In the video below on CxO Talk, I asked Mark Gottlieb, a literary agent with Trident Media Group, about Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as it relates to sales and royalties.
Tag: digital transformation
Can The IT Team Do Digital Transformation?
Today’s competitive business landscape requires that you have a solid understanding of what technology is doing and what it can do for your organization. This understanding of technology can make the difference between surviving and thriving. Organizations that merely want to survive will eventually be replaced. Organizations that want to thrive will need to do Digital Transformation. But, if someone convinced you that Digital Transformation is only about technology then you will struggle with it as stated in Business Agility and Digital Transformation, 5 Questions to Ask About Your Digital Transformation, and 5 Myths About Digital Transformation.
Digital Transformation requires the entire organization to have a culture that motivates and incentivizes to improve things. Since most functional departments operate in silos, motivations and incentives are limited to functional departments and not to the entire organization. What this means is that even before you begin your Digital Transformation journies, you should have a good understanding of what roadblocks these silos create and how you can move beyond them. While there are many ways to assess your organization’s readiness, today I am going to use the SWOT Analysis combined with SPICE to identify gaps and use it as a communications tool to address those gaps.
What is the SWOT Analysis?
The SWOT Analysis is a way for organizations to understand their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats when it comes to operations and future planning. Strengths and Weaknesses look at the organization internally for self-assessment while the Opportunities and Threats look outside the organization.
What is the SPICE Framework?
SPICE is a way for organizations to understand its Strategy, Politics, Innovation, Culture, and Execution of today and tomorrow. SPICE looks at the Who, What, Where, When, Why for People, Processes, Products, Services, and Technologies.
Combining SPICE and SWOT
By combining SPICE and SWOT, we can get a deeper understanding of what is needed at organizations to move the needle. We can this SPICE-SWOT. Here’s how it works and specifically what questions you can ask:
Strategy
Organizations develop strategies for short-term and long-term. The strategy development process can be either exclusive or inclusive. In most organizations, we have an exclusive strategy development process that involves a few key executives such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Chief Operations Officer (COO). In some organizations, an inclusive strategy development process will involve executives, middle management, and front-line employees. Another way of developing an organization’s strategy is by outsourcing it to outside consulting firms. Each of the strategy development processes has its pros and cons.
Ideally, your organization’s strategy development process should have manual and digital feedbacks loops going from the front-line employees all the way to the executives and must include Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Chief Human Resources Manager (CHRM), Chief Security Officer (CSO) and Chief Data Officer (CDO). If your organization is going to use a consulting firm then the consulting firm must:
- Take feedback from all stakeholders including customers, partners, and vendors
- Look at industry trends and cross-industry pollination opportunities
- Not develop pie-in-the-sky ideas that are not implementable
- Not merely be a mouthpiece for the CEO or the Board of Directors
Your organization’s strategy should look at how your organization can grow and how organizational operations can be improved. With this in mind, let’s ask a few questions:
- Strategic Strengths
- Who is able to develop a strategy and execute it?
- What products and/or services provide you the tools to create effective strategy?
- Where do your products and/or services specifically help in reaching strategic goals?
- When conditions change, how quickly can your strategy adapt?
- Why no one can match your strategy and strategy development processes?
- Strategic Weaknesses
- Who is always slacking on executing your strategy?
- What products and/services do not result in effective strategy?
- Where do your products and/or services specifically harm in reaching strategic goals?
- When conditions change, how often do you ignore them?
- Why others can match your strategy and strategy development processes?
- Strategic Opportunities
- Who can you partner with that understands and helps your strategy?
- What products and/or services you forsee that can help create effective strategy?
- Where do your products and/or services can benefit other organization’s in their strategy?
- When conditions change, who have you partnered up that can help you navigate them?
- Why no one can match your partner’s strategy and strategy development processes?
- Strategic Threats
- Who have you partnered up with that does not care about your strategy?
- What products and/or services from your partners can harm your strategy?
- Where do your products and/or services can hamper another organization’s strategy?
