Successful use of digital for business impact depends more on how firms lead and manage their transformation than solely on implementing new technologies. A major pitfall is the assumption that digital is a business outcome in itself, a silver bullet with the capacity to solve all enterprise ills.
The ultimate goal is the intelligent use of digital technology and perspectives to achieve business outcomes and transform the enterprise in a sustainable, meaningful way, the use of leadership capabilities to turn digital investment into digital advantage.
The modern enterprise is a social enterprise that deeply understands that people are integral to the fulfilment of its mission. It appreciates the power of the crowd and intelligently creates its ecosystem, comprised of customers, employees, partners and other value chain members in a culture of collaboration for business benefit.
If enterprises only invest in the front end of customer experience without parallel investment in enabling service delivery capabilities to align their transformation approach, they will merely achieve top line growth over a finite period of time. Sustainable digitally enabled business transformation is achieved by balancing the customer-facing activities of the firm with enabling and transformational capabilities.
From a customer perspective the experience should be seamless, engaging, emotive and clean but it takes a particular transformation approach to make it so. The customer perspective is fast becoming the viewpoint from which all enterprise transformation is assessed and shaped. Redesigning the enterprise to reflect the customer requires successful leadership of the associated transformation to steward the enterprise through what can be a turbulent journey.
When we conceive of customer experience we need to visualize a coin, the two sides of which being customer and employee value proposition. Enterprises that excel at transformation have a deep sense of identity and appreciate the role of where they have come from in the journey to where they are going. They are emotional, social and networked by default.
Traditional change management approaches no longer deliver. I am often asked how businesses can engage their employees, and drive genuine collaboration and community in response to the evolution of understanding of what it takes to create a meaningful enterprise. In my experience, solutions such as Enterprise Gamification are becoming increasingly important in delivering the business case for digital transformation, by putting people at the heart of the change process.
Enterprise Gamification is not just about rewarding points and badges, or making the workplace ‘fun’. Instead, it takes the enjoyable aspects of games and applies them to real-life business processes, using game mechanics to drive and reward positive human behaviors. By replacing or supplementing traditional change management methodologies, Enterprise Gamification can grow self-sustaining, collaborative and active communities of people.
Working with EDF Energy to run a gamified innovation challenge, we saw how the business was able to engage its staff, share insight and drive collaboration across a geographically disparate community.
I have also seen the success of Enterprise Gamification within Capgemini, where a range of challenges drove and sustained real behavioral change, building a strong community to ultimately drive increased sales.
Enterprises that transform effectively extend their competitive position. They evolve their culture through a process of co-creation and innovation, they harness the collective intelligence of their eco-system and engineer their enterprises to use social to maximize the transformational impact of their solutions.
They ‘get’ that people make it happen.
Thank you for writing this article becuase it is all about people. I would add that it all begins with the CEO and their leadership team. The values, behavior changes, etc. that they want the organization and employees to embrace must be modeled by them first. People follow the example set by their leaders and managers. The ‘new’ values and behaviors need to also be enforced by the leaders and managers. Much like Ken Klien has at Tintri with his ‘no Jerk policy’. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecrandell/2014/10/21/outside-in-customer-experience-is-the-best-offensive-strategy/
Very pleased to see this. Just as gamification is increasing as a method of involving, and bonding, customers with a brand, it has a similar creative application to the building of employee ambassadorship and advocacy: http://customerthink.com/where-is-gamification-going-some-new-rules-or-stated-another-way/ Whether with customers or employees, especially at the front line, this is an excellent behavioral motivator and should be used by more organizations
Good stuff, Maggie! Totally agree with the central role of people in the transformational journey. Christine’s right, it starts at the top–because change can be slow, messy and must touch all aspects of the enterprise, you won’t succeed without top executive leadership driving the culture to change: http://customerthink.com/why-you-cant-transform-cx/
Your point is doubly well made, as I believe I also hear you saying technology can be a double edged sword, that tools are exactly that: tools. Merely acquiring new technologies doesn’t guarantee enterprise change success. While empowering and exciting, new tech is not the end game. At best, it’s a necessary tool that requires proper design, training, deployment, incentives, etc to achieve the desired effect; at worst, it can lead to ‘shiny object’ syndrome, becoming no more than a distraction.
That said, thanks for highlighting enterprise gamification as both a powerful and promising complement to generate compelling change management. It’s worth remembering, though, that while gamification may improve engagement by 48% and turnover by 36%, if not properly designed and deployed it will fail most of the time. http://www.business2community.com/business-innovation/gamification-latest-employee-engagement-technique-01123190 New technologies will always require a cohesive vision for their place in the broader move towards cultural change, clearly.
Not enough attention is paid to people and their mindsets.I think this is among the most important item in increasing customer value
And also the mindset of the company (read CEO and other people)
Hello Maggie,
Great. And as I am a simple minded person you can help me out with a couple of questions.
You say: “The modern enterprise is a social enterprise that deeply understands that people are integral to the fulfilment of its mission. It appreciates the power of the crowd and intelligently creates its ecosystem, comprised of customers, employees, partners and other value chain members in a culture of collaboration for business benefit”
I have heard gurus, academics, and consultants talk about the such a modern enterprise. Never have come across one in ‘flesh and blood’. Perhaps, I have just been unlucky or looking in the wrong places. As you talk so convincingly, I ask you to help me out bye answering a couple of questions/ requests:
1. How many such modern enterprises have you personally experienced?
2. Please list (for me) your Top20 such enterprises.
You say: “Enterprises that excel at transformation have a deep sense of identity and appreciate the role of where they have come from in the journey to where they are going. They are emotional, social and networked by default.”
I have been in this game for 20+years and have worked with FTSE100 companies, and FTSE250 companies. I have yet to come across a single enterprise that excelled at transformation. It appears that you have been much more fortunate than I have been. You must have come across a significant sample size. And having worked with so many such enterprises (large sample size) you have come to the conclusion that you are asserting so confidently. So I ask that you help me out by sharing say your Top 20 enterprises that have excelled at transformation. And please spell out what constitutes “transformation” for you. Why do I ask? I have found that many of us are in the habit of “bullshitting” in the Harry Frankfurt sense of the world. Which is to say we use words without any appreciation or respect for their meaning. I am clear that a caterpillar turning into a butterfly is a transformation. And change is just that change.
I look forward to hearing your answers. And learning from you – you may be the first consultant that I have come across who talks from experience/reality as opposed to theory. Welcome that.
At your service | with my love
maz
Yes, people make it happen and people make it unhappen. By not focusing on the right issues, and on people , management people make it unhappen. By focusing on people, and mind-sets, management people make it happen by going beyond just administartion and efficiency