Author: Paresh

Expertise in Digital and Business Transformation with over 15 years experience in Technology and Business

Business Transformation Digital Transformation

Examples of Business Transformation; Success Stories.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 16 June 2019

As the wave of digital business transformation hits most, if not all organisations, changing landscapes, advancing technology, shifting and emerging markets, knowing, precisely what transformation is and having a vision can become unclear unless you have a digital strategy.

Encountering challenges on the way and learning throughout the process is fundamental to a successful business and digital transformation. We’ll cover successful business transformations in brands that we know.

Buzzwords like AI and machine learning are not just a hype, and becomes our reality. As this becomes our reality, for CEO’s understanding how these new technologies fit into business operations is sometimes tricky to envision.

Our research shows that experimenting, researching and testing is key to successful digital transformation. Digital and business transformation is a journey and an iterative one with continuous change.

Business Transformation in most cases is triggered by shifting markets.

As consumer demands are shifting, along with uncertain markets organisations need to be quick off the mark, in delivering change and transformation to survive in a continually changing world.

Taking Risks is Key to Successful Business Transformation.

Brands like Nike so too struggle to be quick off the mark to keep up with the latest trending consumer demands and this poses a risk to their organisation. But Nike continue to strive forward taking risks at the same time.

We’ve discovered that generally, business transformation is triggered by shifting markets and competition. Business transformation requires research, experimenting and testing.

So digital transformation is proving to be a challenging journey; however, if delivered and planned correctly, can prove to provide sustainable growth for an organisation. We know that the data revolution is here and so focusing your business needs and approaching business with a data-centric approach is the way forward. Our article on Why a data driven business is more likely to succeed through the digital age.

Digital is the norm.

Digital has become a way of life. We are the digital consumer having information at our fingertips at all times. With this in mind, your business, not only should you have a website that offers immersive experiences but also have a mobile app, engaging the consumer to your brand. Nike is an excellent example of engaging consumers online and offline through their store and their products, and so is IKEA; both cases we will be covering in this post.

If consumers have an abundance of accessible technology in their pockets, then surely retailers should be looking to create interactive digital experiences seamlessly connecting online and offline touch-points.

Some examples of business transformation that we cover include organisations like IKEA, Nike, McDonald’s, to name a few.

To learn about how we have helped organisations with business transformation examples visit: www.modernwaysofworking.com/insights

Our first business transformation example is IKEA.

IKEA’s business transformation was triggered by shifting markets with IKEA’s profits falling. As a consequence, IKEA announced it’s next steps of transformation. Since then, there sustained growth has been over several years of business transformation. IKEA has been very good at adapting and innovating for its customer base, adding value.

They have created opportunities while transforming with digital capability throughout their organisation, adapting to change with inspiration, energy and drive, and this is what set them apart. IKEA’s focus is digitisation and customer convenience.

Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive Officer, Ingka Group, says:

“We continue to grow and perform strongly. At the same time, we recognise that the retail landscape is transforming at a scale and pace we’ve never seen before. As customer behaviours change rapidly, we are investing and developing our business to meet their needs in better and new ways. We will put greater emphasis on making our existing stores even better and taking the opportunity to renew and reinvent our business in a way that is inspired by our history, culture and values. Our values guide our work and build our inclusive, open and honest culture. It’s all based on a spirit of togetherness and enthusiasm, and we will continue to transform with that spirit.”

You can read the IKEA press release here.

Nike get personal with consumers with insights from data to drive their business transformation.

Let’s take Nike as our next business transformation example. Nike leaders in retail technology. They are utilising technology to its full potential to drive and engage consumers to their brand.

Like IKEA, they too are very good at adapting to change and creating consumer personalisation and unforgettable immersive experiences.

The Nike Plus membership app does this well. Consumers gain a shopping experience in store while connecting to the Nike app while creating more of a personalised experience for the consumer creating memorable experiences.

As a result, increasing consumer loyalty and frequency. You can scan and go using the app or speak with an associate, and if it’s that easy, then you’ll keep going back for more convenient shopping.

Pizza Express, takes more of a personalised approach.

Next, Pizza Express has embarked on their journey of transformation. Pizza Express
created a global innovation centre in London for new concepts and brand creatives. Launching the first vegan menu in light of the media attention to allergies had allowed Pizza Express to experiment with new recipes. The training was key to staff to understand why consumers choose what they do and the ethics involved to follow through strictly.

Researching into and tapping into the markets using technology also played a big part in Pizza Express’s marketing communications using digital.

Events like Mother’s day were taken advantage of by using digital and generating over 1.1m views for their mothers day video, across a range of digital channels.

Pizza Express had a 7% increase in traffic to their website and a 17% increase in bookings for Mother’s Day.

Also, Pizza Express’s “The piccolo game” allowed children to interact with Pizza Express through augmented reality.

IBM too, have transformed their business. Allowing for advanced technologies, AI, machine learning and data.

According to IBM’s 2018 annual report, IBM achieved $79.6 billion in revenue and operating earnings per share of $13.81 in 2018.

Helping organisations like United Airlines, KPMG and BNP Paribas, to name a few with their digital and business transformation IBM can deliver the results of a successful business transformation programme. Staying relevant and innovating is the key to success. Knowing what the consumers want and delivering on that is essential for any business to survive, let alone thrive. By focusing and offering AI, data, analytics and cyber-security to organisations, IBM’s position in the market, as a leading provider of advanced technology services and solutions accounts for approximately $40 billion in revenue in 2018, with IDC ranking IBM number 1 in the market share. Let’s take a look at some of the organisations IBM have helped. IBM 2018 Annual Report can be found here.

United Airlines undergoes business transformation with the help of IBM. The service has improved by using mobile app technology by streamlining communications within the organisation through different time-zones. Rising to what the consumer needs are the focus and re-thinking business operations is key to transformation.

They are using a mobile app to report flight issues which report to the ground crew immediately.

KPMG is also using IBM technology, technology a contract analysis application to long breakdown contracts. Reading contracts with AI makes it much easier and quicker to get through lengthy, detailed agreements.

BNP Paribas, an investment bank, is transforming digitally to improve operational efficiencies, by doing so, leveraging IBM cloud for their data centres, they provide capabilities for speed, agility and scalability, without compromising security and confidentiality of their consumer data.

Vodafone’s Approach to Business Transformation is Data-Driven

Vodafone, a 5G network provider, is working with IBM to deliver on new integrated solutions to improve consumer experiences from a data-driven approach.