- When conditions change, who have you partnered up that are oblivious to it?
- Why anyone can match your partner’s strategy and strategy develop processes?
Politics
Wherever there are humans, there is politics. Sometimes this politics is visible and sometimes it is hidden but it is still there. In organizations, politics plays a key role in determining who gets promoted, what happens in governance boards, what vendors should be trusted, what kind of assistance should be provided, whose ideas are listened to, and who gets to give requirements to create something new for the organization.
Ideally, your organization’s politics should be addressed head-on by creating an open-door policy, ability to submit ideas/feedback/concerns anonymously both manually and digitally, and training for employees to understand how their own biases can affect the organization at various levels. Politics does not have to be a dirty work in your organization. With this in mind, let’s ask a few questions:
- Political Strengths
- Who are the go-to people at front-line, middle management and executive levels?
- What products and/or services came about due to political influence and proved to be a strength?
- Where did political influence change the culture for the better?
- When does your internal politics keeps you focused on the future?
- Why your orgnizational politics is a positive thing for the organization?
- Political Weaknesses
- Who are the people that play bad politics at front-line, middle management and executive levels?
- What products and/or services came about due to political influence and proved to be a weakness?
- Where did political influence change the culture for the worse?
- When does you internal politics distracts from what you can achieve in the future?
- Why your orgnizational politics is a negative thing for the organization?
- Political Opportunities
- Who are your go-to partners that are influencing various industries which will provide opportunities for you?
- What products and/or services that can come about due to political influence?
- Where can you use your political influence to make your customers, partners, vendors go a certain direction?
- When does you competitor’s political influence threaten their own existence?
- Why your political influence matters to others?
- Political Threats
- Who you did not partner up with who politcal influence
- What products and/or services might never be developed due to political influence?
- Where can your competitors’ use of political influence make your customers, partners, vendors go a certain direction?
- When does your competitor’s political influence threaten your existence?
- Why you have no political influence?
Innovation
Innovation is the lifeblood of your organization. It energizes or demoralizes your organization. It can positively affect your organization or it can make it hollow. There are many levels of innovation that come from front-line employees (e.g., doing some tasks more efficiently), middle-management (e.g., becoming curators of innovative ideas and creating synergies) to executive management (e.g., ability to extrapolate and connect the dots at the highest levels). Innovation does not have to be disruptive, it can be incremental but it needs to happen and your organization should have a mindset to think about constantly. With this in mind, let’s ask a few questions:
- Innovation Strengths
- Who in your organization is the most innovative at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels?
- What products and/or services do you provide that no one can match?
- Where does innovation take place in your organization?
- When you have problems with products and/or services, how quickly do you fix them?
- Why do you think you can maintain a competitive advantage?
- Innovation Weaknesses
- Who in your organization is the least innovative at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels?
- What products and/or services do you provide that everyone can as well?
- Where does innovation create a bottleneck in your organization?
- When you have problems with products and/or services, how slowly do you fix them?
- Why do you think you will lose a competitive advantage?
- Innovation Opportunities
- Who can you partner with inside and/or outside your industry to be innovative?
- What products and/or services can benefit your organization in the future?
- Where are the next products and/or services coming from that you can take advantage of?
- When do you think it would the right time to launch new products and/or services?
- Why do you think you are better positioned to take advantage of new products and/or services?
- Innovation Threats
- Who might have been a good partner but now it is too late?
- What products and/or services can harm your organization in the future?
- Where are the next products and/or services coming from that might leave you behind?
- When was the right time to launch new products and/or services?
- Why do you think your competitor is better positioned to take advantage of new products and/or services?
Culture
Your culture determines your future. With this in mind, let’s ask a few questions:
- Cultural Strengths
- Who in your organization represents what your organization stands for at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels?
- What products and/or services that you provide to others that you use yourself?
- Where does your culture compliment your business objectives?
- When someone portrays complacent culture, how quickly do you fix it?
- Why is your culture better?
- Cultural Weaknesses
- Who in your organization takes your culture for granted at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels?
