How To Be A Ninja Shape-shifting Digital Transformation Strategy

All the hype around digital transformation can leave organizations in a spin, confused over which way to turn. Everybody’s trying to sell you products and services that will enable, accelerate, support, ease, underpin or [insert marketing’s ‘persuasive verb of the week’ here] your digital transformation strategy.

In fact, digital transformation strategy isn’t about products and services. You’ll need them, of course, but if there’s anyone out there who expects to hand over a wad of cash to a supplier and — voilà! — suddenly find the business has been ‘digitally transformed’, then you’re in for a big disappointment.

In A Spin With All That Spin

World-weary IT departments are well used to the vendor hype cycle, of course, and know not to take marketing claims at face value. But when senior non-IT senior executives hear of some “all-in-one solution for digital transformation”, you’ll likely face a frustrating time trying to explain to them why individual products and services aren’t going to have any transformational effects unless they’ve been implemented as part of a wider, well-thought-out digital transformation strategy.

So now the exec team might ask you to tell them what digital transformation is really about. That’s your cue to leap onto the boardroom table, do a few snazzy martial arts moves and exclaim: “Our organization must become a ninja shapeshifter!”

Ninja, n. One skilled at ninjutsu, the traditional Japanese art of stealth and sabotage.

Shapeshifter, n. An entity with the ability to change its form at will.

However, being skilled in the art of stealth and sabotage doesn’t mean that you should sneak into a competitor’s offices, hide in their server room and rip out all their network cables. But it does mean you need the agility to move so quickly and stealthily that you can pounce on any market opportunities and ruin competitors’ chances in those markets before they even know what’s hit them. True digital transformation is about introducing the technologies, processes and organizational structure that will enable that agility.

Towards True Transformation

In practical terms, that means ensuring you have a culture where people are encouraged to contribute, discuss and try out new ideas. They need to be plugged into networks of employees, experts, contacts, customers and more. They need speedy, reliable network connections and cloud-based, device-neutral collaborative tools to be able to contact or work with others, wherever they are and whatever devices they’re using. They need up-to-the-minute information from ever smarter analytics tools processing ever bigger data, as well as robust, secure access to productivity applications and corporate systems — from anywhere. And to do this reliably and securely, organizations need the right platforms, the right systems and the right processes.

They also need to be able to shapeshift: that is, to change their processes and/or their product and service offerings at will. That’s essential if they are to keep up with fast-changing market needs and even-faster-changing technological possibilities. It means being able to take advantage of the flexibility of the cloud to realise new ideas rapidly and scale them up and down at will. It means being able to pick and choose the services they require, when they require them, without getting locked into a particular supplier or service. And culturally, it means having an organizational structure that allows teams of people to form and dissipate as needed for ad hoc projects and initiatives — irrespective of where the members of those teams are located.

Small Parts Loosely Joined

For a comparative example, look at some of the early efforts to build real shapeshifting robots. These have typically focused on creating small, autonomous components like robotic lego bricks that can communicate and connect/disconnect with any others to form themselves into many different structures. Similarly, by having a loose organizational structure comprising autonomous individuals and small units, you’ll find shapeshifting a far easier art to master than you would if you were to stick with an old-style management hierarchy and isolated silos, which will increasingly stifle your workflow and agility.

And if you think all this talk of ninjas and shapeshifters seems a bit silly, that’s okay too. However, you’ll be unlikely to notice those stealthy newcomers creeping up behind to pounce on you and capture your market. And when they come in for the kill, it’ll be too late to worry… You won’t know what’s hit you.

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