Intel’s vision: If it’s smart and connected then it’s best with Intel

Intel, the world leader in manufacturing and design, with a vision “if it smart and connected then it’s best with Intel” moved from a pc-centric company to a data-centric organisation and as a data-driven business increased their operational efficiencies and have become a growing company. The shift in becoming a data-driven business to address the increasing needs of the market, creating a wealth of business opportunities, and positioning themselves in the market to be the leaders on data-driven solutions. Shaping and

“Intel’s strategy is to provide the technological foundation of the new data world.”

—Brian Krzanich, Intel Chief Executive Officer.

Business Transformation at McDonalds gets underway

McDonald’s business transformation includes modernising restaurants driven by technology and increasing consumer engagement through digital by way of loyalty initiatives. Like Nike’s membership app, McDonald’s too are focusing on consumer loyalty.
Again, like the above examples of business transformation, quickly adapting to change, to shifting markets and consumer demands, McDonald’s strives to stay relevant and transform to the growing needs of the market.

As well as their consumers, McDonald’s drive initiatives for their employees. A typical example, challenges and rewards incentivised its employees to increase speed and agility during breakfast through their drive-thru.

McDonalds offers a new shopping experience to it’s customers adding value by offering personalised service.

In summary, all of the business transformation examples we have seen, organisations are adapting rapidly to shifting trends and markets. A data-driven focus to enable a personalised consumer experience, in turn, resulting in consumer loyalty.

If you are about embarking on your business transformation and need some, then our consultants can offer advice and expertise. Get in touch: www.modernwaysofworking.com/contact

Why Exceptional Leadership Matters in Digital and Business Transformation.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 9 June 2019

The role of the CEO in digital transformation means rethinking business models and technology.

Typically, in leading business and digital transformation, a leader will require certain traits to achieve transformation success. An opportunist, forward-thinking, the ambitious risk-taking leader will be adept at taking on the role of leading an organisation through change, providing excellent communications as to why change is happening within an organisation helping individuals understand why change is necessary.

The most challenging part of all is working through resistance to change within an organisation.

Leading digital transformation requires a shift in mindset.

The leadership series by EY pdf is an excellent read and an excellent place to start for digital transformation. The document details what a leader should focus on states that reviewing the competency framework of an organisation is essential.

What makes someone a good digital leader?

The Gov.UK blog answers this question well. In essence, people are fundamentally an essential part of digital transformation.

Does digital transformation have a different meaning every time you read about it, buzzwords unknown to you?

Microsoft defines digital transformation as bringing together people, data and processes. Microsoft offers Dynamics 365, which empowers customer experience and provides deeper customer engagement. You can get an overview of Microsoft Office 365 Dynamics here. To engage with your customers, you need an organisation with strong leadership to change the way the organisation is currently working. A growth mindset instilled within an organisation will create a culture of drive and ambition.

As technology disrupts the business in a constant change of the digital era, continuously keeping up with what’s going on can be difficult. Sustained growth can become somewhat sparse.

A different perspective in the eyes of many CEO’s and leaders can easily mean different things about digital transformation. If confusion within an organisation has something to count for the digital transformation can fail miserably.

Digital transformation can look very different in every organisation, and every organisation is at varying stages of its transformation programme. As you can imagine, it’s much easier for startups to build an agile business than a large organisation with legacy systems trying to adapt and change. However, placing the right people in teams, including the right leaders and CEO’s within the organisation is a great place to start — the same for both startups and large organisation.

The growing gap within this sector is finding consultants who have ample business experience combined with technical expertise. It can become overwhelming at the rate at which technology is advancing with buzzwords such as IoT, AI, and machine learning, which can be challenging to understand in the context of business. If leaders are willing to become more risk-averse then using these technologies in business operations, if done correctly, may have a considerable impact on costs and productivity.

Well, it’s such a broad scope that digital transformation is business change within an organisation to produce better outcomes using digitisation, ultimately having a customer-centric approach.

Digital transformation is rapidly changing over the years as we’ve seen. Focusing on customer value propositions is vital, yet digitisation is a challenge overcoming organisational culture issues becoming the biggest obstacle in organisations.

Another great article on Why effective leadership matters state that change starts with the leadership team as we’ve mentioned above. As it is becoming apparent we realise that digital transformation requires influential leaders with traits and competencies, which drive the necessary changes needed for successful transformation. The change comes about from external factors such as shifting markets and disruptive technology.

Empowering teams and employees

So the digital transformation journey begins with the leadership team. The initial early stage of adoption in digital transformation is a crucial part of the CEO’s role. Set clear objectives with a vision that is understood within and throughout the organisation will lay the foundation for successful transformation.

Reviewing business processes.

Leveraging new opportunities and reviewing business models as new technologies become available, ensuring that the culture and mindset of the organisation align with the strategic business objectives.

Mastering Technology

Furthermore, CEO’s should look to explore new ways of working if current methods are not working with technologies such as AI. Include improvements in mobile working, automation and data in the digital strategy. CEO’s should look to be utilising their in-house IT department and integrating technology in every aspect of the business.

Learn to get it right, taking risks and failing if you have to.

Digital transformation is a constant change; in most cases, CEO’s ensure that the transformation is risk-averse and on budget. However, evolving as an organisation is paramount to ensure the longevity of the organisation and taking risks is crucial, especially now more than ever. We have the technology to do what we need to do, but we are still holding back to truly transform what needs to become a reality realising the full potential.

Ongoing, excellent communications and collaboration within teams are pivotal to success.

As McKenzie states, building a culture of constant change will revolutionise your organisation.

Our blog post on How fostering a growth mindset will cultivate a company’s culture to digital success looks at examples of brands like Nike, McDonalds and Walt Disney. These brands have developed a growth mindset culture, which is essential to an organisations success. Digital Transformation requires growth mindsets and influential leaders who can define an excellent digital transformation strategy.

A growth mindset is essential. You may have undergone digital transformation in your organisation or currently experiencing change from digital processes and digitisation, but some digital projects may not have gone to plan or on budget due to people problems and issues. Culture seems to be a real issue. Changing existing organisations which have been running for many years in a set way with the same management style and leadership may not be suited to digital and business transformation. Resilience to change can become an obstacle. It’s apparent, organisations require a new perspective and drive if they are to be successful in delivering business digital transformation and look for external expertise is the way forward.

What does a digital transformation leader/consultant do?

