The digital transformation driven from the outside

The organizational key to digital transformation

Digitization is not the 1:1 translation of existing processes into the digital world, but the rethinking of processes with the goal of streamlining and simplifying on the one hand, and the creation of valuable new possibilities on the other. Unfortunately, this is exactly where the corporate culture interferes, which often unconsciously promotes silo thinking and forces work within departmental boundaries. Unfortunately, workflows and processes often begin and end at precisely these borders, and this hinders global optimization and digitalization. Instead, the deparments act and plan locally and also budget-wise. The latter is a very interesting aspect that currently often prevents the use of very good digital solutions. I am speaking here from own painful experience, namely that new technologies in particular, would easily pay off for the end customer if they thought about their use company-wide and used the advantages not only within departments, but also in their interaction with each other.

Let's take WiFi as an example: today it is impossible to imagine life without it, it is not questioned, access points are bought, administered and maintained, etc. They are used for many different purposes of data transfer, within departments, across departments, for communication with other companies, etc., etc., etc. A funny example? No, not at all. No single department would purchase and use the components if they were only used for a few of their own use cases. The costs would be too high, the purchase would not pay off. However, if you think company-wide, the acquisition and operation of such a communication infrastructure is a no-brainer.

New technologies, such as an infrastructure for the seamless location of forklifts, AGVs, AMRs, tools, goods, components, etc., are available, can bring added value to the user in countless use cases and therefore pay for themselves without any problems. Actually. In practice, however, a fleet manager, for example, calculates how much he would benefit from locating the forklifts in order to use his fleet more efficiently and, if necessary, even save on vehicles. A use case that may pay off for a large number of forklifts, but often not for a smaller quantity. As a result, the use of positioning technologies is not pursued further.

At the other end of the building of the same company, however, there may be a colleague who takes care of the material flow and wants to optimize it, for example. This colleague is also considering the use of track-and-trace solutions in order to be able to collect the necessary data in the first place in order to be able to identify the potential for savings. Here, too, the use of positioning may be considered too costly and is already rejected in theory.

But if the two colleagues knew and talked to each other, the solution would quickly pay off. If other departments were added that could also make very good use of the data, a decision on the purchase would be made immediately and a few weeks later, a pilot phase with real hardware and software would begin.

So what can a product manager, a sales representative or a new business development manager do to crack this problem?

First of all, there is the usual idea of working with a "top-down" approach and addressing managing directors or COOs and making them aware of the possibilities. This can work, but it often fails due to the lack of transparency within a company and the fact that the problems of the various departments are not known at all or are discussed away as small things. At best, you get the offer to talk to the respective department managers. But then you are unfortunately back at the starting point and try to convince for example a fleet manager.

That would be variant 2, the "bottom-up" approach. Here you first try to get your foot in the door and place your own offers in one department and then fight your way to other departments. But then you encounter exactly the difficulties mentioned at the beginning, that the solution usually does not pay off if you look at it in isolation.

Is there still a third possibility? I think so. It is also not easy, requires good preparation, good research and time. It consists of picking out both, the managing directors and the department managers and bringing them together for a joint conversation or workshop. If it doesn't work with the managing director, then at least with the department heads. They have to get to know each other and thus recognize the synergies of a joint solution. Together, they can more easily shoulder the risk and costs and convince their managing director. They begin to coordinate, pull together and head for the common goal as if flying in formation.

In a workshop format, the necessary knowledge about the solution can be conveyed well and possibly even other areas of application can be identified together. However, it is important, if not essential, that you really bring together the right people from the same company. The same company. These are the ones who have to learn to work together. It is precisely not enough to address arbitrary groups of people at a trade show or in a webinar. Having one participant from different companies does not help. Even then, the "trap" of variant 2 would again exist, where an individual cannot justify the costs.

If you unfortunately don't know the relevant people in a company, you can try to offer a free workshop for this company as a know-how transfer about a new technology or solution and hopefully get the right people around the table more or less by chance.

In reference to “the technical key to digital transformation", I call this the digital transformation, driven from the outside.