In the book, Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, et al, there is a lot that can be learned about the Organizational risks and benefits to creating a new category. A new category is a new market space like Amazon with online shopping, Salesforce with CRM cloud software, and IKEA with furniture. I maintain that many of the risks identified don’t just apply to Category Creation but also to Digital Transformation. Both require a massive leap of faith. Category Creation is…
Before you take on a Digital Transformation project, there are a few things I’d recommend that you consider before undergoing such a significant shift. Based on my previous experience too few companies slow down long enough to do this, but it will save you time and money in the long-run. What I’m talking about is performing a self-assessment of your organization’s capabilities and readiness for change by completing a Digital Transformation Readiness assessment. This will help you understand just how…
When you implement software, you can face any number of “change personas” from the over-zealous go-getter to the Luddite who is still learning e-mail. One other type you’ll run into is the person who wants to know the absolute minimum. When you talk through a complicated software, they’ll stop you and say “Ok, but what do I really need to know?” “What’s the minimum amount of work I need to do?” This personality type typically is also a huge proponent of…
If you’ve ever implemented software – you are likely very familiar with Murphy’s Law – what can go wrong, will go wrong. When you are faced with Murphy’s Law in an implementation, it’s very easy to get lodged into one way of thinking while the solution may be totally obvious to someone else. See below video. If this has happened to you and you want to do some thinking ahead of time, here’s a thought exercise to free yourself from certain constraints…
A lot is made of the successes of Uber, Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, and Google. ‘Category Kings’ is what Al Ramadan, Dave Person, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney would call them in their book Play Bigger. They crush the competition and become the space with which they helped create. Who searches anymore when you can ‘google’? Similarly, there are a lot of lessons shared from the failures to embrace change at companies such as Blockbuster, Kodak, Borders, and Sears. Too little, too late. But what…
Leading Change, a book by Dr. John Kotter, remains a must-have for Change Leaders. In his book, he outlines 8 Steps to effectively lead, implement, and sustain a successful change project. Here are the 8 Steps: Create a Sense of Urgency – Why is the change necessary right now? Build a Guiding Coalition – Identify key Champions – the people that will really rally the change and the messaging – One person is never enough. Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives…
I know I’m offending the .002% of people who love the RFP (Request for Proposal) process, but I don’t care. I’m throwing caution to the wind on this one. The RFP Process is dumb. The RFP process is a way to get vendors to bid for work, and it made complete sense before the internet was invented. Now, the RFP process is an example of corporate laziness. It creates an absurd amount of work for everyone involved when a simple…
Remember Blockbuster Video? You may not, but in 2004 Blockbuster Video had 60,000 employees. Today, it doesn’t exist. Its value proposition was pretty straightforward – you’d walk into one of 9,000 Blockbuster Video stores and rent a movie to take home. What Blockbuster didn’t take seriously was that streaming movies online was going to be a thing. By the time it figured it out – even tried to stream movies itself – it was too late. Perhaps you realize that you need…
When you first commit to taking on a technological change, you’ll need to start somewhere to ensure it’s a success. In the book, A Beautiful Constraint – there is a diagram that references that may help as a starting reference. The chart helps assess whether your company is ready for change and I think it is particularly relevant to a large organization that just bought a new software solution to drive digital transformation. Here’s how to read it as it pertains…