The process starts with reviewing your existing organisation, and digital transformation consultants take a look at your current setup within your organisation. The digital strategy is devised working closely with the CEO, and a digital transformation board and the team is established to deliver the digital transformation.

Digital leaders work closely within organisation teams, delivering workshops, help organisations understand digital and change in the context of your business.

A Digital Transformation Strategy that’s right for you.

Getting your digital transformation strategy right is pivotal. To ensure success, start by answering these questions:

Is our organisation culture right for sustainable change?

Do we have a growth mindset?

Do we need to replace our existing technology?

Do we need to bring in external digital transformation consultants who can help define our digital strategy?

Have we the right skills in house to deliver the transformation programmes or do we need help from businesses who offer transformation services?

Do we have an agreement within our leadership team?

Does the vision of the organisation align closely with the digital strategy?

Challenges include integrating systems to allow data to flow in one central place to data analysis.

Digital transformation is a company-wide programme. McKinsey Digital Transformation 3 Steps to Success explains the main pillars that need to be addressed for Digital Transformation to work successfully.

McKenzie states that Digital Transformation requires commitment from management and senior leads in order of transformation to be successful. A great read so ensure you take a look here: The Roadmap to Digital Transformation

In our experience of delivering change within an organisation, we’ve found that it’s better to recruit external consultants who have experience in change management and driving and accelerating projects and programmes to deliver digital successfully. Sometimes, internal issues can hinder digital transformation or even halt them. The expertise of delivering transformation services lies between strong business acumen coupled with technology insights. Our consultants tend to provide a clear set of the objective from the outset.

In summary, CEOs and leaders should be prepared to take risks and be more innovative to change and adapt to digital. Leaders are very good at recruiting the right talent for the right roles and in most cases, bringing in external consultants who have proven the experience of delivering change projects and programmes. A result driven approach will ensure that digital transformation is successful. Carefully monitoring and reviewing the change will ensure a smooth delivery. However, remember, digital transformation is a journey and not a one-off project.

Digital Transformation Examples

Guardian News and Media had operating losses in revenue triggering business and digital transformation. The change was necessary, and KPMG helped Guardian plan and implement a vision that was organisation wide. Although Guardian had a 5-year strategy, they were unable to take ownership and get the buy-in from stakeholders and teams. You can download KPMG’s Guardian case study Embracing change with a new operating model

Nike introduced the new Nike Plus Membership giving its members a lifestyle shopping experience. Think of it as an extension to the Nike Website and App but a more customer-centric approach.The capability of accessing and tapping into new data streams from their customers to further define the successful customer experience and improve the service that Nike offers is a win-win for both Nike and their customers.

An article by Nancy Luna about AI Powered Menu Boards explains how McDonalds is changing the way it’s interacting with consumers. AI Powered Menu Boards at McDonald’s enables Digital Transformation at McDonald’s

Customer personalisation was key to McDonald’s. So in turn, enhancing the customer experience.

Creativity is key to digital transformation. Initiatives that are defined by a digital strategy and set by influential leaders are communicated and driven throughout the organisation. For digital transformation to be successful, the leaders will create a digital culture ready to embrace change in the way they work.

Improving customer service with digital.

Is it all about technology?

An excellent article on strategy, not technology drives digital transformation by Deloitte states that technology is not the driving force of successful digital transformation.

Technology plays a part in digital transformation but its not the underlying success factor in a successful digital transformation programme. All areas of the organisation require improvement using digital and enhancing business processes. Mostly, it’s all about the customer. Improve your customer service through digital, and your organisation will run seamlessly.

However, it’s not as simple as that.

Improving productivity with cloud technology

Cloud technologies adopted improve efficiencies and productivity within an organisation, but there are so many advanced technologies it can become challenging to choose what’s right for you. To mention great collaborative tools.

Office 365 is excellent for productivity and collaboration.

Cloud-based apps allow your staff to access desktop applications like Word and Excel through their browser on their desktop as well as on their mobile devices. Office 365 improves flexibility and can allow staff to work from home or anywhere else. Apps such as Skype, teams and SharePoint allow for staff to collaborate regardless of where they are making it easier to chat and work.

Google also has excellent cloud-based tools, and we are all familiar with Google Drive and Gmail. Smaller businesses tend to go with Google products as they are much affordable.

Digital Transformation within a startup versus a big organisation

Startups are agile and can move fast. Substantial corporate transformation is much trickier to get digital transformation up and running without taking too much time. The levels of energy and drive within a startup is much different from a large corporate organisation. The advantages that a startup has over a large organisation is that they can adapt to change quickly with speed and agility. They use more automation to get work done and generally can work rapidly.

Digital Transformation Strategy Consulting

This post should set you off to an excellent start, but you may further questions, and you can contact us if you require any help or assistance if you require digital transformation services or need a digital transformation strategy defined. www.modernwaysofworking.com/contact

Our digital transformation services can help your organisation deliver your requirements and provide the change and innovation that is necessary.

To view some of our business transformation projects please visit: www.modernwaysofworking.com/insights

Digital Transformation

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Post author By Paresh
Post date 22 March 2017

The Latest In Artifical Intelligence and Robotics. Keeping up with Insights and News.
View my Flipboard Magazine.

Business Transformation

A guide to structuring a business transformation programme

Post author By Paresh
Post date 20 February 2017

In today’s office environment, the complexities of simplifying business models and driving efficiencies is becoming increasingly difficult especially with the hype of digital including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. But without solid foundations, any type of transformation, be it digital or business, becomes a challenge. It’s important to look at the business and seamlessly intertwine the technologies and people within the business to deliver successful teams and providing excellence in customer service. Having worked across industries, in various locations, delivering complex change has evidently been, in some cases, a challenge, due to complexities in organisations in terms of the structure and culture. We discovered, sometimes it’s necessary to look at change as a transformative continuous process by simplifying it.

Our simple guide to structure a business transformation uses five pillars and these can be used in every transformation programme to ensure successful change.

Business change programmes are multi-faceted and require complex interaction with stakeholders as well as senior buy-in commensurate to the change required. That said, we have found organising around five structured pillars namely people, strategy, communications/change, technology and business operations each of which can either be a programme or project depending on the scope/scale of the change required.

Through our experience of delivering numerous business and digital transformational programmes, we will draw upon best practice highlights on how to structure them. The guide helps to reduce the complexities in delivering a business transformation programme. These are briefly described, in no set order, and are all equally important.

