I think we have digitized AND transformed


First, you should read this excellent blog post from my pal Sameer Patel. It definitely got me thinking (which is a surprise given I am thoroughly enjoying a month off work between two jobs ), and I thought I can add a couple of things to this discussion. It also gives me a chance to put my wife’s laptop to test – I spent a whole day improving its performance yesterday 🙂

This is the central theme of Sameer’s post

The crux of my assertion is that for the last 40+ years we have been busy digitizing – an important first step. But it would be a stretch to day that we have digitally transformed, save for a few pockets.

I am rarely positive about the world of enterprise software. Yet, I think it is not too much of a stretch to think we have indeed transformed digitally – actually quite significantly. Are we there yet ? No – and it will be still a No if we ask this question in fifty years. Transformation is not absolute – it is about change between two states, or maybe the rate of change between two states.

So I am going to extend Sameer’s assertion and say something like “We have been busy digitizing for last 40+ years, and also transforming along the way in many pockets. This will be the way life is going to be for next 40+ years and we will  worry about silos pretty much for ever”.

In my school days, occasionally I had the opportunity to sit in a corner of my dad’s office and watch the fascinating corporate world stuff. He would dictate letters to his assistant who would take that down in short hand, type up a draft and have dad review it. It took a few back and forth attempts before the letter , with the real carbon copies, made its way to the dispatch clerk who would then sort them and send them on the way to various corners of the world. When dad got promoted , he had two assistants and both pretty much worked all the time to handle his business correspondence. He could have had two more assistants but decided that it won’t scale given there was only one of him . That was the case of his fellow senior executives too.

I saw two transformations there – one in my school days, and one in my college days. First one was the electronic typewriter – which increased the productivity of communication to the extent that dad briefly considered having three assistants to maximize output. The company expanded significantly in that time frame – in no small part because the executives could deal with more customers and vendors. The second round was the introduction of computers into the office. The growth in that period was explosive to say the least, especially with the introduction of email few years later. Email took the company to heights no one imagined. My dad and many colleagues who had two assistants moved to a one assistant model – with some people even sharing assistants. The extra capacity was moved to other parts of the company that needed additional hands.

That company at some point under invested in digitization and that was one of the reasons it eventually went out of business . There were articles published in management and technical journals of those days on both the early investment in digitization and the later under investment before the company went under under.

That was truly transformational for the times it happened. By today’s terms – people will die of shock if they hear about a company without email. Email is so uncool now – and it was transformational not that long ago. Simple workflows via email improved the efficiency of business processes by orders of magnitude back in the day. Today, a rigid one directional email workflow is looked down with disdain.

I can’t help bringing up my favorite topic – ERP !

ERP never lived up to its promise. I will be the first to admit that, despite making a living off that business for most of my career . But even its worst critics agree that several companies underwent serious transformation , along with plenty of pain and bruises and battle scars. But now the rate of change is not enough to get attention – and hence all the crying out loud that ERP sucks.

Such is the nature of transformation – no one cares about past transformation. You have to constantly evolve and adapt to keep up and hopefully thrive. But that is not the same as saying business has only digitized but not transformed. At various points in time, the rate of change might be high or low – when that tends to zero, business dies.

Sameer goes on to say

At the very least, Digital Transformation will expect that we are able to contextually expose repeatable patterns that:

1. Embrace a true working model that’s powered by real time access to business insights.

2. To the network of experts that dynamically assemble around the problem at hand.

3. The “un-silofication” of todays fragmented work experience that expects me to hop from system to system to get my work done.

4. And the flexibility to have people and data access conform to how I work. It’s a topic I’ve spent a lot of time.

I have a few thoughts on these bullets as well

Repeatable patterns and context : I am not sure if repeatable patterns make a magic bullet – repeatability makes things good candidates to automate/digitize. But it also assumes that world is static – which by now we know is not a safe assumption to make. Yet, it is a compromise we have to make to get things done. Just that we should do so with eyes open that repeatability is temporary and comes with the risk of rework at some arbitrary point in future. However – repeatability aside, I do agree wholeheartedly with the contextually part. Context has not been a big deal in past because it was in the user’s head and with the comparatively lower amount and quantity of data to be processed – that probably was ok. It is not OK now – and context is not negotiable in process design any more.

Real time access to business insights : My beef is only with the “real time” part. My favorite example is knowing right now that I can make a killing by moving inventory from Texas to California for sales this weekend, but not having trucks ready to move the inventory till next week. Not all business processes need real time information. In fact several don’t even need precise information to aid a decision. Humans make decisions on approximations – and trust context more than precision. However, IT systems historically have been built on the concept of precision and now tend to be built on real time. I prefer the term “right time” over real time.

Dynamically assembled network of experts : AMEN ! this is the root cause of most evil in IT systems in today’s organizations . Sameer and team are doing excellent work on making this happen and I am a huge fan and cheer leader.

un-silofication : It is an elusive goal to say the least. There will always be silos and we need to make peace with it. History of IT is littered with lessons like Mainframes did not die , ERP did not consolidate all systems and so on. World fluctuates between fascination for best of breed and suite – which means silos will only increase, not decrease. We can solve some of this problem via collaboration and BI and things of that nature. But I don’t think we will get far enough ever. IT systems will have to play catchup. I don’t like it – but realistically I don’t see a real change coming to save us .

