Business Transformation is no longer optional in today’s world. It’s a necessity to survive. That is because post-COVID-19, all standard business workflows have gone for a toss. Remote working, work from home, and digitization are now a must-have. However, change in any form always gets resistance. There’s always inertia that builds up and makes change difficult. Reasons for resistance may include sunk cost fallacy. That means too much investment in time and money in existing ways of working. Other reasons include preset habits or just lack of vision. The founding team at Asanify has been part of several large business transformations.
Here’s what we will cover in this blog:
- What is Business Transformation?
- What are the types of Business Transformation?
- 3 Steps to a Successful Business Transformation
Q. What is Business Transformation
Business transformation is an enabling change in any business. That may include large multinational companies (MNCs) or even startups. Broad areas of changes typically include one or more of the following:
- People
- Process
- Technology
Q. What are the types of Business Transformation?
Business Transformations come in several flavours:
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Large Scale Organizational Transformation
This happens at an overall organization level and typically includes cross functional work.
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Management Transformation
Typical examples include Agile Transformation. The objective is to make organizations lean and reduce waste.
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Role Transformation
The reporting structure or org structure changes along with job descriptions. The objective is to keep in touch with changing times. This may also include recruiting new kinds of people to affect Culture Transformation
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Technological Transformation
Changes in SAP, Oracle or other ERP systems transformation to save costs or increase efficiency. An example for this may be moving to a quality cloud HR software to manage HR operations.
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Business Process Management or Workflow Transformation
Workflow Automation especially within People Processes are absolute necessity in today’s world. Examples include:
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- Contactless Onboarding
- Remote working enablement
- Employee Exit Management, etc.
- Lead Generation for Customers or Candidates via Chatbot
The objective is to enable organizations adapt to a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world.
3 Steps to a Successful Business Transformation
Firstly, ask why at the beginning
Any large transformation effort can benefit once the objective and success criteria are defined first. The “why” then, has to be customized for different teams across levels so that everyone has a personalized reason for rallying around the change. Otherwise, such a large project suffers from never-ending minute changes and it fails to get the entire organization going.
Secondly, care about result not credit
A lot of work can get done if one focuses on achieving the result instead of taking credit for the same. Any such large change will require some sacrifice. This is especially true for the people leading the change. The key is to enable ownership across various levels in the organization. This is true for both verbal communication and through shared Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Finally, over communicate
Typically these transformation efforts die down after the initial energy burst, especially from the top management. To sustain changes through the months (and sometimes years), frequent communication highlighting the wins and losses is of extreme importance.
Conclusion
Following the above 3 steps, I have seen some very large and complex organizations transform successfully and gear up for the modern VUCA world. Here’s hoping that you – my reader – can be the force that achieves such successful transformations for your organization.
Not to be considered as tax, legal, financial or HR advice. Regulations change over time so please consult a lawyer, accountant or Labour Law expert for specific guidance.