The five pillars of Business Transformation

The five pillars of Business Transformation will help organisations structure a transformation programme and are defined as follows:

Strategic Objectives and Corporate Alignment.

The change needs to align to the corporate objectives of the organisation. These could be revenue, operational, customers or compliance. Key performance indicators, planning and the strategy are important factors and measures that either need to be present or defined. Data plays a crucial part to provide both targets as well as inform decision making. The scope of can include quality control and provide assurance throughout so that overall corporate objectives are being met. What we found in some cases, the corporate objectives were not clear, or key stakeholders have different interpretations of what success looks like. Often, through data analysis, this can be more clearly articulated and defined providing a clear outcome based programme with an agreed benefits realisation process.

2. People

Employees or others impacted by the changes require clear and strong change management. This pillar focuses on the more formal methods such as performance management, objective setting, job descriptions and their terms and conditions of employment. Human resources and organisational development support will be required to improve these areas. Supportive line managers will need to be involved and to be seen to be driving change.

Customers and Business Operations.

Customer focus and associated processes that help drive customer satisfaction and growth are areas that should be of intense scrutiny. Making innovative changes in processes and practices, reinventing for the digital age, moving operational aspects to deliver customer experience and insights are fundamental to drive improvements. Applying techniques such as LEAN, business architecture modelling are invaluable methods that support this pillar and should be leveraged. By having customer centric change into one group, change can be managed more effectively. Including ‘service level agreements’ for customers or suppliers into this area can support business improvements.

Communications and Change.

Together with the ‘people’ pillar, this portion manages the ‘softer’ side, such as change management and communicating to those affected and the wider stakeholder community. The organisational propensity to change to a new target operating model must not be underestimated. We have found this area to be the most challenging to deliver as it involves unpredictable human behaviours and is not a precise science. Entrenched thinking and pre-existing cultural norms provide resistance to moving to new operating models. Engagement with employees, customers and wider stakeholders, is essential to fully embed change and to make it permanent but equally taking the opportunity to adopt continuous change practices.

Technology.

The delivery of technology capability including digital, social and data will provide a basis to cover the technical aspects of the programme. Covering systems, infrastructure, social media, digital, data insights across through to implementation and delivery. A single pillar focused on the delivery of technical capability maximise change for successful delivery.

The pillars have been well documented and are the basis of most change programmes. The crucial difference is how to manage them through well-defined and scoped programmes as well as the inter-dependencies between them. We have deliberately highlighted inter-dependencies this as this is where the most synergies come from and that the change is seen holistically. This management and oversight through tools and techniques make delivery easier and for senior decision makers to see a clear line of sight to outcomes. Our experience in applying this approach and developing capability around this framework for several clients has proved successful and invaluable. The five-pillar model can be scaled to a programme or even organisational-wide, with appropriate governance put in place. The framework is flexible to accommodate various project/programme methodologies and caters for specialist practices in each area.
We have developed toolkits and techniques that quickly accelerate delivery of these types of programmes. These are not specific to any industry or problem, but with any frameworks there will be a level of customisation, providing key principles are applied and considered. Our experience in delivering a departmental transformational programme, delivering organisational wide change savings millions to the bottom line as well as establishing a business transformational function within a large organisation has simplified the process by using these pillars and delivering successfully.

By using these five pillars you can begin to understand how these can help set an organisational change. You may have used these pillars to deliver digital transformation as well as business transformation.

We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in delivering business transformation, and if you have used the pillars mentioned how did you find it. Please leave your comments. If you liked this article you may also like to subscribe to more articles like this.

Business Transformation

Why the UK Government digital strategy is more about business transformation than digital.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 13 February 2017

Digital-Strategy-UK-Government-ModernWaysofWorking

Although the recently published UK government’s digital strategy differs from that of the digital strategies of Uber, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, it is a step in the right direction but needs to be bolder. The government’s digital strategy is about improving services for citizens and rightly so, but now emphasises business transformation, which has in our view always been the missing piece. Business change comes first with digital playing a significant role, but not as the expense of other factors. The 2020 vision includes more of the digital aspects of transformation embedding technologies into the services by including IoT, wearables and Artificial Intelligence but these need to be in the context of how best to deliver business change. Testing against business scenarios will play a critical part.

The government is continually improving business functions and processes including enabling digital through business transformation, and the emphasis of the strategy is to continue with improving business processes by being adaptive and responsive to change providing opportunities for citizens to connect with their services in a digitally enabled way.

From our experience in working in government, we will illustrate what this would mean for public sector organisations.

Challenges that lie ahead for the Public Sector

The biggest challenge faced by organisations will be the ‘people’ side of change. The cultural shift is a business transformation function, and digital will succeed if this change is a cultural shift, for staff to embrace it. Our experience tells us that technology and people change go hand in hand else we will see no value indeed often through ignorance or lack of knowledge slow down the pace of change or react negatively. Our proven methodologies in delivering this cultural change and change management in business transformation have proven to be successful, and we can honestly say that it is necessary to get the culture part right in the business transformation process before leaping into digital aspects. The critical component is the pace of change. The pace of citizens propensity to embrace digital is arguably faster than the ability of the public sector to embrace and offer cultural change.

New Ways of Working is essential to Digital

The strategy states that “Be flexible in the way of working”. Implementing and delivering New Ways of Working within an organisation can bring out about cultural changes and improve the way we work within an organisation. Our delivery of new ways of working in organisations in large scale complex change for flexible working can truly transform the culture and improve productivity. Tackling head on the cultural norms is dealt with issues but requires strong leadership. Flexible working and New Ways of Working is an ongoing continual process, and we have seen some outstanding outcomes and benefits from this programme while working with publics sector organisations. The outcomes of New Ways of Working:

Improved productivity, working in remote and flexible locations.
Increased compliance to worker regulations.
The positive impact to employees wanting to work for the employer.
‘statement of intent’ – employer making a tangible step change in the way it operates using this area to make a wider transformative change. Most notably in accommodation rationalisation.
Negative by-products include increased stress levels for those unable to cope with newer methods as well as managers unable to maintain perceived ‘control.’

You can further read about the public-sector organisations that have has gained positive outcomes from New Ways of Working.

“Grow the right people, skills and culture.”

“The right people, skills and culture are vital to serve the public successfully.”The common issue lies in the inherent nature of resistance to change. Recruiting and changing existing employees to a common thread of constant change is an ongoing battle.

