Extra-condensed knowledge
- 2018. Of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on DT, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste.
- March 2019. Yet 70% of all DT initiatives do not reach their goals.
- Companies put the cart before the horse, focusing on a specific technology (“we need a machine-learning strategy!”) rather than doing the hard work of fitting the change into the overall business strategy first.
Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image
Condensed knowledge
- 2018. Of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on DT, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste.
- March 2019. Yet 70% of all DT initiatives do not reach their goals.
- Companies put the cart before the horse, focusing on a specific technology (“we need a machine-learning strategy!”) rather than doing the hard work of fitting the change into the overall business strategy first.
- Why do some DT efforts succeed and others fail?
- Fundamentally, it’s because most digital technologies provide possibilities for efficiency gains and customer intimacy. But if people lack the right mindset to change and the current organizational practices are flawed, DT will simply magnify those flaws.
- Five key lessons have helped us lead our organizations through digital transformations that succeeded.
- Lesson 1: Figure out your business strategy before you invest in anything.
- Leaders who aim to enhance organizational performance through the use of digital technologies often have a specific tool in mind. “Our organization needs a machine learning strategy,” perhaps. But digital transformation should be guided by the broader business strategy.
- Lesson 2: Leverage insiders.
- Organizations that seek transformations (digital and otherwise) frequently bring in an army of outside consultants who tend to apply one-size-fits-all solutions in the name of “best practices.” Our approach to transforming our respective organizations is to rely instead on insiders — staff who have intimate knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in their daily operations.
- Lesson 3: Design customer experience from the outside in.
- If the goal of DT is to improve customer satisfaction and intimacy, then any effort must be preceded by a diagnostic phase with in-depth input from customers.
- Lesson 4: Recognize employees’ fear of being replaced.
- When employees perceive that digital transformation could threaten their jobs, they may consciously or unconsciously resist the changes.
- Lesson 5: Bring Silicon Valley start-up culture inside.
- Silicon Valley start-ups are known for their agile decision making, rapid prototyping and flat structures.
Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age
[genioux fact produced, deduced or extracted from HBR]
Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Deduced and Extracted Knowledge (EDEK).
Type of validity of the "genioux fact".
- Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts + Supported by successful cases.
Authors of the genioux fact
References
Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology, Behnam Tabrizi, Ed Lam, Kirk Girard, and Vernon Irvin, March 2019, Harvard Business Review, HBR.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Behnam Tabrizi has been teaching Leading Organizational Transformation at Stanford University’s Department of Management Science and Engineering and executive programs for more than 20 years. An expert in organizational and leadership transformation, he is the managing director of Rapid Transformation, LLC. Behnam has written six books, including Rapid Transformation (HBR Press, 2007) for companies and The Inside-Out Effect (Evolve Publishing, 2013) for leaders. Follow him on Twitter at @TabriziBehnam.
Ed Lam is CFO of Li & Fung Ltd.
Ed Lam is the Chief Financial Officer of Li & Fung and member of the Executive Committee, overseeing the Group’s corporate development and global finance functions, including ecosystem alliances, corporate finance, treasury, investor relations, financial planning and analysis, risk management and financial reporting.
Kirk Girard is former Director of Planning and Development in Santa Clara County.
My community development experience spans 21 years as the Director of Planning and Development for Humboldt and Santa Clara counties. I've led planning organizations through major permit process reforms, community planning initiatives, and expansions of community and environmental services fueled by over $110 million in competitive grant revenue.
Vernon Irvin is president of Government, Education, and Mid & Small Business Division at CenturyLink.
Vernon L Irvin currently works as President of the Government, Education, Medium & Small Business business unit within CenturyLink. Prior to CenturyLink, he served in several executive positions at Time Warner Cable, CEO and President at Virtual World Computing and was Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for XM Satellite Radio.
He previously held positions at MCI; later he worked VeriSign, where he oversaw the company's telecommunications unit.