The 12 Step Plan for Digital Transformation Speed

It took Magellan’s crew three years sailing ships to circumnavigate the earth.  Today, at hypersonic speeds of 7,680 MPH, it takes just over three hours to circumnavigate the earth.  Data on the Internet, however, travels at 670 million MPH, which means it only takes milliseconds to circumnavigate the earth.  In this age of digital businesses and digital interactions, companies must digitally transform to work effectively in a world where mass information moves at these unimaginable speeds.

It's not just IT systems that are impacted by the volume and speed of information.  The creators of business processes that were designed and developed in an analog area, simply never envisioned a business environment that would require these operational tempos.  Analog business processes were designed to have humans involved.  These dependencies were designed to slow down the process to ensure accuracy, compliance and accountability.  Today, however, operating at the slow speeds of an analog, human dependent business process, will doom your company.  Analog business processes must be quickly automated via robotic process automation using artificial intelligence and machine learning to effectively interact with impatient digital customers and B2B partners.


When analog business processes are replaced by hyper-speed digital processes, it is also the time to rethink business models.  Transforming into a digital business will impact how you operate and make money.  You both make money and spend money differently.  Your sales, marketing, branding, delivery and customer service will all look differently.  The model must change.

Most companies are dependent on an integrated ecosystem of suppliers, vendors and partners to function.  If your company digitally transforms and speeds up its operational tempo - your partners must follow or the system and business model breaks down.

Increasing the operational tempo of your business as a result of digital transformation impacts the humans in your company.  Roles and responsibilities change as many tasks are automated, the pace of operations dramatically increases, and the skills required change.  In many cases this is the biggest challenge companies face when digitally transforming.

Leadership must also change the way they operate.  Instructions sent via Magellan's ships would have taken three years to arrive and longer to be implemented.  If information is received and decisions are required in real-time, then the pace of decision-making and meetings must change.  Five or three year business plans, must now be re-thought continuously based on non-stop streams of incoming data.

Your organization - your team, must have a culture that supports these speeds.  Your organization must understand and embrace the changes that will help it compete in a digital marketplace.  The following is a list of areas where speed must be increased as a result of digital competition:

1. IT systems, platforms, networks and APIs
2. Business process optimization with automation and AI
3. Business model transformation
4. Partner ecosystems
5. Optimizing how humans and automation work together
6. Leadership/decision-making based on real-time analytics
7. Organizational and cultural response to change
8. Scaling up or down
9. Customer alignment
10. Digital interactions
11. Personalization and context
12. Predictive analytics

Without increasing the operational tempo - the speed in which an organization can adapt, companies cannot survive in the digital age.  This list is not everything a company must do, but it provides a good place to start and focus.  All companies involved in digital transformation today should as part of their overall digital transformation plan, understand what speeds they are at today in each of these 12 areas, and have a plan for increasing it.

Read more from the Center for Digital Intelligence here:

1. Artificial Intelligence, Combined Actions and Digital Strategies
2. Competition, Artificial Intelligence and Balloons
3. 7 Imperatives for Thriving During Digital Transformation
4. What Artificial Intelligence Can Teach Us
5. Speed as a Competitive Advantage in Digital Transformation
6. Culture as a Competitive Advantage in Digital Transformation
7. Digital Technologies and the Compression of both Time and Distance
8. Patterns, Platforms and Automation
9. Making the Hard Decisions in Digital Transformation
10. Center for Digital Intelligence Interviews: Hitachi's Rob Tiffany on Industrial IoT 
11. Digital Transformation and the New Rules for Start-Ups
12. Digital Transformation and Leadership Development
13. Digital Transformation and Competitive Decision-Making
14. Combinatorial Nature of Digital Technologies and Legos
15. Digital Transformation from 40,000 feet
16. Winning in Chaos - Digital Leaders
17. 13 Recommended Actions for Digital Transformation in Retail
18. Mistakes in Retail Digital Transformation
19. Winning Strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
20. Digital Transformation - Mindset Differences
21. Analyzing Retail Through Digital Lenses
22. Digital Thinking and Beyond!
23. Measuring the Pace of Change in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
24. How Digital Thinking Separates Retail Leaders from Laggards
25. To Bot, or Not to Bot
26. Oils, Bots, AI and Clogged Arteries
27. Artificial Intelligence Out of Doors in the Kingdom of Robots
28. How Digital Leaders are Different
29. The Three Tsunamis of Digital Transformation - Be Prepared!
30. Bots, AI and the Next 40 Months
31. You Only Have 40 Months to Digitally Transform
32. Digital Technologies and the Greater Good
33. Video Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
34. Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
35. Virtual Moves to Real in with Sensors and Digital Transformation
36. Technology Must Disappear in 2017
37. Merging Humans with AI and Machine Learning Systems
38. In Defense of the Human Experience in a Digital World
39. Profits that Kill in the Age of Digital Transformation
40. Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation
41. Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age
42. Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster
43. Digital Transformation and the Law of Thermodynamics
44. Jettison the Heavy Baggage and Digitally Transform
45. Digital Transformation - The Dark Side
46. Business is Not as Usual in Digital Transformation
47. 15 Rules for Winning in Digital Transformation
48. The End Goal of Digital Transformation
49. Digital Transformation and the Ignorance Penalty
50. Surviving the Three Ages of Digital Transformation
51. The Advantages of an Advantage in Digital Transformation
52. From Digital to Hyper-Transformation
53. Believers, Non-Believers and Digital Transformation
54. Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era
55. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
56. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
57. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
58. A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
59. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
60. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
61. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
62. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

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Kevin Benedict

Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™

Website C4DIGI.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.