Also, the common obstacles that lie within the public sector are down to the hierarchical structure and the c-level and directors failing to understand digital in the context of business transformation. This hierarchy can be a barrier to decision making and stop creating a more agile organisation. Furthermore, the culture issues set back an organisation from delivering projects.

However, in most public-sector organisations, due to the lack of expertise and knowledge required to go digital, it simply takes longer than expected with technology setting the pace. Some public sector organisations have begun to use cognitive technologies as part of the business transformation impacting citizens.

Business transformation is well underway.

In the majority of organisations, cognitive technologies are not at the top of the agenda for most CEOs. The reason is this, the business transformation is still underway with flexible working, BYOD, remote working all part of top priorities and until these changes haven take place and getting the culture right then implementing AI too soon within an organisation without the right people in the right roles will make it difficult.

Making a return and ‘cashable’ savings often means that risk taking is minimised where all too often to break the mould risks need to be taken albeit in a managed way. The problem comes back to ‘you do not know what you do not know’. Often senior stakeholders find it hard to justify spend if it does not meet the bottom line.

In summary, there’s more to do when it comes to laying the foundations for digital when considering aspects of technologies like cognitive technologies and the way forward is to truly change the way we work. A shift in culture in organisations will see digital transformation succeed. Shaping the way forward by delivering New Ways of Working to make an impact on public services connecting citizens and working in more of an adaptive and digital way leading business transformation first is essential.

You can view the Government’s Digital Strategy by following this link: UK Government’s Digital Strategy

We would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments. If you liked this article you may also like to subscribe to more articles like this. You can also download The New Ways of Working Infographic.

Business Transformation Digital Transformation

Why a data driven business is more likely to succeed through the digital age.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 8 February 2017

Does your data mean anything?

Not knowing what to do with data is challenging and this is where most businesses are failing. Daniel Newman’s article on Closing The Gap Between Data And Understanding will provide an insight into understanding why big data is challenging. As we learn more about Artificial Intelligence (AI), we could look to use AI to help us understand big data.

Cognitive technologies like machine learning are anticipating. In some cases, understanding how these technologies can empower a business is a journey in its self. Frank J Holhurst says in his article big data is poised to get even bigger. Be it now or in the future, organisations large or small will be looking at cognitive technologies. So, it is probably a good time to start learning about how the technologies can help organisations. To make sense of it all in simple terms, it would be like a lock and key mechanism. Valuable data insights from cognitive technologies like AI will unlock your businesses potential if you get it right. Using predictive analytics can significantly improve the decision-making process. Ultimately, a successful business-driven forward from data insights will help an organisation become productive, efficient and successful saving money going forward.

Predictive analytics is essential for digitisation, and the realisation of data that brings capabilities and opportunities within an organisation is yet to be unleashed. We are all going digital and the masses of data, be it structured or unstructured, in today’s digital landscape plays a key factor in the success of business.

Organisations that have entered the digital arena of adopting cognitive technologies have created new channels of communication, and improved business models are increasing opportunities for their business. Stakeholders can make fundamental business decisions from data insights unlocking business potential by knowing what to do with the data.

Wimbledon tennis tournament did just that with the help of cognitive technologies from IBM. IBM delivered cognitive technologies transforming and enriching the tennis experience for fans during the Wimbledon tournament 2016. IBM Watson, an industry leader in cognitive technologies and analytics, is widely used in industries, UK government and councils.

Bernard Marr states that Data Should be at the heart of strategic decision making for business. Using technologies such as AI gives the opportunity for organisations to collate, interpret and analyse data, thus improving business processes and functions, overall improving the business in its entirety.

Let’s look at Uber, the data they hold is indispensable and is key to the growth of their business. Uber is very much a data-driven business and is more of a technology business than a taxi business. Using data and predictive analytics to understand their customers is fundamental. “Uber is rolling out a big redesign powered by machine learning”, Ken Young explains how Uber’s new mobile app uses machine learning. Uber uses predictive analytics using the data from machine learning to restructure the app to understand what the passenger wants.

What if data was centralised creating a new area within an organisation called the “data hub”?

Dedicating an area where you would have a team of data scientists, business analysts and data analysts all working together to understand the data. Thus, a far more efficient way of looking at data and insight.

Why it Matter to leverage AI for business transformation gives examples of numerous organisations who have taken to AI to focus on customer engagement. Simply put, these organisations are relying on huge amounts of data to then guide them into making informed and more deliberate decisions based on data analytics and insights.

Machine learning is a branch of AI and has seen significant advancements in the car industry with self-driving cars. Uber have been working with Volvo and Ford to engineer these self-driving cars. With technologies like GPS, radar and cameras data from these technologies can make driving much safer, with some saying fewer accidents on the road. All these technologies bundled together along with AI can provide enormous amounts of data and from this data can then be extracted useful insights using predictive analytics. Uber’s machine learning chief says pattern-finding computing fuels ride-hailing giant

Big data, machine learning a branch of AI and predictive analytics, are terms used everywhere yet the realisation of data and the importance and value that the data provides indispensable. With large volumes of data to be processed, the challenge lies in the interpretation of this data and the actions that follow from data analytics, with information often lost in translation.

When looking at ABC technologies, AI will only be valuable to the organisation if data is analysed and interpreted well and provides value. With machine learning dependent on data, this could be the key to unlocking business potential with enormous benefits.

How companies are using data and analytics to improve their customer’s experience.

Bernard Marr writes How Nike and Under Armour have become data businesses. Nike has turned sports and fitness into a data- driven fitness trend and Under Armour are great examples of using data to drive their businesses, bringing wearables and technology to market.

What are we going to do with data? AI and big data play a pivotal role in business transformation. Data-driven analytics and insights give the opportunity for executives and leaders to make informed decisions to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.

Lisa Morgan writes about “The 9 Secrets of Data-Driven Organisations” which identifies which traits are essential for becoming a truly data-driven company.

Realisation of data is crucial for digitisation. Rudina Sesseri states The Rise Of AI Will Force Data Scientists To Evolve Or Get Left Behind

As we take leaps into the digital landscape of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data is important than ever before as an opportunity to capture more data to understand customers and improve business processes. Understand what the data means, and you could unlock your business potential.

How fostering a growth mindset will cultivate a company’s culture to digital success

Post author By Paresh
Post date 26 January 2017

It’s not all about technology, alignment of culture and strategy is essential for any business yet building a better culture for growth is not a top priority for CEOs. Leaders should look to be creating a cultural growth mindset with a shared mission and vision which runs right through the organisation extending capabilities leaving no disparity. The top challenge facing digital transformation is company culture, and although it takes time to get right, an amazing culture is built around a growth mindset. Leaders can look to drive digital transformation forward, swiftly and successfully once they have cultivated a culture that’s right for them.