- What products and/or services that you provide to others but never use yourself?
- Where is your culture an obstacle to your business objectives?
- When someone portrays great initiative, how often do you ignore it?
- Why is your culture worse?
- Cultural Opportunities
- Who can you partner with that represents your cultural values?
- What products and/or services that you provide can enhance another organization’s culture?
- Where can your culture open up partnerships that might not seem obvious?
- When can your cultural values provide societal benefits?
- Why your culture is better in bringing societal change?
- Cultural Threats
- Who should your organization avoid partnering up that eats away at your culture?
- What products and/or services can make your culture useless?
- Where can your culture destroy potential long-term partnerships?
- When can your cultural values negatively affect society?
- Why a competitors’ culture might win over yours?
Execution
The ability to bring together all the capabilities of your organization to achieve business objectives is execution. Execution is hard since it requires people, products, processes, services and technologies have to be in-sync. Execution creates rythem in the organization and eventually momentum. But we always have to take time to reassess this momentum and see of the orginial underlying assumptions and conditions for execution have changed. Even today there is a big gap between what the organization whats strategically and what it is able to achieve operationally. With this in mind, let’s ask the following questions:
- Execution Strengths
- Who is incentivized at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels to produce a positive return-on-investment?
- What products and/or services help you execute your business objectives?
- Where is the sweet spot when business objectives meet execution?
- When is your execution is effective and efficient?
- Why no one can copy your execution?
- Execution Weaknesses
- Who is disincentivized at the front-line, middle management, and executive levels to produce a positive return-on-investment?
- What products and/or services create obastacles in executing your business objectives?
- Where do your business objectives and execution have gaps?
- When is your execution incompetent and wasteful?
- Why your execution can be easily copied?
- Execution Opportunities
- Who is incentivized at your partners to help you executive positively?
- What products and/or services you foresee that can increase your execution speed?
- Where can your products and/or service increase your customer’s execution speed?
- When can your execution speed provide benefit to your partners?
- Why your execution speed creates opportunity beyond your industry?
- Execution Threats
- What partners can derail your execution speed and accuracy?
- What products and/or services you forsee that can decrease your execution speed?
- Where do your products and/or services decrease your customer’s execution speed?
- When can your execution speed harm your partners?
- Why your execution speed and accuracy implode your industry?
Phew! Now that we have asked our 100 questions. Let’s get back to the question, Can the Information Technology (IT) Team do Digital Transformation. If it is not evident by now, the IT team is just one part of the entire organization. In order to do Digital Transformation, you need to make changes at all levels of the organizations. These changes are not the responsibility of the IT team only but in fact these changes occur by collaboration of IT with Accounting, Administration, Business Development, Customer Service, Finance, Human Resources, Management, Manufacturing, Marketing, Operations, Production, Research and Development, Sales and others.
Use the SPICE-SWOT to identify gaps and as a communications tool to address those gaps. For Digital Transformation, do SPICE-SWOT two times:
- IT team should self-assess their current capabilities to do Digital Transformation
- Non-IT teams should self-assess their own readiness to contribute to Digital Transformation
5 Questions to Ask About Your Organization’s Execution
In previous blog posts, I have given you thoughts on how factors such as Strategy, Politics, Innovation, and Culture can be used to achieve Business Transformation in your organization. Today, I am going to talk about how these factors need Execution to be successful.
