As you know, organizations are facing today an environment of profound and accelerated change and business leaders ponder how to respond given their fear of being disrupted. This is especially the case when they observe digital natives coming into their industries very quickly and using new business models. Quite often, such a concern leads organizations to overreact or to start a series of disparate projects that are implemented in narrow and disconnected ways. Therefore, it is unfortunate (but not surprising) that many transformation initiatives are unable to create significant value for the organization and its customers.
In order to contribute to the discussion of how organizations can improve their ability to successfully transform themselves, I have written the book “The Agile Digital Enterprise – Applying the Business Transformation Canvas to Reinvent your Organization.” The book expresses my fundamental belief that organizations need to “reframe” their transformations. Instead of driven by fear, they need to better leverage on the “art of what is now possible” and to understand how it has been significantly expanded.
Differently from other books that go deeper but focus on only a few of the transformation elements, the approach I took in the book was to offer a more horizontal and integrated end-to-end perspective about many transformation elements and their interdependencies. Please, visit the website www.agiledigitalenterprise.com to learn more.
Therefore, the book centers on four key concepts, as follows:
- Rather than proceeding on a reactive and fear-driven fashion, business leaders are encouraged to develop a deeper appreciation for the changes and trends underway and to proactively reflect about them. They should then proactively envision new opportunities and the compelling future they can create for their organizations. These trends are driven by dramatic changes taking place in the areas of demographics, customer expectations, connectivity-enabled world (including emerging and less developed economies), and digital technologies
- As business leaders envision their future state / transformed organizations, the book invites them to consider the adoption of the Agile Digital Enterprise system (ADEs) as the destination for their transformations. The ADEs demonstrate the following attributes / beliefs:
- They are purpose-driven, values-based and long-term oriented.
- They take a multi-stakeholder perspective (i.e., not only shareholder-centric).
- They strive to create a generative culture and fundamentally believe that their people will embrace change that is originated from a compelling vision for the organization.
- As learning organizations, they encourage and create the conditions for their people to continuously inquire, experiment and learn.
- They see digital technologies as means to an end (rather than an end in themselves).
- They extensively apply digital technologies to create efficiencies and to improve customer experience, as well as to augment the creativity of the people of the organization to collaborate, innovate and meet customer needs.
- They see the organization as a complex adaptive system (rather than a “machine”) and part of a larger living and interdependent system.
- In the context of their industry, history and other factors, organizational leaders can define the appropriate level of adherence to the mentioned ADEs attributes. The book explains that there is no “one-size-fits-all” destination and it should vary for each organization, which is quantified via an ADEs Index. In any case, the underlying intent should be to achieve a transformed state level of maturity that enables the organizations to better capitalize on the potential of their people, processes and digital technologies in order to achieve superior levels of agility, innovation, responsiveness, customer orientation, employee engagement and change-readiness capabilities.
- Finally, the book introduces the Business Transformation Canvas (BTC) as a framework (“the how to”) to guide the transformation design and implementation The BTC is comprised of 10 elements, 3 domains and several building blocks (25 unique ones and 62 when applied in multiple domains of the transformation). The BTC facilitates the process of a vision-led and holistic journey, especially by integrating the interdependent building blocks to be addressed during the transformation.
In conclusion and paraphrasing the former President Kennedy is his famous “Moon” speech, as a leader you choose to undertake the transformation challenge because it is hard but also because it is imperative for the long-term success of your organization. Also, it is nothing less than what the people of the organization expect from you.
Based on your experience, what has been the primary narrative for the transformations you have have observed / worked on? Fear of disruption or the pursuit of great and new opportunities?
Please, share your thoughts and perspectives. Thanks!
Antonio Urquiza