Facebook Decides What People Think

The preamble to the United States constitution is so 1787.  Back then our founding fathers wanted important decisions about our nation's future to be decided by "We the people."  Today, however, we have opted to let social media and big tech companies make some of our most important societal decisions without us.  I'm quite certain that is not what our founding fathers intended.

Here is a excerpt from an article in the New York Times today, "The social network [Facebook] announced on Wednesday that it had started changing its algorithm to reduce the political content in users’ news feeds. The less political feed will be tested on a fraction of Facebook’s users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia beginning this week, and will be expanded to the United States in the coming weeks, the company said."

Culture and Humility as Competitive Advantages

In 2019, I interviewed over one hundred business leaders.  In the course of these interviews and follow up discussions I learned a great deal - some of which I want to share here.  I have seen workforces that are united with their leaders in a desire to change and improve.  I have seen organizations that bring in all new leadership eager for change, but watched them fail because of institutional resistance.  I have seen leaders and workforces passionate about winning, but without the humility to learn from their customers.  I have witnessed how difficult it is to change.

I have learned the human-work of solving problems, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles tends to share a common purpose: creating stable, secure and predictable environments. The tendency for most humans is that once we solve a challenge, we want to be done with it.  That propensity, however, does not fit with today’s reality of perpetual change.

Technologies Without Strategies

Layers of GIS Maps

Fingerspitzengefühl: The literal translation of this German word is finger tip feelings.  It is used to describe one's ability to maintain situational awareness by receiving real-time data. 

The problem with fingerspitzengefühl, in addition to difficult pronunciation - is knowing how much data a person needs in order to maintain situational awareness without it being too much.  Today we have data coming at us from every direction.  In fact, as I am writing this article I was notified that my security camera detected humans at my front door.  I now have situational awareness, but at the cost of distraction.  What is really needed is not just any information, but information that will materially impact one's ability to succeed.

15 Rules for Winning in Digital Transformation and the Doctrine to Match

Competitors can’t compete, and leaders can’t lead if they don’t know the rules of the game.  Understanding how points are scored, and what is required to win is key to any competition.  In the age of digital transformation there are key rules to learn:

1. Data is the modern commercial battlefield
2. Information dominance is the strategic goal
3. It takes an “Optimized Information Logistics Systems” (OILS) to compete
4. Advantages in speed, analytics, operational tempos and information logistics - determine the winners
5. Real-time operational tempos are required
6. Businesses that can “analyze data and act and with speed” dominate those which are slower
7. Advantages exponentially increase competitive advantages
8. Situational awareness enables innovations and operations at a lower cost and with increased efficiencies
9. Principal of API Acceleration & Mobility – As demand for mobile apps increases, an even greater demand for new APIs and changes across the business and IT will arise
10. Mobile apps provide only as much value as the systems behind them
11. The more data that is collected, analyzed and used, the greater the economic value and innovation opportunities it produces
12. Data has a shelf life, and the economic value of data diminishes quickly over time
13. The economic value of information multiplies when combined with context and right time delivery
14. The size of opponents are less representative of power today, than the quality of their sensor systems, mobile communication links and their ability to use information to their advantage
15. Ultimately winners will dominate by automating decision-making and executing repetitive work using robotic process automation better and faster than competitors through the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning

These rules not only help you understand how to compete and win, but they should also guide enterprises in their development of a digital transformation doctrine. 

In a recent survey we conducted with over 2,000 executives in 18 countries, the majority of all survey participants agreed that developing a clear digital transformation strategy is a top priority.  Digital transformation strategies, however, grow out of, and are shaped and guided by a digital transformation doctrine (DTD).  We define doctrine as a documented way of thinking, a common frame of reference across an organization, which provides an authoritative body of statements on how the business should approach digital transformation.  It provides a common lexicon for use and a framework for developing strategies. The DTD is a necessary first step before digital transformation strategies and tactics can be developed and implemented.

