What's the most important thing to consider before embarking on a transformation journey?

What is most important to consider before embarking on a transformation journey? We reached out to various digital leaders to find out more about their views. Should we first align on our objectives? Or explain the journey's impact on the organization and the teams? Or choose a completely different approach?
Tune into this episode to get inspired by the statements - and reflect on: What is the most important thing for you before embarking on this journey?

Chapters

• 1:27 Setting smart goals and getting transformation mindset in the organization
• 2:34 Be clear what you want to achieve and take step by step approach
• 4:35 Nailing a transformation journey story is critical
• 5:50 Define the problem and the value of the transformation
• 7:25 Communicate clearly what needs to be changed to your teams and stuff
• 8:30 Address fears and threats to reveal real transformation sense
• 10:10 Define if you digitize or going on a full transformation journey
• 12:41 Are you improving existing business model or adopting a new one?

Transcript

Christine: (00:03)

Welcome to the Lost in Transformation podcast series dedicated to the complex world of Digital Transformation. We feature guests from large corporations, start-ups, consultancies and more, to shed light on the success factors around Innovation, Transformation, and adjacent topics.
We share first-hand insights and inspiration from experts for all the intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, and anyone curious about Digital Transformation.

Christine: (00:32)

What is the most important thing for leaders to consider before embarking on their transformation journey? We wanted to know what our digital leaders thought of as the number one thing that makes or breaks any transformation. And there are a couple of themes that stuck out. Many agreed that an alignment on clear outcomes and objectives, as well as tangible next steps is crucial to consider before your journey. For others, the most important thing is the communication with the team to clearly explain the journey's impact on them and on the company. And lastly, being aware of the difference between digitization and digital transformation, two types that require different approaches are also considered fundamental. What you think of as the most significant thing before embarking on a transformation journey, take a listen and get inspired.

Ee Ling: (01:27)

So there are two big questions that a leader needs to consider. The first one is really what outcomes and objectives do you want to achieve for your organization and for your customers? So we always talk about setting goals on a personal level, you have to set a smart goal. So if you want to create a smart goal for innovation and make it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, what would that look like in both quantifiable and also qualitative terms? The second question, I think, is a stock-take, which is before I'm barking on this, who do I need in the firm to actually make this whole innovation initiative work? Do I have this kind of support and capabilities in the firm to carry this out? What kind of mindset is it that permeates within the entire firm at the moment, which by the way, differs by culture. And I think this mindset really plays a huge role in the success of the firm's transformation journey. So if that mindset of change isn't currently available, you want to be thinking about what kind of people do I need to bring into the organization, or what kind of external help can I seek in order to carry this out?

Thomas Jakob: (02:34)

When we look at the development methodology, which we had to put up, after some years being in that IOT digital business, we defined a number of different steps, how to get to a digital solution. And, we always start now these days by thinking very thoroughly about what are we trying to achieve and what is the underlying business, because that's the biggest change as I mentioned just now. When we talk about digital transformation, it's the transformation from the physical into a service, kind of a world. And, the underlying business models, there are potentially very different and whatever we know from the past does not apply there anymore. So that's the most important aspect before embarking on it, having a very clear idea, what we are trying to achieve. Not trying to make that big, also what we're always telling our clients, trying to keep it small, keep it very concrete rather than embarking on a big grant digital vision from the beginning, but build it step by step and granted incrementally from a leader perspective.

Jerry Tso: (03:50)

I think, you know, first of all, I think they have to have the right mindset going before going into the transformation journey. It's not a sprint, but a marathon. So leader needs to be patient to see things through. So having the right mindset themselves is extremely important. Next, I think it was just looking at what they want to get out of transformation. Does it actually solve the business problem they're having today or you know, that they anticipate tomorrow? So, you know, having those key questions answered before they embark on any transformation journey.

Scott Anthony: (04:35)

I think one of the things that leaders need to consider as they begin their transformation journey is coming up with a story, coming up with a narrative, coming up with a clear reason why it's something the organization needs to do. Look, transformation is incredibly hard. There are twists and turns. There are fumbles and false steps. There will be failures along the way. And it's very easy for people to say too hard, I'm going to go back to yesterday. You have a clear and compelling story of the future, it makes it much easier for people to go on that journey. If you look at DBS, this is one of the things that its CEO group has done masterfully to embrace storytelling and metaphors, to convince people that this is a good and smart thing for the organization to do. So I think nailing the story is a critical thing for leaders to do. 

Florian Bankoley: (05:21)

The most important thing for me is to have a very clear understanding of what you want to reach. So what is really your target beyond I want to transform something, which is nice, but what tangible results do you expect? And do you have full commitment and support from the top down? I mean, this is for me having a clear alignment from the top down, this is what we want to reach these our targets. And that's the most important thing. 

Wilma Gerber: (05:50)

I think it's essential to know what problem you want to solve and how the transformation is going to deliver value. If you are not clear on this, it will be very hard to prioritize where you focus and where you spend your budget. 

