Vision Matters; Digital transformative vision matters even more

 Where there is no vision people perish, that is a verse from the bible.  Kotter in his paper, why transformation efforts fails, he identified key steps required to make your transformation journey as success.  One of them is to create a vision – the better people can envision where they are going, the more they can focus on specific initiatives that will make that vision a reality.

Successful digital transformation starts at the top of the company.  Only the senior-most executives can create a compelling vision of the future and communicate it throughout the organisation.  Then the people in middle and lower levels can make a vision a reality.  The real benefits of transformation come from seeing potential synergies across silos and then creating conditions through which everyone can unlock that value.  Only senior executives are positioned to drive this kind of boundary-spanning change.

One is big question is where should you focus your digital vision?  Digital vision usually takes one of three perspectives:

•   Reenvisioning the customer experience
• Reenvisioning operational processes
•  Combining the above two approaches to reenvision business models.

Many customers start by reenvisioning the way they interact with customers.  They want to be smarter in how they sell and serve customers.  Other companies envision how they can be smarter in serving their customers through analytics.  Some companies are extending their visions beyond influencing customer experience to actually changing customers’ lives.

Companies whose fortunes are tied closely tied to the performance of their core operations and supply chains (such as mines) often start with reenvisioning their operations.  The business drivers of operational visions include efficiency and the need to integrate disparate operations.  The operational vision of some companies goes beyond an internal perspective to consider how the company might change operation in its industry.  Again analytics and big data play a big role.

Some executives combine ideas around operational processes and the customer experience to envision new business model

What is important to note is that there is no single best way to express a vision for digital transformation.  It’s not a formulaic process.  You need to craft a vision that builds on your strength, engage employees and can evolve over time.  You will need to identify the benefits you want, and what the end point look like, and how you will engage your customers, employees and investors.

Extract from Leading Digital: turning technology into business transformation by Westerman et al.