Business Transformation: Reinvent to Succeed in the Pandemic Era & Beyond

By Sajid A Khan

In the current global climate and rising consumer expectations, it's clear that exceeding expectations for business transformation will define businesses' success immediately and into the future.  The need for fluid and flexible digital solutions to make work effective, when paired with the insights to from dig

• Language: English
• Publisher: MicroAgility Media
• Release date: Jul 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578368771

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Copyright © 2022 MicroAgility Media LLC.

ISBN: 978-0-578-36301

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First printing edition 2022 in the United States.

Version 1.1

Interior Pages Design by Muzaffar Tahir

Book Design by Danial Khan

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Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 11

What is Business Transformation?

Chapter 2 17

Idea Generation and Business Transformation

Chapter 334

Why Transformation Fails

Chapter 456

Identify and Emphasize Customer Needs

Chapter 5 77

Pull the Team Together

Chapter 699

Make Fact-Based Decisions

Chapter 7 121

Master the Process

Chapter 8 137

Build Open Collaboration and Communication

Chapter 9 155

Pushing for Innovation and Calculated Risks

Chapter 10 175

Leverage Open Standards and Lightweight Business Models

Chapter 11 189

Embrace Business Agility

Chapter 12 208

Navigating Change and Reinvention

Conclusion

About the Author

Endnotes

Dedication

This book is dedicated:

To my mother, who offered me her prayers and pushed me to succeed in school.

To Aisha, my partner in life, who has given me unconditional friendship, support, and love.

To my children, Dabir, Shanzay, Yasmine and Danial, reach for the stars, and in turn, I hope you make the world a better place.

To the memory of my colleague, cherished friend, and contributor of Chapter 2 of this book, Monica Cirillo, who brought the largest smile upon many, through the smallest of actions.

And to the families worldwide affected by COVID-19,

proceeds from this book will be donated to Humanity First to support their humanitarian efforts.

Foreword

Business Transformation: Reinvent to Succeed in the Pandemic Era & Beyond

By Lisa Corless, President & CEO – AF Group

When I first met Sajid in 2020, I realized very quickly that his vision for business transformation and passion for customer-focused solutions merited a much broader audience – and fortuitously, this book offers just the vehicle to achieve such deserved recognition.

Over the course of his career, Sajid has become a respected evangelist in his work to promote both the need and urgency for business transformation as a critical strategy to achieve long-term business success. His former role as a Wall Street executive and subsequent founding of iAgility—a digital consultant matching platform and MicroAgility, an award-winning global digital strategy and execution consultancy—have given him a unique perspective, shaped with insights that he champions to better serve the customer by holistically transforming people, processes, and technology to thrive and outperform the competition.

In 2016, as our organization began to prepare for the development of a new five-year strategy, our need for a comprehensive business transformation was accelerating. In our exploration, it became clear that to carry our enterprise to a new a level of success, we needed nothing short of a transformation to effectively respond to rapidly changing market and customer dynamics – elements that were further accelerated with the onset of COVID-19.

While our story is still being written, the work we’ve done to diversify and build more customer-centric efficient processes, enable new and state-of-the-art technologies, and enhance our People First culture with highly-engaged, diverse and driven people is a fitting use case that reflects the core principles of business transformation reflected in this text.

In the end, true business transformation requires visionary leaders who recognize the critical importance of reinvention, and Sajid is the perfect standard-bearer who is helping us understand what is required to take us there.

— Lisa Corless

Introduction

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.

— CHARLES DARWIN

The global business landscape is filled with businesses that collapsed thanks to flawed strategies. Some of these might make the news, the reasons for the failure destined to be subjected to close examination by business analysts and other business owners alike. Others will simply fade out, quietly meeting their end without fanfare or discussion. Those who fail to reinvent are doomed to be left behind and are even at risk of becoming extinct.

