Today’s business challenges require blending traditional business models and transformation frameworks with modern digital solutions. From my experience in transformation consultancy, organizations rarely get this blend right – they are often being pulled in two directions by business and IT leaders.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen an organization have a business strategy and a separate technology strategy that are likened to a long-lost cousin – related by blood but not aligned in purpose.
People, process and technology are the key components of any operating model and are all inherently linked. Transforming an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, for example, would impact organisation design and process architecture which are as important as the solution itself. We often see companies try to accelerate their digital investments through applications with a front-end layer plugged into an archaic back-end and an organisation structure that is not designed to optimize digitalization. This can result in a dud investment or a costly remediation program to address the business components.
I urge business leaders to view their transformation strategy as one holistic being, interlinked and delicate like a living organism, where any changes are balanced across all facets. When this level of maturity is reached, it is a beautiful thing to behold: an efficient, integrated evolution of an organization from caterpillar to butterfly, instead of from a caterpillar to a caterpillar with robotic wings attached.