Generally speaking, Execution is the act of doing or performing something. In terms of the organization, Execution also means measuring performance at the individual and organizational levels. This implies that individual performance at the executive, middle management and front-line employee levels is directly linked to the organization’s overall transformation. Having said that, most organizations haven’t grasped this idea or are slow to adapt (hence are being disrupted). Some of the biggest mistakes organizations make in terms of Execution are:
- There are no direct links and steps between Strategy and Execution
- Effects of Strategy, Politics, Innovation, and Culture aren’t measured
- Execution can be confusing (e.g., Quality vs. Speed)
To create an organization that can efficiently and effectively perform Execution, there should be direct links between vision, mission statement, business objectives, policy, plans of action, internal boundaries, external influences, new ideas/devices/methods, biases and of course measurements of all of this to create a baseline of where the organization is and where the organization wants to be. All of this is a lot of work but it will give you a glimpse into the ‘character’ of your organization. Don’t do this alone and don’t create a huge team to do it either. Begin by asking the following questions from different people inside and outside your organization to get an understanding of what is really going on and then share those answers:
Strategic Perspectives on Execution::
| Today |
Tomorrow |
|
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the executive level to directly link and measure the performance of Strategy, Politics, Innovation, Culture to Execution? | Who should be incentivized at the executive level to directly link and measure the performance of Strategy, Politics, Innovation, Culture to Execution? |
| 2. | What governance structures are in place to link and measure strategy creation, holistic vs. specific unit/function/team strategic needs, the flow of innovative ideas and cultural transformation to Execution? | What governance structures should be placed to link and measure strategy creation, holistic vs. specific unit/function/team strategic needs, the flow of innovative ideas and cultural transformation to Execution? |
| 3. | Where is technology being used to link and measure strategy development, political effects, help innovation and transforming the culture to Execution? | Where should technology be used to link and measure strategy development, political effects, help innovation and transforming the culture to Execution? |
| 4. | When and how often strategic objectives, political motivations, innovation needs and cultural objectives communicated are linked and measured? | When and how often should strategic objectives, political motivations, innovation needs and cultural objectives communicated be linked and measured? |
| 5. | Why holistic strategy development, political understanding, views on innovation and cultural transformation is linked and measured? | Why holistic strategy development, political understanding, views on innovation and cultural transformation should be linked and measured? |
Tactical Perspectives on Execution:
| Today | Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the middle management level to directly link and measure feedback on strategy, understanding politics, perceived innovation gains and cultural transformation champions to Execution? | Who should be incentivized at the middle management level to directly link and measure feedback on strategy, understanding politics, perceived innovation gains and cultural transformation champions to Execution? |
| 2. | What business units, functional areas, and teams are included to link and measure strategy development, political implications, innovative acts and cultural transformation to Execution? | What business units, functional areas, and teams should be included to link and measure strategy development, political implications, innovative acts and cultural transformation to Execution? |
| 3. | Where is technology being linked and measuring understanding of strategy development processes, deciphering politics, innovation processes and cultural transformation hinderance to Execution? | Where should technology link and measure understanding of strategy development processes, decipher politics, innovation processes and cultural transformation hinderance to Execution? |
| 4. | When are strategic objectives communications, political motivations, innovation alignment communications, and cultural transformation communications linked and measured in regards to Execution? | When should strategic objectives communications, political motivations, innovation alignment communications, and cultural transformation communications be linked and measured in regards to Execution? |
| 5. | Why it is important to link and measure the tactical implications of strategy, politics, innovation, and culture to Execution? | Why should it be important to link and measure the tactical implications of strategy, politics, innovation, and culture to Execution? |
Operational Perspectives on Execution:
| Today | Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who sees the linking and measurement of strategy development processes, politics, innovation and cultural transformation to Execution as an obstacle? | Who should see the linking and measurement of strategy development processes, politics, innovation and cultural transformation to Execution as an obstacle? |
| 2. | What links and measurements are there between business processes, power plays, actual vs. perceived innovation and organizational culture to the overall Execution? | What links and measurements should be there between business processes, power plays, actual vs. perceived innovation and organizational culture to the overall Execution? |
| 3. | Where does technology enhance/diminish your understanding of strategy, politics, innovation, and culture when it comes time for Execution? | Where should technology enhance/diminish your understanding of strategy, politics, innovation, and culture when it comes time for Execution? |
| 4. | When are the impacts of strategic objectives, strategy development processes, political objectives, innovation pursuits, innovation feedback needs, and cultural transformation communicated and measured for Execution? | When should the impacts of strategic objectives, strategy development processes, political objectives, innovation pursuits, innovation feedback needs, and cultural transformation be communicated and measured for Execution? |
| 5. | Why the linking and measurement of strategic objectives, political understanding, innovative ideas and cultural transformation to Execution important to your daily tasks? | Why should the linking and measurement of strategic objectives, political understanding, innovative ideas and cultural transformation to Execution be important to your daily tasks? |
To be clear, while Execution does mean to do something but that something is useless if it doesn’t align directly with the organization’s short-term and long-term goals. When setting up these goals, keep in mind that people, processes, products, services, and technologies need to be considered holistically. Additionally, be prudent in understanding that:
- Execution means different things to departments/teams/people
- Execution becomes status quo when nothing is challenged constantly
- Execution is defeated when measuring non-value producing items
- Execution is not about order-making/taking
- Execution fails when it is assumed that everything will work magically
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5 Questions to Ask About Your Organization’s Innovation
The word “innovation” is often used in organizations to portray that they are somehow advancing their organization. But what really is innovation and who can and should innovate really depends upon who you talk to and what context and timeframes that person is referring to. Thus, it seems that innovation is something subjective but people do realize that it is something important and needs to be done at their organization.
