This week I read “Digital Transformation Know How (Stijn Viaene)”.
Supplemented with mini cases and framed in the 4-V leadership model, it offers you a well-founded and practical basis to start with digital transformation. I strongly recommend to use Stijn Viaene’s book as your guide for designing your organisation’s digital transformation.
Last year I followed the Vlerick program “Take the lead” where the 4-V leadership model was discussed in detail. I even wrote a summary of this 4-V leadership model which you can download on my website after subscription (see below).
Stijn’s book describes six critical elements that are part of a digital transformation Strategy
Strategy
Strategy is about making choices and having a sharp eye for the digital revolution outside the perimeter of your organization. You can build your strategy in two directions:
- Incremental innovation: expand your core business with complementary products or services. Change your existing business model.
- Self-disruptive innovation: invest in completely new products or services and/or change your business model/process.
Customer experience
Customer experience is key to today’s turbulent world. You observe and discover the pain points/frustrations of your customer. This phase is the hallmark for design thinking where principles such as co-creation, holistic approach, iterative process and prototyping are central. In combination with digital process frameworks, design thinking is a powerful tool to deploy in the idea-to-market process.
Data
By analysing available data, we gain insight into our customer’s purchasing behaviour. Artificial Intelligence goes beyond data analysis of the past (what and why it happened), but also analyses the future (what will happen and how can I respond to this). If you use data as a strategic tool, a collaboration of IT and business is a must.
Partners
As an organization, you do not have all the data or capabilities to serve today’s customers. That is why it is strategically good to start working with partners and join forces. Innovation in networks offers a greater chance of faster, more efficient and more successful innovation processes.
- From B2B to B4B
Digital partnership with your supplier: your supplier uses digital means to effectively support you in making you a better supplier to your customer.
- Eco system
Cross-pollination with digital partners (competitors, knowledge partners, suppliers) enables you to think outside the box, which makes it easier to create new, creative ideas. These partnerships are built on trust and therefore clear governance is a critical part of the collaboration.
Leadership
To achieve digital-age agility, you need a combination of leadership types, each with their own specific challenges, tools, practices and skills to embed in the organisation fabric. The 4-V leadership model connects people and ideas to detect opportunities faster than their rivals. 4-V leaders are design thinkers: they are familiar with new organisational thinking and design.
Agility
A successful transformation depends on the agility of your organization. It is a continuous process in which you analyse and observe customer experiences and behaviour, in order to then quickly adjust your products and/or services. It is primarily a process of learning by doing, therefore also called an iterative process.
I would like to conclude with a quote from Charles Darwin.
Enjoy Stijn Viaene’s book, as I did!
Do you wish to receive more “food for thoughts”?
Contact InnoVita or sign up for our newsletter to be monthly nurtured with current news and tips and tricks. You can also download an e-book about the 4-V digital leadership model immediately after registration.
Wens je meer “food for thoughts” te ontvangen?
Contacteer InnoVita of schrijf je in voor onze nieuwsbrief om maandelijks gevoed te worden met actueel nieuws en tips en tricks. U kan ook onmiddellijk na inschrijving een e-book over het 4-V digitaal leiderschapsmodel downloaden.
