Lawrence Vesey On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti
A successful transition will prioritise the need to remain adaptable and agile in the face of changing dynamics, in terms of customer demands and shifts in market demands. Leveraging new technologies and data-driven insights, firms can respond quickly to emerging trends, remaining competitive in their field and at the forefront of innovation.
Digital transformation has become a crucial component for businesses striving to stay competitive and relevant in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. As technology continues to shape industries and redefine business models, companies must adapt and leverage digital tools and strategies to unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation. In this interview series, we aim to explore various aspects of digital transformation, including best practices, challenges, success stories, and expert insights. We are talking to thought leaders, industry experts, entrepreneurs, technology innovators, and executives who have firsthand experience in driving digital transformation initiatives within their organizations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Lawrence Vesey.
Lawrence has over 25 years of consulting experience, working across a range of industries including Financial Services, Healthcare, Agribusiness, Transport & Utilities. Lawrence has significant experience in managing and delivering major business and technology transformation programmes. He is one of the founders of Pathfinder which is now the leading independent consulting firm in Ireland and became part of Sia Partners in 2020.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have a 30 year career in business and technology consulting, working with Irish and international clients. The majority of this work has focused on business and digital transformation (way way back, no one called the work “digital transformation” !) I have been really fortunate to work with great clients and colleagues across a broad range of industries — so as a result, I have been able to bring learning and a different perspective to solving problems for clients. What I have seen over my career is that the challenge has moved from making the technology work, and much more into helping businesses decide how to apply the technology best for their business — so this requires a much stronger emphasis on people, change management and good process design — and you need to know a bit about the technology too..
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
My graduate induction course after college was based in the docklands in London, near Canary Wharf. During an intensive 8 weeks of learning COBOL (which I never used again) as well as starting to develop fundamental consulting skills, I was part of a team of 12 other graduates from Ireland and the UK. In the run up to Christmas we heard that some of the British navy ships were in port and open to the public. So I led the group of us down at lunchtime, asked the 2 sailors at the bottom of the gangway if we could go aboard, and a line of us marched on board to be greeted by 2 officers in full dress uniform saluting us. It was at this point that I discovered that they were expecting a group from the Ministry of Defence as opposed to a bunch of wet behind the ears graduates wearing their best suits. If I had realised that just slightly faster than the officers realised they had made a mistake, then perhaps we could have blagged our way into taking the ship out into the English channel! It was not to be.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I’ve been fortunate to have many mentors along the way. One recollection that comes to mind, however, is advice on working on consulting assignments with clients — “First you have to make yourself indispensable. Then, you have to make yourself dispensable.”
The first part is critical to add value to the client. The second part is critical to add value to yourself, and not to let yourself get stuck in a rut. I think it is good advice that can apply to any role.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m a bit of an eclectic reader across a wide range of topics, but I’ll mention “The Great Crash, 1929” by JK Galbraith. I first read it after the 2009 financial crisis, and for everyone who said that that was unprecedented, then they obviously had not read this book. A fascinating insight into irrational exuberance, I’ve recommended it to my 4 children, and advised them to re-read it every 10 years. I’ve noticed that really successful businesses and leaders have applied something similar — a healthy balance of optimism and ambition, grounded in paying attention to changing shifts in the world, and knowing how to manage risk.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Sia Partners is a really exciting place to be right now. With a global team and a full range of management and technology consulting services, we get insights to really interesting and dramatic break-throughs — across our clients, their industry sectors, as well as the internal research and innovation work we do ourselves.
Some of the most interesting work we are doing at the moment focuses on three areas.
The first is our concept of partner-ecosystems, which is changing the dynamics of the UK water industry by bringing together different participants, who all complement each other in their expertise and services, to make a dramatic difference to the quality of service offered to clients. We have pioneered such partner-ecosystems in a number of industries, and we see tremendous opportunity for bringing this work into all aspects of the work we do across business and digital transformation.
