Successful transformation efforts require parallel investment in adaptability, sustainability, and connectivity. I'll focus on adaptability in this first part of three.
Many companies are starting or already actively investing in a digital transformation effort. Transformation implies a change from one form to another but not all transformations are pretty. Think werewolf versus butterfly. The reality is customer change, technology change, and channel change won't wait around for your transformation. By the time many of these transformation efforts are completed they are already behind the pace of change resulting in a continual need for transformation investment.
A transforming organization must understand and benchmark their current ability to adapt and respond to change, this includes their talent, their technology, processes, and commercial model. As organizations work on transformation, in parallel they must increase their adaptability quotient. This should be a significant KPI to gauge transformation success and can be measured at an individual, functional, and global level. Adaptability provides the organization a unique competitive advantage to continue to capitalize and thrive on change.
5 Dimensions of Adaptability
Talent Adaptability: The greatest challenge to transformation is always a human challenge not a challenge of ideation or technology. An adaptable team can more effectively adopt new skill sets (e.g. AI, Data Science, Experience Design, Behavioral Research, etc.) and maximize their cross-generational talent. Adaptable talent organizations are more curious, open-minded, and proactive.
Technical Adaptability: Most organizations maintain a significant amount of technical debt and often redundant platforms. An adaptable technology stack simplifies the system, while providing opportunities to add advanced capabilities in a modular manner. Adaptable technology organizations will be better positioned to apply automation and shift investments from run to growth and innovation activities.
Process Adaptability: Time is a critical operating resource to ensure quality service, commerce, and delivery. Legacy processes often drive slow downs in responsiveness and service and inhibit organizations ability to innovate. An adaptable operating organization economizes time to reduce redundant cycles and can apply process innovation to support new channels and engagement opportunities.
Channel Adaptability: New engagement channels emerge everyday. Adaptable organizations can move quickly to evaluate, apply, and potentially adopt new channels. These channels include new marketing venues, awareness drivers, distribution vehicles, and social sharing platforms. These organizations have an active customer insight and innovation capability and experimental culture.
Model Adaptability: Ultimately the entire commercial model must become more adaptable. Organizational and market complexity often prevents model evolution and delays transformation. Even traditional highly regulated business models are being disrupted with intelligence driven, crowd sourced, and closed loop sustainable models. The ability to design more fluid operating models, mobilize capabilities across teams, and diversify customer offerings more efficiently is a crucial outcome of more transformation efforts.