But where to start? If you google “innovation” then you will get over 100+ million results! Those are a lot of results! The amount of time you would have to spend to sift through that information would be astronomical. On top of that even if you (or your Artificial Intelligence) have the time to read every expert (there are many) on innovation, you would still have to make innovation relevant and practical for your own organization. That is a tall order!
No worries! In this blog post, I will attempt to create a clear understanding of what questions you should be asking to assess your organization’s innovation efforts at different levels.
Let’s start with some baseline understanding:
- The importance of innovation at your organization is highly dependent on what are the end goals that your organization is trying to achieve
- Your organization is a unique composition of people, processes, products, services, and technologies
- There is a difference between being innovative at an organizational level versus being innovative at an individual level but they have to be aligned
- Culture can kill or flourish your organization’s innovation efforts
At its core, innovation is about new ideas, devices, and/or methods but it is also about improving existing ideas, devices and/or methods. What this means is that the opportunities for innovation are abundant within and outside your organization. Due to this abundance, organizations struggle where to start first. Keeping in mind that innovation is the lifeline of your organization, let’s start asking the following questions about innovation efforts at your organization:
Strategic Perspectives on Innovation:
|
Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the executive level to lead the innovation? | Who should be incentivized at the executive level to lead the innovation? |
| 2. | What governance structures are in place for the flow of innovative ideas? | What governance structures should be in place for the flow of innovative ideas? |
| 3. | Where is the technology used to help in innovation? | Where should technology be used to help in innovation? |
| 4. | When and how often innovation needs are clearly stated? | When and how often strategic objectives should be communicated? |
| 5. | Why external and internal views on innovation matter for strategic objectives? | Why should external and internal views on innovation matter for strategic objectives? |
Tactical Perspectives on Innovation:
| Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the middle management level to call B.S. on perceived innovation gains? | Who should be incentivized at the middle management level to call B.S. on perceived innovation gains? |
| 2. | What business units, functional areas, and teams are included to do innovation? | What business units, functional areas, and teams should be included to do innovation? |
| 3. | Where technology hinders innovation processes? | Where technology might hinder innovation processes? |
| 4. | When is innovation alignment to strategic objectives communicated? | When should innovation alignment to strategic objectives communicate? |
| 5. | Why innovation processes are critical to achieving tactical objectives? | Why innovation processes should be critical to achieving tactical objectives? |
Operational Perspectives on Innovation:
|
Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who sees innovation as a disease or a cure? | Who might see innovation as a disease or a cure? |
| 2. | What business processes and cultural considerations provide views on the organization’s actual vs. perceived innovation? | What business processes and cultural considerations should provide views on the organization’s actual vs. perceived innovation? |
| 3. | Where is the technology part of your organization to introduce innovation? | Where should technology be a part of your organization to introduce innovation? |
| 4. | When were you informed about the innovation pursuits and feedback needs? | When should you have been informed about the innovation pursuits and feedback needs? |
| 5. | Why having innovative ideas about your daily tasks is important? | Why anyone beyond you should care about innovative ideas about your daily tasks? |
By starting to ask the above opening set of questions, you will start to decipher where efforts are concentrated (e.g., people, processes, products, services, and technologies) within your organization and what you could do to connect the dots. You will begin to understand if innovation is just a buzzword in your organization or something more. You will begin to understand if there are biases and barriers to innovation within your organization. You will be able to understand if your organization actually learned its lessons from previous innovation efforts and if new innovation efforts included improvements from previous failures. And lastly, you will begin to understand if failure for the sake of innovation in your organization is really an option.