In 2019, 70% of organizations were working towards implementing a digital transformation while 21% believed their transformation was already complete. Yet only 38% of traditional businesses adopt digital business strategies, leaving themselves bereft of the benefits that business transformation brings, such as the ability to better meet customer expectations and improved operational efficiency. And while 44% of companies have begun to adopt a digital-first approach to customer engagement and operations, only 7% of them have completed the process.I

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has illustrated the flaws inherent to traditional business operations and the costs of being slow to adapt to change. The changes the pandemic wrought to the way businesses and their employees worked left many organizations stymied and scrambling to implement hastily-designed strategies to conduct business digitally. Many businesses simply weren’t ready to pivot on short notice, nor were they equipped to adapt to new and unexpected changes that impacted every aspect of their operation. They found themselves fighting to tread water as the unexpected waves carried them further and further from success and growth.

Business transformation is the answer, but transforming businesses is hard. It requires more attention to detail and planning than many were willing to expend, especially when more traditional models seem to work effectively. The world is always on, however, and whether it comes in the form of technological revolution or the sudden need to make use of modern business solutions, change is inevitable. Business transformation is a vitally important concept for any business – one that aligns people, processes, and technology into an effective and cohesive whole designed to excel in even uncertain times.

In order for businesses to succeed even in times of rapid and unforeseen change, they must embrace the idea of comprehensive reinvention. From remote working to conferences and meetings that require the coordination of dozens of individuals struggling with technology, COVID-19 has certainly served as a catalyst for change in business practices. In many ways, the pandemic has shined a light upon issues that have plagued organizations large and small alike for decades.

The Purpose of this Book

Business transformation has proven to be a vital strategic element in companies’ policies and has only become more important in the current global climate. It is important to understand what business transformation means, the potential it has to enable a business to thrive or collapse, and the steps to take when moving through the transformative process itself.

It is my hope that this text will give practitioners the information they need to recognize why embracing reinvention and transformation is smart. I also hope to explain the necessary steps to take in order to achieve a profound reimagining of their entire business philosophy.

This book will seek not only to define business transformation but also to look at how best practices have helped organizations thrive or fall in the wake of COVID-19 and the upheaval that it has wrought upon every aspect of the business industry. It is important to note, however, that while attention will be placed upon how the worldwide pandemic has affected business processes, the intent is to showcase how unexpected situations in general can impact how business is conducted and why it is vital to be able to move around them nimbly with minimal downtime and confusion.

The following chapters examine not only the idea of business transformation but also why it succeeds or fails. Information about steps to take in order to create an effective transformation plan will be explored as well as how to best navigate change and unite the people, processes, and technology of an organization.

Chapter 1

What is Business Transformation?

In today’s era of volatility, there is no other way but to reinvent. The only sustainable advantage you can have over others is agility, that’s it. Because nothing else is sustainable, everything else you create, somebody else will replicate.

— JEFF BEZOS

The phrase business transformation is one that has evolved along with the 21st century, adapting to the needs and innovations that have emerged over the years. Today’s transformation might look very different than it did 40 years ago, but the general principles behind the idea remain the same: the reinvention of products, services, and operations.

Business transformation refers to making revolutionary changes to an organization’s operations in order to achieve specified objectives and can also be thought of as organizational reinvention. The goal of this process is usually to reinvent the way a business operates but on a core level. It isn’t enough to simply make token changes to surface operations and call it a day. Instead, transformational goals must shape an organization into something radically different.

More precisely, business transformation is the process of comprehensive reinvention as opposed to mere reorientation. Organizations should not consider the process as one that maintains the fundamental structure of their operational procedures while shifting focus. It is a process that requires a completely new set of rules and disciplines for the organization – perhaps even something that rephrases and reforms its mission and vision. It is not a mere rearrangement of current practices and objectives.

The exact steps that must be taken and the elements that must be changed during the transformative process vary from business to business. It is a phrase rooted in context and must be considered with that in mind, requiring the careful consideration of an organization’s goals and culture before action is taken. And because there is no one size fits all approach to business reinvention, it is important to fully understand the principles and definitions behind the concept.

