responsibilities to my team members (organisation of delegates; selection and demonstration of key tools)
- Drive awareness for the initiative, build credibility of my transformation team to overcome resistance and drive adoption
- Conducted a survey of digital maturity in the organisation to identify critical areas of support
- Created a simple six step plan to take delegates from Zero knowledge to being Digitally fluent
- Enlisted external speakers to present on key areas of Digital Transformation during the journey to drive engagement
- Researched and crafted key content to present in mixed teams to reduce complexity and any siloes
- Created tutorials to drive practical application of solutions and reduce risk of delivering incompatible or incomplete solutions
- Select and purchase tools, and agencies to deliver the experience to drive engagement and record sessions to reduce time wasted to deliver value, with prioritised delivery of the right things at the right time
- Creation of an information library accessible for all staff after the upskilling exercise ended meant the assets created would have lifetime value for the organisation
The Result
Gains were:
There were key measures to verify success of the initiative
- Over 250 members trained and so creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
- Attendance at the sessions of over 80% for each module showed increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
- Extra budget of 40% to buy additional tools because of initiative success
- 5* Feedback with delegates requesting further upskilling driving a culture of innovation for easier and faster adoption of future digital trends
- Number of shortlisted ideas for board approval showed a successful, timely delivery of evidence-based digital transformational outcomes; beyond digitisation
- Direct delegate positive feedback ensured more satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity while at the same time creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
- Mixing skillsets and departments enabling collaboration beyond the boundaries of a division
Pains relieved include:
- At the same time by having different departments working as one avoided any lack of agreement of transformation governance and stakeholder understanding that leads to a fragmented approach also an unclear and siloed business strategy leads to misaligned goals across the organisation that conflict with transformation
- By creating a plan early on avoided any lack of exec sponsorship and ownership
- By creating a universally aligned model the process avoided any conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available
- As the IT function led the initiative is stopped any concerns that the IT function is not aligned to the digital business strategy and vision
- The community tools we used ensured any lack of availability of the right people at the right time across both business and technology areas were covered
- By leading from the front foot we ensures any cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change was mitigated
Focus In On: Responsible for Digital Business Transformation
New Areas of Value:
Gain access to additional budget through success
Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
Digital transformation that drives, moves and resets the organisation’s vision
Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction
Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
Driving a culture of innovation for easier and faster adoption of future digital trends
More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
Successful, timely delivery of evidence-based digital transformational outcomes; beyond digitisation
Creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
Enabling collaboration beyond the boundaries of an enterprise
Improvements around:
Lack of agreement of transformation governance and stakeholder understanding leading to a fragmented approach
Lack of transformation, change and agility mindset in leadership
Unclear and siloed business strategy leading to misaligned goals across the organisation that conflict with transformation
Lack of exec sponsorship and ownership
Leaders mandating a change management and implementation approach that’s not appropriate to the organisation
Lack of clarity around existing operating model, internal business ecosystem or cross-functional teams
Lack of sufficient customer and market insight to inform digital transformation
Conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available
The IT function is not aligned to the digital business strategy and vision
Lack of availability of the right people at the right time across both business and technology areas
Cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change
Budget availability affected by external change drivers and uncertain resource estimates