Olaf Frank: (06:04)

If you embark on a journey, you have to define for yourself where you want to go, as either, you try to get to a conclusion as to where you want to go because that's what you can work on. Or, you embark on a journey without maybe any place you really want to get to that. The second thing I think is difficult. I mean, nobody can look into the future. So it's always a little bit of the second, but I think what you have to find is intermediate steps that say, okay, this would make sense for us to get to, and then elaborate on what you have to change to get there. Because if you just do changes because you feel that's currently part of the news, or that's currently part of what you hear, or that's what people want to sell to you. 
I think that's a very dangerous situation because you're pretty much bound to wasting your time and money. I think we really need to have concrete steps that we want to reach. Even if we don't know what the end game is, we need to make sure that the intermediate steps make sense in themselves as much as we can. I mean, that can obviously be a longer-term vision where you say, okay, and you took it in a certain direction. And I don't know exactly what that will be, but I think to have intermediate steps and also control your own success. And as you ever get there is vitally important to be successful there. 

Pete Overy: (07:25)

I often say transformation is from what to what, and in various conversations that we have, sometimes I will be very pointed by asking, you have a bunch of people who are very busy already and you're asking them to change. So the best way I know of doing that is to help them understand what they have to give up or what they have to change. And often, in transformation programs that kind of underlying vision of where the thing is heading, even as a direction, the setter is incredibly important and then describing, or helping with references of stuff that's going to change. So we're not going to do this anymore, but we are going to try this, right. That's an important conversation to have, and it doesn't happen often enough too many times. I see transformation being this extra work we're going to do, not the work that will help us do less or figuring out when that might happen. So, that's a very important part I think, of where you set up and how you communicate that to your teams and your staff. 

Henning Tomforde: (08:30)

My perspective is I think the leader I would expect, or I would suggest seeing the larger context because I mean, digitalization is connected to a lot of, let's say buzzwords, a lot of fears and anxiety about what's going to happen. Artificial intelligence, what does it mean? Automated optimization, how many people will lose their jobs to all these things. And those are real, I would say fiercely. And to accept that digital transformation is not for everyone seen as an opportunity, but also for people as a threat. Is that a thing, something especially in production, in a process industry like ours, I would say it's important to understand that you need to lead the dialogue about what it really means. What are threats, what opportunities and how do they replay into the future of the company and the future of the individual? 
I think this is an important part to consider along this journey such that it loses they'd say often demonized or superficial approach, but really their sense on stuff we need and we have to work on.
 
Yi Ming: (09:33)

I think it's definitely important for leaders to really understand the perspective of the different teams in their business unit and how this digital transformation will impact them from a work perspective, from an emotional perspective, is it digitalizing? What takes away some of their work, would they feel like, we might jump, be replaced because of technology and stuff like that. So I think those are questions that you just have to ask yourself before embarking on this one project. 

Linda Sessa: (10:10)

Well, it's first and foremost, and I can't stress that enough is to know what journey you're on. Are you digitizing stuff or you are actually embarking on a digital transformation because your plans and your approach are going to be quite different from them both? The second one for me would be, if you are a digital leader going into this is to understand what your power map in the company is, who are your supporters? Where are you going to be, detractors who are going to be, who are you, who are your passive-aggressive, because we all have them in the large corporate. And I think it's very important to identify those and also to identify people that are going to be behind you and are going to help you along the journey because the journey is not easy. So spend some time trying to map that kind of a power map in your company to understand who can actually be behind you. 
And then the third one enriches that with the context and the ecosystem that you are embarking on this journey on because the context might be overlooked, but I think it's quite important to do things right, what was done before, what worked, what didn't work. Is there a company culture that can help you or hinder you? Is there a certain setup with the vendors or the outsourcing or many different things, just try to understand all of the aspects that are touching your digital transformation journey and how they might impact it. 

Weixiang Wang: (11:40)

I think what is most important is that they need to realize that there are two types of digital transformation at play here, and they are very different and require very, very different approaches. So the first part in terms of transforming that and digitally transforming the internal processes and operations that need a very, very clear vision, then needs very clear decision-making to some extent, maybe a little bit top-down as well. But in the second form of digital transformation, in terms of using digital as a new avenue for corporate venture building, for that, you need different metrics. You need the whole organization to think about digital in a different way. Maybe going back to the drawing board a little bit, so a little bit more agile, a little bit leaner, and less top-down. So a lot of leaders tend to commingle the two and think that there's only one way to do it. 
But the most important I feel is really recognizing that there are 2 digital transformations and then they are very different and they require very different approaches.

Sam Hall: (12:41)

Are you trying to evolve or improve your existing business model? Or are you trying to explore or adopt new business models? And I think depending on what the objective there is, the tool that you use will be different. So for the former evolving, improving existing business models, then the way I define digital transformation, I think that's an effective tool to use for that exploring and adopting new business models. For me, that's about business model innovation, which is about creating value that doesn't yet exist or effecting a new business model that does something more efficiently and more cost-effectively, captures the value that already exists today. And I think that depending on whether you're trying to evolve your existing or explore and adopt new business models, you will lean towards digital transformation or you will lean towards innovation. So I think the key thing to do is figure out which of those two things you are trying to do and not use the wrong tool. 

Christine: (13:38)

Thank you for listening to this episode of “Lost in Transformation". If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe to our channel and leave us a review on iTunes. Join us next time for another episode of our podcast.