Avado works with industry leading partners like Google providing transformation through learning and say that culture has been identified as the number one barrier to digital transformation. If CEOs are making decisions that impact the business such as cutting costs, improving revenue and increasing productivity, which are all part of the digital and business transformation process, then part of this process of change should be building a great culture. Transformation of any type is a continuous process, but with a growth mindset company culture, the transformation will seamlessly deliver.

Microsoft, Google, Walt Disney and Nike all created a culture that cultivated a growth mindset.

We found that in most cases where there was great company culture, training was a key element in organisations. Fostering a personal accountability and responsibility in individuals tends to nurture a passion for learning. With organisations facing digital transformation with technology advancing at lightning speeds it would make sense to build a culture with a growth mindset. Companies such as Nike, Twitter and Walt Disney to name a few, are great examples whereby a growth mindset is crucial to their company culture. Also among these companies, a top ranked company with good culture is Google, and they hire people who are smart and determined and favour ability over experience. They look for talents that grow with them.

Microsoft’s culture includes an element of a growth mindset. Microsoft mission and culture state “At Microsoft, we’re insatiably curious and always learning. We ask questions, take risks and build on each other’s ideas, because we are better together. We lean into uncertainty, take risks and move quickly when we make mistakes because we know that failure happens along the way to innovation and breakthrough.

As part of Nike’s strategic aims that guide the company, the focus is to unleash human potential. Nike has created their culture by providing their employees with training programs to maintain employee talent. The company also has coaching and mentoring programs. Hiring the right people and people development are crucial to their company. A glimpse into Nike’s culture written by Bianca Blartz outlines Nike’s culture in further detail. In summary, Nike is passionate about creating a workforce that can push boundaries and limits. Their Motto of “Just Do it” extends right the way through their community including their customers, employees and management.

Walt Disney believes in creating and nurturing a culture of excellence. What’s interesting about Disney is that their recruitment process is very important and they hire the right people who will share the company’s values and beliefs. They state that “Once you have hired people with a propensity for excellence, your orientation process and training must reinforce your company’s principles as well as impart new skills and knowledge.”

“There are four interconnected processes that define an organisation’s culture: employee selection, training, care and communication. Each is crucial to creating and nurturing a culture of excellence. With a rich tradition and heritage built upon creating memorable experiences, The Walt Disney Company has consistently worked to attract, develop and retain employees dedicated to this vision.”

Creating and nurturing a love for learning throughout an organisation will foster strong, productive teams and individuals who are passionate about their development but also want to grow with an organisation. It’s a process over time which leaders should not ignore if they are to transform their organisations.

Similarly, a cultural element key to the success of Starbucks has been employee excellence. Howard Schultz established a successful coffee chain, with a passion for coffee that he could outline and share his experience with his customers by communicating to his employees what he expected: Make it your own, everything matters, surprise and delight, embrace resistance and leave your mark. This summarises the type of employee that Starbucks hires. Shaun Frankson’s culture case study of Starbucks outlines this experience and explains the partnering ethos.

A strong and creative culture is fostered at Lego. The LEGO Group look for smart and talented people that embrace Lego’s innovative spirit and enhance Lego’s fun and collaborative culture. Lego states “The LEGO Group constantly strives to live up to our motto, “Only the best is good enough”, and for that reason, our recruitment process is thorough and extensive. Our focus is to ensure we hire the right people who have the skills and desire that match the job criteria as well as competencies and values that fit into the LEGO culture. We will support your growth and give you the tools you need to be successful; in return, you will help us enrich the lives of children around the globe.”

In today’s digital world with digital transformation inevitable Greg Satell at Mapping Innovation says “We shouldn’t be so quick to blame algorithms. When we don’t like what we see, it is possible that we are looking at the cultural problems we have created.” Greg’s article on How This Restaurant Chain Built a Data Culture To Design a Better Customer Experience explains how Cava Grill built a data culture and as a result the CEO of the successful restaurant chain created a data-driven organisation.

The importance of culture to a digital business.

Ikea’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad’s great mantra “you can copy business, but you can’t copy culture.” This very true and in summary, the companies mentioned above believe in people excellence, accountability, responsibility and a passion for learning and embarking on a journey of growth. It seems this is a key element of culture which contributes to the success of a company. In fact, Facebook’s culture includes fostering personal growth alongside other perks.

It’s not all about technology it’s about collaboration and openness to ideas and digital extending the capabilities for people to perform better. If we look at Twitter, their mission is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. They ensure that every single employee has a voice and contributes to the progression of the company.

We all want to work for a company that gives us flexibility, provides a training programme and offers us perks and most importantly values our contribution. Happy people create opportunities, create and innovate, working alongside each other in teams to drive the company forward.

What do you think are the essential elements to creating a good culture?

You may also be interested in these articles:

Digital Transformation will often fail with existing culture

Why it matters to leverage Artificial Intelligence for business transformation

Useful resources to get you started:

Leadership practices to foster a growth mindset

8 Step Plan to build a digital culture

Six steps to effective cultural management

Secret to building a successful company culture

Three cultural characteristics of Pret A Manger

Google’s Culture

Lessons from digital leaders an article by Deloitte on the Digital DNA of an organisation which explores three core factors organisations should be considered when looking to improve digital maturity levels – leadership, talent management, and organisational design.

Business Transformation Change Management Digital Transformation

Why it matters to leverage Artificial Intelligence for business transformation.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 12 January 2017

Digital Transformation strategy should include AI — Artificial Intelligence is pivotal to business transformation

As humans, we do not prefer to interact with chatbots and bots yet businesses are leaping into embedding Artificial Intelligence like chatbots into their products and services. Transformative technologies are evolving incredibly fast and the deployment of bots across all industry sectors: financial, motor, retail, food and public sector have created a shift in the way we are interacting with businesses.

“CIOs should be looking at these transformative technologies to drive speed, scale and consistency in their digital transformation.” Kasey Panetta writes in her article “The ABC Technologies Will Change Future Customer Experience.”

These transformative technologies are certainly the way forward if you are looking to give your clients a better service and need to increase revenue channels. Embedding chatbots into your services and products to use the data and digital intelligence to generate new insights will be fundamental to understanding customers.