People and data access conform to how I work : Again a big AMEN ! This is totally a worthwhile goal to pursue – although very difficult to get to. Just like un-silofication thing – I don’t envision an all encompassing solution, but this approach of conforming the world around to how a user works might happen in enough pockets to make it worthwhile.

That is it – I am going back to vacation mode !

Are CIO jobs more difficult today ?


No – it is not more difficult or more risky compared to what past CIOs had to do . Every time I see articles and tweets that seem to indicate otherwise , I cringe .

Dealing with business problems has always been on CIO agenda – it is not something that came up yesterday . Good CIOs have always dealt with CXOs – the excellent ones have always dealt with users too . In 90s – when ERP was the “innovation” thing to do , CIOs led the charge . They had to take big risks with unknown software for the benefit of the business . They had to agree to customize off the shelf software knowing that business needed it and hence the price to pay in future is justified . In many cases they convinced colleagues to change business processes to suit what is available off the shelf in ERP systems .
I have sat in several such meetings – it wasn’t pretty , but CIOs of big and small companies did that .

In the 2000s, they had to find ways to reduce cost and figure out working partnerships with outsourcing firms . In most cases they had to deal with a loss of their power and authority and yet they did that . They had to fire people that they knew for decades – and they did that to save their business . They invested in BI systems knowing more or less for sure that it is a journey and not a destination . They jumped into the exciting world of Internet knowing well that there are big risks .

And in 2010s – they have to deal with CMOs with more budget , cloud vendors who bypass them and go to business side directly , in-memory and NOSQL vendors who want to displace incumbent RDBMS vendors and so on . Is that difficult and risky ? Yes . Is it MORE difficult and risky than what previous generation had to deal with ? Hardly ! It’s just different .

The one thing that is becoming more common these days is that executives from business side are now taking on a CIO job for some time to check the box on their way to bigger and better things . This has many advantages for sure – but it has one disadvantage that I have now seen a few times . When a sales leader does well in West – she gets a shot at maybe running all of North America , or go run marketing for a change . But when a Sales VP goes on a CIO tour of duty and does well in that job – he risks getting stuck there for more time than he signed up for . And for some – it becomes a dead end job . That is the part that is riskier and harder for the CIOs these days than the ones in the past – in my experience .

Ok – I am getting back to vacation mode !

The execution challenge – are you a leader or a 3 year old ?


Everyone likes their leaders to take fast decisions and then stick by the decision in the face of diversity . They like leaders to be proactive and everyone else to be reactionary. Guess what – that is also how three year olds generally work ! But you don’t want your leaders to behave like a three year old , do you ?

Sadly, this is rather common and many of us would have had a boss who acted this way . I certainly had – more than once !

There are a few things that can (and should ) differentiate a leader from a three year old .

1. Ability to change course when needed

Despite best of intentions, some times we have to take decisions that are awful . But unlike a three year old who would just throw a tantrum when challenged – a leader should listen patiently , weigh options and change course if needed .

The hallmark of good parents – according to my late grandmother – is that they let the young kids win some battles while they always win the war . I think that applies to managers too 🙂

2. Communicate clearly instead of yelling and screaming

I don’t honestly mind leaders swearing occasionally . But I do not think yelling and screaming are hallmarks of a good leader ( or follower) . Neither is public shaming of their followers for a failed strategy .

3. Identify and fix the flawed strategy behind the failed execution

There is no such thing as a great strategy that just failed in execution . Leaders cannot absolve themselves of execution failures . If you didn’t hire the right people or if you misjudged the macro economy – that is on you and your strategy . Accept it , fix it and move on – don’t just blame execution sitting in an ivory tower . Better yet , let your best execution people provide direct input to strategy before you hold them accountable to results .

A lady who was my team leader several years ago used to say “pick your team with the same due diligence as you would when you pick a nanny for your child”. It took me a long time to appreciate what she meant .

4. Accept responsibility (and share credit )

As a leader , you have to delegate authority every time you delegate responsibility . If you say “go for it” and hang back without providing resources to get stuff done – you are in three year old territory .

When my daughter got into trouble when she was a three year old, she would use “it’s daddy’s fault” as her way out . I always thought it was cute and even enjoyed it while it lasted – but that works with kids because they grow up and you have time to fix it . She stopped saying that pretty quickly . The trouble with adults who blame others is that they don’t always “grow up” – it takes a lot more time and effort and often needs intervention from an authority figure .

All that being said , very few people are honest evaluators of themselves . I know that I am not always critical of my flaws, How much ever hard I try . And so, employees who wait for managers to “grow up” seldom see any fruitful results .

Depending on your job situation, there might not be a lot you can do if your manager chooses to be a three year old instead of a leader . This is is why many choose to ignore such managers and try to do their job with blinders on . But – there are many who successfully help change their managers and help them be better leaders . I will share some stories on those brave hearts in another post.