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5 Questions to Ask About Your Organization’s Strategy
If you have a strong understanding of how culture affects your organization’s strategy then you have better ideas of creating strategies that are truly transformative for your organization. Having said that, most organizations don’t take the time to strategize about strategy development processes and thus are not fully aware of the intended and unintended effects of their pursuits. The three main reasons for this lack of awareness are:
- The fallacy that strategy should always be top-down
- The lack of a holistic approach to strategy development and feedback
- The half-baked idea that strategy can only be created by a few people
An organization’s overall strategy is a combination of policy and plan of action that is intended to improve the making, buying, or selling of goods and/or services for the customer. Thus, it becomes imperative for organizations to keep the customer at the center of what they do and create customer experiences that make their lives easier.
If you want the strategy to be something that is shelf-ware that looks pretty on an executives’ file cabinet and it is cool to the only talk about it then don’t read ahead. For those, if you want the strategy to be more than just an exercise then I would invite you to ask the following questions about strategy and strategy development processes within your own organization:
Strategic Perspectives on Strategy:
|
Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the executive level to create a strategy? | Who should be incentivized at the executive level to create a strategy? |
| 2. | What governance structures are in place for transforming how strategy is created? | What governance structures should be in place for transforming how strategy is created? |
| 3. | Where is the technology used to help strategy? | Where should technology be used to help strategy? |
| 4. | When and how often strategic objectives are communicated? | When and how often strategic objectives should be communicated? |
| 5. | Why holistic strategy development processes are critical to achieving strategic objectives? | Why holistic strategy development processes should be critical to achieving strategic objectives? |
Tactical Perspectives on Strategy:
|
Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who is incentivized at the middle management level to give feedback on strategy? | Who should be incentivized at the middle management level to give feedback on strategy? |
| 2. | What business units, functional areas, and teams are included to develop a strategy? | What business units, functional areas, and teams should be included to create a strategy? |
| 3. | Where technology hinders strategy development processes? | Where technology might hinder strategy development processes? |
| 4. | When is the start and end of meeting strategic objectives communicated? | When should the start and end of meeting strategic objectives communicated? |
| 5. | Why strategy development processes are critical to achieving tactical objectives? | Why strategy development processes should be critical to achieving tactical objectives? |
Operational Perspectives on Strategy:
|
Today |
Tomorrow | |
| 1. | Who sees strategy development processes as an obstacle? | Who might see strategy development processes as an obstacle? |
| 2. | What business processes provide views on the organization’s actual vs. perceived strategy? | What business processes should provide views on the organization’s actual vs. perceived strategy? |
| 3. | Where is the technology part of your understanding of the organization’s strategy? | Where should technology be a part of understanding the organization’s strategy? |
| 4. | When were you informed about the strategic objectives and strategy development processes? | When should you have been informed about the strategic objectives and strategy development processes? |
| 5. | Why strategic objectives are critical to achieving your daily tasks? | Why strategic objectives should be critical to achieving your daily tasks? |
To be clear, strategy and strategy development affects everyone inside and outside your organization which includes executives, middle management, front lines employees as well as the customers you are trying to acquire. Thus, your organization’s strategy development processes should be robust enough that they take long-term holistic views but also flexible enough to cater for bumps and take advantage of technological advancement.
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