How to survive the turmoil of disruption?
Lost in translation is a 2003 romantic movie, playing in Tokyo. In a cultural environment, strange to both protagonists, surrounded by people speaking a language they don’t understand. They do encounter each other and develop a platonic relationship. The title of the movie refers to the translation problems while filming a commercial, the reason of being in Tokyo for one of the protagonists. But the title also refers to the two protagonists, being lost in a strange culture in Tokyo and maybe even more important in their own proper lives and relationships.
An association with the film popped up, when I was reading an essay on ‘digital transformation’ and the apocalypse for the old school companies because of disruptive technology. I did not analyze it with a balanced survey and a corresponding statistic approach, but nevertheless I do have the slight impression that quite some corporate people, definitely on C-level, seem to be lost through the new terminology applied. Digital is the new normal, companies are disappearing because of disruptive technology and the digital transformation is threatening the employment in developed countries.
I don’t think so. It’s simple, for the ‘…iest’time the end of the world announced.
“Modern life is hasty. Old certainties are lost for new truths, the one replacing the other with accelerating speed; people are forced to adapt to new ideas, again and again, under high pressure. Not everyone has the requisite mental stretch, but there is no escape. The tranquility of the past does not return, we will have to learn to adapt to a situation of constant change.
Does this phrasing not reflect the current challenges for everybody, participating in the current economic daily life. I do think so, but I’m sorry, the quote comes from the Dutch professor Jelgersma, from a speech, dated … 1907.
Or the other way around. Let’s have a closer view to an article[1], published in the Flemish financial newspaper in which a so-called ‘young entrepreneur’(start-up, digital transformation … you know …) pretends that people staffing the federal administration are just too old (and he specifies, people older than 40 years) to understand the need for a digital transformation. The author even explicitly refers to the federal administration of Justice. A pitty the guy has not done a bit of research instead of waiving with new buzzwords and pretending he’s a visionary. Otherwise he would know the project called feniks, that ended in 2007, almost 10 years ago. The project Feniks had the ambition to automate the complete administration of the Justice department, all courts in Belgium, all communications in between and all supporting processes.
Instead of an ego-driven ‘look what a visionary I am’ statement, with a bit of research he would appreciate the idea of digitalizing the federal administration seems not to be that visionary!!
So, look behind the buzzwords that are used and fall back on the basics to really understand what is happening. This attitude for a better understanding of what is happening is key for everyone with responsibility in a corporate environment or public administrations. If you really want to add value in an organization, you’ll have to skip the buzzwords and the flashy shows and events. The answer to face the so-called challenge of digital transformation and disruptive technology is quite simple: work hard and assure this is happening in an efficient and effective way’. I’m sure you’re disappointed by reading this, but let me explain.
Let me explain … the Feniks project I was referring to is known as one of the most famous project failures in public Belgium. It didn’t succeed, it was a very expensive failure. And I’m sure every country will have his own examples.
The responsible managers did know what to do, they couldn’t execute unfortunately. It was not a lack of understanding of what technology could add or believe in digitalization. Ambitious programs were called ‘Copernicus’, referring to the Copernican revolution. Now those days, they would call it a transformation. So-called old people seem too old to understand technology, but they are old enough to have learned lessons from the past! Stay calm, learn from the failures, avoid buzz words and false prophets. The Chief Economy of Google, Hal Varian, (I’m sorry, but over 60 years old) repeats in every interview that the fear of technology threatening jobs is as old as technology, but that is was never materialized (don’t forget the Ludittes).
But indeed, the possibilities of technology are evolving in an exponential way. And potential business models are sometimes difficult to grap, i.e. the impact of blockchain on the music industry (as an industry accidently one I do know a bit) is something everybody is talking about, but hardly anyone dares to predict the impact on the industry.
The challenge though is ‘implementation’[2]And that’s where experience and expertise (age) start counting. In the nineties, project management was known as notion, but not mature as practice. The first PMBOK guide was published in 1986. In 1989 Prince II was developed by a UK Government agency. But before project management was really adopted, years went by. 10- to 15 years ago, project management in the mean time, was mature as profession, the same phenomenon occurred with portfolio management. Everybody knew the notion, but hardly anybody did know how to implement. In the mean time, most companies do have a PMO, a project management office but even now, quite some companies and organizations are struggling with the effectiveness of the PMO and portfolio management in general. And it will take another decade before governance as layer on top of, bringing together the whole of an organization, will become a commodity as project management is these days, 30 years after publication of the first PMOBOK Guidelines.
Facing the challenges of the digital transformation or disruptive technology, the first ambition has to be indeed to understand the potential shift in the business model or the modus operandi. This requires insight, understanding, study and analyses: hard work and an open mind.
The second ambition has to be a smooth implementation of the necessary changes. Or in other words, guide the organization through storms, changing the sails while sailing. Therefore, the embedding of good practices in the organization are a prerequisite. A professional project and program management, a professional portfolio management, strongly embedded in a first class governance.
These two elements, insight in the business and good practices embedded in the organization, are the best guarantee to survive during the turmoil of disruptive technology and shifting paradigms. To cope with the hurdles of digital transformation, you can fall back on the methodologies that are developed and evolved since the start of what was called in the early days automation and what is called now digital transformation. To manage the lexicon of 2016, you use the lexicon of the beginning of 2000. Project management, portfolio management, governance (and other frameworks and methodologies) disserve your attention as a weapon to survive the battle.
It is not because having developed and marketed in a successful way one or another stand-alone app for mobile devices, that the guy who succeeded doing this in his garage, now does understand how an heavily integrated organization has to be managed or to be transformed.. The context is completely different. Not difficult to understand, I assume, but who dares to put the success stories in the right perspective? Which C-level manager is not seduced by the big show, the horny attention of private equity players, the pictures and interviews in glossy magazines or the blown-up IPO’s.
[1] ‘De Overheid zoekt miljarden? Hier zijn ze’. De Tijd, 13/10/2016, Jeroen Lemaire
[2] Let me be clear, I’m not talking about standalone apps for mobile usage, which is a another profession, compared to engineering supporting systems for manufacturing companies or administrations, like ERP’s or financial systems or …