We historically have always been entrepreneurial as a company — a reflection of being founded 25 years ago, as well as our culture. We have always put applying technology at the heart of our services. Over the last 10 years in particular, we have developed a really innovative set of tools which we make available to our clients in consulting assignments. While we are not a software development company, these tools allow us to deliver consulting assignments faster for clients, at lower cost, but also provide value add to our clients in terms of insights to their data and business processes. The most recent iteration of these tools is our own Gen AI tool, “Sia GPT”, which was launched in July 2023 — we believe we were the first international consulting firm to bring such a tool to market. This tool is helping our clients develop their own journeys in the world of AI — in a way which is controlled and ethical.
Finally, we put people at the heart of all our assignments. This ranges from business processes and customer journeys designed fully from the customer’s perspective, eliminating steps which are not useful, all the way through how we help our clients manage the wider change challenge that major transformation programmes entail. We very much focus on a ‘one team’ approach, bringing together the strengths and insights of our client staff as well as our own staff, and focusing on building a mood of ambition and energy to address whatever the challenge may be. Since a significant percentage of transformation programmes do not meet all their business case objectives, our clients find that our change management approach, and our own people development, is often a critical factor in their successful transformation projects. That’s why we like to say we are ‘Optimists for Change’.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. Digital transformation can mean many things to many people, from your perspective, how do you define digital transformation in your industry?
To give a short answer, digital transformation is the process through which companies integrate technologies across their business to drive fundamental change.
Digital transformation looks different for every company, meaning each strategy is tailored based on the organisation’s individual needs in order to successfully deliver their business objectives. With the business landscape rapidly evolving, and companies facing a variety of challenges such as digital disruption, waning consumer confidence, evolving regulation and increasing cost pressures, there is an ongoing need to provide viable solutions to these issues. We help our clients to ameliorate these issues by leveraging digital strategies to understand this change and help them navigate it, thus emboldening them to achieve their next level of performance.
In terms of how we incorporate digital transformation into our own company, Sia Partners are the pioneers of what we call Consulting 4.0, which offers a unique blend of AI and design capabilities. It is built around the augmentation of traditional business advisory services with artificial intelligence, cutting edge-technology solutions, creativity and design, and innovative partnership that challenge traditional ways of doing things. An innovative ecosystem has developed within Sia Partners over the past few years, and we have harnessed next generation technology to enhance the analytical and intellectual capacity of our staff to improve the services we provide. Our consultants act as orchestrators of change, embracing these unique differentiators to deliver tangible and enduring results to our clients.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
Every company has the potential to benefit from digital transformation, and while its implementation may be more urgent for some sectors than others, change is certain and it is something that all businesses will need to consider. The companies that will benefit most from digital transformation are those that implement the correct strategy, tailored specifically to their needs. 70% of digital transformation efforts fail, and this can usually be attributed to a lack of shared vision, prioritisation and flexibility, as well as stunted growth in capabilities.
It is crucial that firms stay ahead of the curve, meaning they must be aware of emerging changes in their industry. There are lots of examples of well known companies who no longer exist — because their industry has transformed to the extent that they are no longer relevant to their customers. Look at Blockbuster in the world of video rental — this sector has been transformed by Netflix. There are similar transformations happening elsewhere. So Digital Transformation can be viewed as transformation with a small “t” — i.e. just streamlining to save costs, or improve service. Or transformation can be approached with the ambition of a large “T” — riskier, more complex, but ultimately more sustainable.
We help our clients with both.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
Although it is becoming increasingly necessary for firms to embrace digital transformation and implement it into their business, it is easier for some companies to do so compared to others. It often requires investment in systems, technology and upskilling, which is typically more difficult for small businesses with tighter budgets.
However, the most advanced capabilities must not be reserved for big companies and regardless of size, the need to adapt must be met so businesses can continue to grow. SMEs should not be deterred by the idea of large-scale change; such firms can go at a pace that suits them and their needs. Small businesses have the advantage of learning from those that adapt before them, as well as not being too large to drive change. To refer back to my previous point, businesses with an ill-founded strategy will fail in implementing digital transformation, and this can occur regardless of size.