With 2017 upon us it would be a good time to start looking at chatbots and including them in Digital Transformation Strategy.

Here’s why it is important to understand the benefits of using bots in your services and products.

1. For businesses and organisations to provide a personalised service, it is all about collecting data. This data will give you valuable insights to improve your customer service.

2. Chatbots can improve and enrich the customer experience and can be available to deliver 24/7 for customers. Basic information like opening hours and contact details can be given out by a bot, online forms on websites can be made easier with a bot at hand to help.

3. Increased operation efficiency and streamline services.

A source from PWC found that 82% of UK CEOs see technological advances as the main global trend which will transform businesses. Organisations that stay ahead of trends better place themselves strategically and prepare themselves for the future. However, mastering technology and preparing for shifts in trends like implementing chatbots and AI is becoming challenging due to the speed in technology advancements. We have the tools and technology to work faster than before, and we are far more advanced in technology than ever before so integrating transformative technologies within our services and products should get easier.

How do chatbots improve revenue and increase customer experience?

An example of Amazon’s recommendation engine uses an algorithm to suggest additional purchases for consumers and have grown their sales by an estimated 10 – 15%.

Offering a personalised service by using chatbots to collect data from your customers will provide valuable customer data which in turn provide insights to improve customer experience. In addition, It will also open up new revenue streams.

Drawing on survey data from the UK, PWC illustrates “Infographic: Chatbots and the future of customer service. How respondents view chatbots as well existing frustrations with online customer services.”

The survey revealed that utilities and councils were industries with the two most frustrating online services for consumers.

The introduction of chatbots in governments and local government.

We see a rise in the usage of chatbots in governments around the globe including Singapore and America. The Whitehouse encourages local government to embrace chatbots.

In London, Enfield Council has become the first local authority to develop the use artificial intelligence a robust cognitive platform to help deliver public services. The AI assistant Amelia will help residents to find information on online and help complete forms using a chat feature. It is a start to development, and Enfield council would like for other councils to develop and use bots to improve customer services.

The adoption of chatbots and bots in Banking.

Although we are in early stages and bots are limited to what they can do now, chatbots can answer basic queries. Let’s look at some examples: American Express and MasterCard. The MasterCard Kai, the bot for banks will extend MasterCard services to customers on messaging platforms. The introduction of bots in banking is to create better money habits. Erica is the Bank of America’s new chatbot. The Bank is looking to offer and deliver a one-to-one personalised service to customers. Bank of America wants customers to be connected with them whenever and wherever they choose. Learn more about Erica and what it can do.

A chatbot MyKai another banking bot is available through the Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It offers the functionality of dealing with customer transactions and access to account data. RBS have jumped on board too and have planned to develop their technology to improve their customer service with chatbots.

The usage of chatbots in the motor industry.

Ford are to bring Amazon’s Alexa to millions of cars. Alexa will be able to switch the car on and off and lock and unlock doors as well as control IoT connected in the home. Nick Hastings writes “Every Device That Connects to Amazon’s Alexa” Nick has compiled a list of all the devices that are compatible with the Echo.

Uber using the Facebook messenger app allow customers to request a ride by starting a conversation with the Uber chatbot.

It seems that we have only touched the surface with bots as artificial intelligence (AI) extends to aviation. Turkish Airlines are looking into IoT, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), wearables and robotics.

British Airways launched their facebook chatbot, only for the month of December last year, for personalised offers and recommendations. The bot recommended discounts at hotels and shopping centres such as Westfields and a London guide.

An excellent article by Clint Boulton who writes for the CIO says “Virtual assistants, chatbot poised for mass adoption in 2017. Enterprises will continue to experiment with virtual assistants and chatbots in 2017 as they look to balance better customer service with operational efficiency.”

Chipotle, Whole Foods Market, Dominos and Pizza Hut have seamlessly integrated bots with excellent customer service too.

Ordering a Pizza’ through a Facebook messenger Bot requires little effort and time. Using the Chipotle bot enables you to pick up your burrito when it is ready at your preferred location. Pizza Hut can have a delicious pizza delivered to your door.

All these require a simple texting app using Twitter and Facebook, and within minutes we have what we want.

Technology Advancements in healthcare.

Technology Advancements in healthcare could see chatbots help people take their medication. The data collected from a patient would be invaluable.

Scott Wasserman, a CTO partner at Stuzo, writes “How a Chatbot could help people take their medication.”

How data from these bots are used to empower customer experience.

With heaps of data to be processed and analysed, it can become overwhelming and time-consuming. Sifting through data from multi-channels including social media, blogs, online surveys, customer feedback forms, online reviews and websites is a lot of work. The benefits of using AI platform is that you are able to quickly access the information rather than going through considerable data.

Hotels like Hilton and The Dorchester are great examples of how data from AI is then used to measure customer experiences. The Dorchester Collection has partnered with RicheyTX and together have created an AI platform. Metis. Nikki Gilland a writer for E-Consultancy recently wrote an interesting article on “The Impact of AI on the Travel Industry“, she explains how hotels are finding it easier to collect the data from their customers and then provide a better service. Nikki writes “Metis helped Dorchester to discover that breakfast it not merely an expectation – but something guests place huge importance on. As a result, the hotels began to think about how they could enhance and personalise the breakfast experience.”

Apart from Facebook, Google and Amazon, IBM Watson also offers a cognitive customer engagement virtual agent. It provides an automated customer service and can be customised for your business needs.

Once we have the data, it is merely what we think the data is telling us and what we then go on to do with the data.

We have become familiar with transformative technologies like Google Assistant, Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s Siri yet we are apprehensive when companies are beginning to introduce chatbots to interact with us. Will bots lack the empathy and intuition related to human relationships that are required to deal with complex problems? Research from Gartner sees 33% of all customer service interactions as still needing a human intermediary by 2017, down from nearly 60% in 2014.

Implementing chatbots into your products and services may not be at the top of your agenda but if you are looking into AI then ask these questions: How well will chatbots serve your customers? What will be the impact of chatbots and bots on customer experience? What does the data tell you about your customers and How will you use the data that you collect?

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Like if you found the article interesting and share if you think your connections would find it useful.

Business Transformation Change Management Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation will often fail with the existing culture.

Post author By Paresh
Post date 15 December 2016

Digital Transformation can often fail due to the existing organisational culture and structure. There’s no point in implementing digital tools and new technology in an organisation if the staff do not feel confident and will not champion the transformation, especially if they see no value. After all, it is the people within an organisation who must run with the change and successfully transition to the innovate and adaptive stage in the digital transformation.