Digital technologies do not just enhance and extend existing processes and models, but they open doors to all kinds of new innovations, opportunities, competitors, businesses processes, strategies and even new industries.  An organization’s DTD must be capable of leading them successfully through these massive and accelerating changes.  

An organization’s DTD should influence all of their strategies, how they operate, and the tactics they employee to compete.  In our research, we find that although most companies recognize digital transformation is happening, few have a doctrine to lead them on this chaotic journey.  Without a DTD, organizations lack a unified understanding of why they are engaged in digital transformation and the role transformation plays in helping them compete successfully.

Executive teams must define how their organization should think about digital transformation.  The DTD should be obvious in every program, project, campaign, product and service within the company.  A sample of a DTD follows:

The digital transformation of our marketplace is changing the behaviors of our customers and the nature of our competition.  We must anticipate and embrace permanent flux by employing digital technologies and strategies, and by creating a digitally agile business and a digitally transformed enterprise. We will achieve information dominance by investing appropriately to develop and maintain an optimized information logistics system. We will restructure our organizations for business agility, speed and real-time decision-making.  We will develop a culture that encourages collaboration, innovation and creativity.

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

1. Digital Transformation and the Ignorance Penalty
2. Surviving the Three Ages of Digital Transformation
3. From Digital to Hyper-Transformation
4. Believers, Non-Believers and Digital Transformation
5. Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era
6. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
7. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
8. The Advantages of Advantage in Digital Transformation
9. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
10. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
11. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
12. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
13. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
14. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

SMAC Tsunamis and Mobile Strategies

I was reminded these past few weeks of the many challenges organizations have keeping their business and IT strategies aligned with rapidly evolving technology innovations and changes in their marketplaces.  Two weeks ago I attended a military related conference and listened as the different military branches shared their mobile strategies and the processes they must follow in order to bring new solutions online.  Yikes!  It is incredibly challenging as their administrative processes for acquiring new technologies typically take years, but mobile technologies are evolving much quicker than that.

Even though the military processes are necessarily cumbersome for acquiring new technologies, testing them, and then going through formal RFPs and contract negotiations, their strategies for how to use mobile solutions are well defined.  This is different from the commercial sector where it is often relatively easy to acquire new technologies, but there lacks a mobile strategy to support it.

Last week I taught mobile strategy and SMAC (social, mobile, analytic and cloud) strategy sessions in England, Scotland and Belgium.  It was a crazy travel schedule, but what an adventure!  I was again impressed with the need for more combined training between business and IT - training that educates business on the possibilities of these technologies, and IT on what it takes to support them.

Social, mobile, analytics and Cloud, plus the Internet of Things are hitting markets like a tsunami.   One of the key points I emphasize in my strategy sessions is that this SMAC tsunami, or the "Nexus of Forces" as Gartner describes them, is approaching and overtaking companies whether it fits into their three year plan or not.  Companies don't operate in a vacuum.  They can't always dictate the timeframe of technology waves and innovations.  Somehow companies must recognize these important trends and change rapidly from a Plan A, to a Plan B or C in order to remain upright.

I am seeing entire industries overturned by these technologies.  I am seeing new business models appear and rapidly changing competitive landscapes.  The questions I get asked daily now are,  "How will these technologies impact my industry and business, and how should we respond?"  It is interesting to note these are mostly business strategy related questions.

The military, although they have slow processes, often have well defined strategies.  In the commercial sector I see relatively fast processes but a lack of strategies today.  This offers enormous opportunities for companies that can see these tsunamis approaching, get prepared and use these forces to achieve competitive advantages.

I will be discussing many of these new trends, innovations and strategies tomorrow on a live webinar at 11 AM EST.  I invite you to join me.  Mike Karlskind, VP of Service Optimization Strategies with ClickSoftware, and I will be discussing, "The Role Big Data Plays in Real-Time Enterprises, Mobile Strategies and Field Services."  Register Here!

Registration Link: http://go.clicksoftware.com/role-big-data-plays-with-real-time-enterprise-mobile-strategies-and-field-services.html?utm_source=December18thWebinarKB.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.