Subject: Become a Disruptive Force
Dear CEO,
As you know we are going through very innovative and disruptive times. New technologies and ways to use technologies are being invented every day. I’m sure you feel the pressure from within your organization, from your board and from your customers that you must accelerate change and your organization’s ability to adapt. I also have no doubt that you personally know someone who runs an organization that has suffered a major security incident in the past two years as well. This is definitely a rock and a hard place situation.
At my last organization we were in that exact situation. We had years of neglected systems and employees. Here’s what we did. We realized that there wasn’t a magic wand or a bucket of money that would fix our problems instantly. We knew that we needed a phased approach. The approach had to be aligned to the key transformation objectives for the entire organization and this approach had to realistically balance Run The Business (RTB), Change The Business (CTB) and Grow The Business (GTB). Taking this approach, you end up with a nice roadmap matrix that can be used to clearly communicate with all of your stakeholders, help level set expectations and take a little stress off you.
I know you were wishing that I was going to tell you about some really cool new technology or system that you could buy and it would instantly fix all of these big challenges. The problem with technology (and a lot of tech vendors) is that it will only do what you tell it to do. Without a clear vision it’s just a really fancy paper weight.
Now that you know what percent of your resources (people, dollars, etc.) you can dedicate to changing your business (the CTB portion) you are ready to become a disruptive force! Now you are ready to make new industries and there has never been a better time to do it!
Start with your customers. Find out what they want. Listen to them. Work with them. Validate what you thought you heard and then work with them some more. Now compare your customer’s expectations to your industry and then compare to new business models. True innovation starts here.
Take baby steps and achieve quick wins! You will also need to partner those quick wins with core underlying capabilities that allow you to automate and scale your business. With the technologies and capabilities that we have today it is possible to do just about anything. We shouldn’t be asking “can we do this?” We should be asking “should we do this?” or “is there a better way to do this?”
There are some very disruptive technology trends that you should be taking advantage of too (as long as they align to your customer’s expectations and new business models). Cloud, big data, security, responsive apps, APIs, integration platforms are just a few. These technologies combined with new business models are completely game changing.
You are not alone in this. There are champions all over that want to help you in your journey. Seek them out. Empower them to make mistakes. Give them the freedom to make your org a disruptive force.
My partners and I recently founded Zuggand (zuggand.com) to help organizations develop integrated digital strategies so you can thrive in today’s unprecedented world of business velocity and agility. I’m currently looking for a few key executives to work directly with to create Enterprise Digital Transformation. I can provide you with my detailed experience and my references are top notch. I’m interested in only working with people that are looking to seriously shake things up and achieve big outcomes. If this is of interest or if you’d like to discuss please let me know.
Sincerely,
Aaron V Sandeen
co-founder, Zuggand
LinkedIn (please contact me via LinkedIn)
(*note: I’m following the Blogging 101: Zero to Hero approach to blogging from WordPress. This article is the challenge for Day 6: Write to Your Dream Reader – so if you know any kick ass executives looking to become a disruptive force, please pass this along! I have a few in mind!)
Very nice post Aaron. I felt very engaged throughout the entire post, and I must say, your writing expresses your stance very clearly. Also, nice job for discovering Blogging 101; it’s a great resource!
Thanks Ben! I see you are new to this as well! I loved your piece on Speed vs Velocity! I’m not a physicist, but this is completely applicable in business and technology as well. Best wishes in your posting!