An interesting article by Clint Boulton writes about the top 10 digital transformation stories in 2016 and mentions Subway on this list. Subways transformation is in early stages, and the CIO has hired more than 150 technology, marketing and operational professions to deliver their transformation. Read the Top 10 digital transformation stories in 2016: http://www.cio.com/article/3149977/leadership-management/8-top-digital-transformation-stories-of-2016.html

Having worked with numerous organisations and from our experience in transformation we deliver by putting a team in place with the right skills and competence to help drive the transformation. Michael Curry says “Put people at the heart of your digital business transformation.” in his article about people and digital transformation. You can read about it here:http://www.cityam.com/254193/put-people-heart-your-business-digital-transformation.

We totally agree with Michael Curry. Putting the right people in the right place will see success in transformation as it is the people, who will ultimately change the business and drive the change.

So what’s the link between Organisational culture and digital transformation?

Organisational culture is a set of values, beliefs and behaviours that characterise the functioning of a business or organisation.

Having a fixed set of values and behaviours throughout an entire organisation is often not the case. Our experience in working in public sector and private sector organisations in the UK has proven that often different sub-cultures exist within an organisation. For example, The IT department will have a different culture to the finance department and the HR department. In some cases, this can prove to be difficult when project managing change for an entire organisation.

Driving digital transformation and changing an array of business processes to use new technologies simply won’t happen if the existing organisational culture is reluctant to change or resist change. This stage “Business as Usual” often is the hardest obstacle to overcome. The comfort in traditional ways of working and introducing any change or a different way of working imposes a threat to the existing workforce.

Digital transformation: shifting from projects to business operations and culture. Digital Transformation 2017 and beyond is an insightful read into digital transformation by J-P De Clerck from the iScoop blog. He says the entire organisation requires a cultural change.

From our experience in business transformation, to overcome some of these challenges a culture change from the top down is necessary for any successful change alongside strong project management skills. Understanding digital, business and the customer is fundamental and the key question in most organisations is how do we move forward? Digital transformation must fit in with the business needs, and ultimately the customer needs.

Every third company is unprepared for digital transformation. Just seven percent have completed the process says Sead Fadilpasic in his article:http://www.itproportal.com/news/every-third-company-unprepared-for-digital-transformation/

Companies are unprepared for digital transformation and IT spending is rising too. Public sector organisations are looking for help from Microsoft. Investing in Microsoft Dynamics online to keep up with the digital expectation of citizens in the provision of the online services public sector are jumping on board. Recently Wokingham Council implemented this software to enable retiring legacy systems to a one case management system to deliver cost savings and improve customer service. At the centre of this transformation is data but not realising the real potential of data can become an issue to the success of transformation.

Essex County Council also earlier on in the year invested in IT. The ITIL programme was part of the broader review of the council’s IT function, and they had a rollout of Windows 7 and planned to migrate to Windows 10. However, is this too slow in the fast-paced digital era?

A new report from Forbes Insights states that half of the executives believe that digital transformation will be crucial within the next two years. So it seems that executives understand that the comfort in traditional business practices can be difficult to break but must change soon, however, through realisation and the need for IT throughout an organisation can transition from the “business as usual” phase to the “present and active stage”. The six stages of digital transformation explained by Jamie Brighton (Adobe).

There is the need of commitment to digital and technology and a willingness to change within an organisation to truly transform an organisation. The value of IT and technology must have a strong presence within an organisation.

Today’s leaders need to have excellent business acumen and technology expertise. We have transformed numerous public sector organisations and far too often the challenge has been the culture and the lack of skills to deliver within departments. In most cases, the persistence of willingness and training available to staff to change the way they work and to implement new ways of working is too challenging and can be discouraging within an organisation if not supported.

The combined skills of strong leadership, excellent business acumen and technological expertise can take a business to the next level. However, finding the right people is difficult.

The London Mayor has also outlined digital plans for traffic management. The aim is to reduce congestion in London by using technologies.

“Ensuring people can get around our city easily and efficiently is vital for London’s future prosperity,” Khan said. “We need to be much smarter in how we use our roads to tackle the causes of congestion head-on.”

Only time will tell.

Quickly completing transformation and not delaying decisions but implementing change at a fast pace will increase staff morale and in most cases successfully deliver transformation. In all industries and all sectors, we see digital business transformation but not all are seeing the success. Maybe we can learn from companies like Uber, Airbnb and Amazon moving ahead and staying ahead understanding customer needs and providing the services that customers want efficiently through digital.

Change Management

The First 3 Steps to Creating a Climate for Change

Post author By Paresh
Post date 18 October 2016

cultural change and business transformation

Creating a climate for change is the basic building block and foundation of a change project. Successful change is often achieved by following a systematic approach to transformation. Follow these first 3 steps to lead change:

Communicate a sense of urgency when driving change.

A necessary level of energy is required to get the change off the ground. To accomplish heightened energy levels motivation and determination are key to change. In addition, change managers and project managers must build a sense of urgency about the change. Reduce insecurities amongst staff and feelings of fear, anger and complacency that may have developed within the organisation. Change can be difficult for employees to accept but understanding why the change is happening and what the changes mean for them can improve the receptiveness to change. Helping individuals understand and make sense of what change means to them.

Build Guiding Teams is essential for the success of a change programme

Leaders who are enthusiastic, focused and committed will lead change successfully because they will have an in-depth understanding of the concepts of change and model the right behaviour. Strong leaders will take accountability and drive change with a drive of determination and with positivity and confidence change the behaviours of others leading staff to appreciate the need, and know how to, adapt their attitudes and behaviours in response to change.

The objective of the leader is to guide teams and people so that they can adapt to and appreciate ‘the new’. Don’t forget people are at the heart of change and they will determine the success or failure of change.

Integrating people fully into the business process and planning is always almost a challenging initiative. Prioritise building the people dimension into the strategic thinking to increase energy levels, knowledge and creativity amongst people within an organisation.

A clear vision which is achievable.

Creating a clear concise vision within an organisation which is achievable. Ensure that the vision describes the key behaviour required in the future state so that the strategies so that the KPIs can be created to support the vision.

Rebecca Newton explains how the role of cultural change doesn’t rely on HR alone. There are some important and interesting points in this article about cultural change. Read Rebecca’s article here: https://hbr.org/2016/11/hr-cant-change-company-culture-by-itself