The greatest challenge, ironically, is to fall into the trap of thinking that Digital Transformation is about the technology. It is not. It’s about the Business. That’s why we always consider such engagements to be Business and Digital Transformation programmes.
Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”?
1 . Start with Why.
The writer Simon Sinek has an interesting book, “Start with Why”. It’s about business strategy. That’s a good guide to embarking on a transformation journey. We use the phrase “problems worth solving” — meaning, are we fixing the right problem, and is it worth theinvestment.
Business & Digital Transformation will fail without a clear ‘Why’ — a definite purpose and a well structured set of goals. All parts of the business must be aligned on the business and digital transformation journey; digitising some parts of the business without connecting it to others will hinder the progress of the company, and lead to problems further down the line. Digital transformation should work to remove silos rather than exacerbate them, and a company should map goals and clearly communicate them to guarantee progress.
2 . Elegant Simplicity
It’s easy to design a complex solution. It’s hard to design a simple one.
We believe that a key skill is good design, which is focused on the key customer concerns, strips away activities which are not valuable, and is easy to understand. It also tends to be hard for competitors to imitate.
Good design encompasses customer journeys, business processes, enabling technology, rich data, strong target operating models. It also strikes a balance between leveraging the assets that are in place and remain useful, with having the courage to invest in new areas.
If the transformed organisation is not recognisable to its former self, however, then by definition it has not been transformed.
3 . Change needs to be embraced — so start from there
The human condition is uncomfortable with change — in any sphere. Every aspect of the world is changing, and there is a real challenge for people to keep pace with the change, and to have the skills to keep re-inventing themselves and their personal offers. Whether an organisation is formally executing a transformation programme or not, it needs to recognise that investing in change management capability and helping their staff to develop skills in agility and life-long learning is a valuable investment. It will help the organisation execute their own transformations, and it will enable their staff to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to stay relevant and continue to develop their own careers.
4 . Prioritise your customers, followed by your people and then processes
Digital disruption means that skill needs are rapidly changing, and businesses will need to think ahead to invest in capability to secure their future. A mindset of continuous improvement and learning will allow organisations to thrive alongside emerging technologies, meaning investment in their workforce, upskilling and reskilling workers and deploying them in the management and use of latest tools, including AI. This will ensure a smooth transition to the new stage of success.
But none of this is useful if you don’t start with your customers, and stay what they need, want and will need.
5 . Remaining agile and adaptable
A successful transition will prioritise the need to remain adaptable and agile in the face of changing dynamics, in terms of customer demands and shifts in market demands. Leveraging new technologies and data-driven insights, firms can respond quickly to emerging trends, remaining competitive in their field and at the forefront of innovation.
This also requires an approach of experimentation, being willing to learn and getting fast feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
There are lots of models on innovation — and depending on the industry you are in, some are more useful than others. Not all industries are tolerant of risk, which by necessity accompanies innovation.
However, a culture of innovation is important for every business. It can be created and maintained by creating an atmosphere conducive to experimentation and idea exchange, spearheaded by business leaders who inspire their team to think creatively, take measured risks, and are given the support to deal with disappointing results. This culture shouldn’t be prioritised within a singular department within the company, rather, it should be encouraged across all levels of the business. Multiple different leaders across different departments can provide valuable insight at different moments of a firm’s life cycle, meaning every part of the business should be incorporated into the change and fuel new ideas.
Often, innovation is a process of continuing to ‘fail better”, until you succeed.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel together.” Very few of us live on a desert island. When we are remembered, it will be because of the imprint we have made on the lives of other people — so let’s try and do the best we can, in whatever area we work. And have fun while we’re at it.
Whether it is in voluntary organisations I have led, or multi-million euro programmes transforming businesses, the best memories and longest lasting successes, tend to be based around the people that I have worked with and the relationships that were formed.
How can our readers further follow your work?
Join the other 300,000 people who follow Sia Partners on LinkedIn ! and perhaps follow me on LinkedIn as well for my occasional posts. Instead of buying more books for my library, my wife regularly challenges me to write a second one, this time for a wider audience — perhaps I will ! If I do, I might share further thoughts for your readers.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.
