“The future belongs to those that embrace change, it’s not always easy but it’s worth it.”
Transformation is commonly likened to a metamorphosis where, in early stages, the caterpillar starts small and inexperienced. Focused on growth and survival, the caterpillar goes on to adapt, transform and emerges as a butterfly - an irreversible phenomenon.
A few decades ago, a business transformation would have been like that of a butterfly. You would have examined your organization’s future strategy, planned the change, allocated budgets, and implemented the transformation – a one-time response to fulfil an urgent need. Further, it would take many years to identify another case for transformation.
Today, this stands changed - most businesses need to view transformation as a constant state. We need a refreshed mindset and a new style of leadership to manage and supplement this change. Business leaders are now aware that their role is not limited to simply running the business but to also change and capably compete with a vision for the future.
Navigating information, complexity and urgency
How many conferences have you attended in the past few years where new disruptive technologies, products, or services were presented? In the IT world, CIOs are constantly overwhelmed with disruptive technologies that the software industry tells them to adopt, lest they perish. Commonly promoted among these are:
DevOps
Data Lakes
Cloud Computing
Generative AI
These technologies are introduced at each new conference season - however, CIOs must ensure they understand the intended business outcomes and more importantly are able to articulate the tangible value of these technologies in the context of their business needs.
Here are some real-world examples about the impact of these technologies in driving business value:
DevOps - Amazon:
Business value:
Amazon implemented DevOps practices to enhance agility and shorten release cycles for its e-commerce platform.
Results:
Faster deployment of new features and updates, leading to improved customer experience and increased revenue.
Data Lakes - GE Healthcare
Business Value:
GE Healthcare utilizes data lakes to centralize and analyze diverse healthcare data sources.
Results:
Enhanced research capabilities accelerated development of new medical solutions, and improved patient outcomes through data-driven insights.
Cloud computing - Netflix
Business value:
Netflix migrated its infrastructure to the cloud for scalability and global reach.
Results:
Improved streaming quality, reduced downtime, and the ability to rapidly scale during peak usage, contributing to increased subscriber satisfaction and market dominance.Results: Improved streaming quality, reduced downtime, and the ability to rapidly scale during peak usage, contributing to increased subscriber satisfaction and market dominance.
Generative AI - OpenAI's GPT-3
Business value:
GPT-3, a generative AI model, is used for natural language processing and content generation.
Results:
Enables the creation of human-like text, leading to improved chatbots, content generation, and creative applications, enhancing user engagement and productivity.
Why transformation should be continuous
There are many reasons why businesses need to transform. A typical trigger is that the world is getting increasingly complex and interconnected. New technologies are setting new industry standards and businesses frequently need to reinvent their capabilities and operations.
Businesses and technology are also becoming increasingly interconnected. For organizations, this implies developing capabilities for collaboration, problem-solving and innovation to access a wider range of resources and markets. Also, the world is full of disruptions. New startups and entrepreneurs are constantly challenging the status quo. And the internationalization of business means that companies are competing globally now.
With this backdrop, here are some specific examples of how businesses are transforming:
- Rethinking their business models: Businesses are undergoing transformative changes by leveraging subscription-based models, ecosystem partnerships, platform and marketplace models and value-based sector transformation models.
- Redesigning their organisations: Businesses are redesigning their organisations to be more agile and responsive to change. This may involve flattening hierarchies, creating cross-functional teams, agile transformations, innovation hubs, M&A activity, and employee-welfare models.
- Adopting new technologies: Businesses across sectors are evaluating and leveraging new technologies such as AI, ML, and cloud computing to digitise their operations, process, and customer service. These implementations are helping to streamline repetitive tasks, reduce errors, and allow for real-time data analysis.
By embracing change businesses are becoming more adaptable, technology-enabled, customer-focused and innovating for long-term success.
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Mark ThomasHead of Architecture, Strategy and TransformationTorry Harris Integration Solutions |
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