Automation: The Strategy Enemy

Do not automate what you’re about to change

The flip side of automation is fragility.

Automated workflows make businesses inflexible.

At every strategic workshop I conduct, I hear the word’ automation.’

Business leaders consider it as a panacea for inefficiency and high costs.

But automation without a holistic strategic approach can do more harm than good.

By automating our processes, we make them cheaper and faster.

Their deliverables become predictable.

But we often make three mistakes:

1. We automate workflows to reduce costs.

Yet, we should do it to maximize stakeholder value.

2. We automate processes that will alter significantly during the strategy implementation.

3. As a result of point 2, we wrap our strategy around our processes, not vice versa.

Automated processes are inflexible.

How can we make it better?

1. Determine the values your business will deliver to all key stakeholders.

2. Identify business processes that will affect these values.