This chapter will explore the definition of business transformation, what it looks like in today’s world, and why it matters.

Definition

Transformation (n) – A complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone, especially so that thing or person is improved.II

According to the official definition of the word transformation detailed above, the idea of business transformation seems fairly straightforward: business transformation is the transformation of a business, hopefully for the better. It becomes more complicated once you add in things like corporate culture and objectives tailored to specific businesses.

In general, it can be said that business transformation is the process of changing from one look, or culture, to another. If the change is not visible both inside and outside of the company, then the process was not a true reinvention. More specifically, reinvention should align every aspect of an organization, from its people and processes to its technology. Employees, for example, must not only understand the new paradigm under which they’ll be operating, but also recognize how their roles are evolving to include new technology and processes that make them more productive and efficient.

Now, this definition is the standard that is meant to encompass as many businesses as possible. That means that the exact nature of the changes isn’t the same from organization to organization. As mentioned briefly above, business transformation is specific to the business implementing it. Some might transform the way their supply chain works to become efficient and incorporate new tools to make the process quicker and more reliable. For others, the main change will take place in offices and pertain to the way that workplace culture views their roles and responsibilities and how both of them uphold the business’ mission.

This doesn’t mean that all transformation is highly specific to individual organizations. Indeed, as the past year has shown, it is vitally important to have some kind of digital workplace to fall back on should the ability to meet in person is no longer a viable one, and that’s true across almost all industries. To reflect that, business transformation should have a second definition to keep in mind – one specific to the needs and issues that have been highlighted in the wake of COVID-19. Digital transformation might be separate from other business transformation objectives, but it is a fairly universal goal towards which all businesses should work.

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation comes from the more traditional definition of business transformation discussed above. It also references a complete change in the character or appearance of something but focuses specifically upon the digital tools available to the business in question as well as how they use them. This is a transformation already taking place in many businesses across the world; however, the progress that was accomplished by force can easily be lost if organizations do not recognize the value of a digital workplace and instead return to the way their offices functioned before COVID-19, which necessitated a new approach to business.

The restrictions placed upon in-person workplaces during the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic should be a wake-up call to businesses in general. Not only is working on-site not a given, but it’s also not necessarily a necessity for many organizations. Most individuals can work from home just as effectively, if not more so, than they can while in their offices on campus. That’s because the digital tools available to create an online or cloud-based workplace have evolved to sophisticated suites of software designed specifically to keep coworkers in touch and foster collaboration.

Digital transformation takes place when a business restructures the way it perceives remote work and the resources in place to ensure remote access to important documents and people. In many organizations, the idea of working off-site is seen as inherently less productive – and therefore less desirable – than working on-site. As a result, the infrastructure needed to keep remote workers in close contact with their colleagues as well as to access the information they’d be able to access if they were on-site, simply doesn’t exist in most businesses.

COVID-19 illustrated that not only should remote work be considered viable, but there should be tools in place to support it. Even if an organization would prefer to continue to focus on working in-person, it is vital that there be an alternative should the ability to work on-site no longer exist. Not only should this concept be considered commonsense at this point, but it should also be a high priority to accomplish.

Reinventing the way that a business operates digitally and ensuring that all customer needs can be resolved remotely is no longer optional – it is a necessary step that will help keep them afloat no matter how the outside world changes. Companies must recognize the need to transform at the right time and move forward decisively to keep their business profitable and their operations streamlined.

Why is business transformation important?

Business transformation is more than important – it is vital for any organization to succeed in today’s extremely competitive environment. Disruptions in the traditional day-to-day workplace structure to which many organizations still cling can impact a business’ ability to serve their market’s needs and wants, maintain their product cost or service delivery model, and adapt to world economic trends. Organizations are forced to either reinvent themselves and the way they do business or fade away completely, bested by the changing best practices in their industry.

Perhaps one of the best known examples of successful business transformation is Netflix as well as the businesses they replaced. Founded in 1997 but gaining widespread notoriety around 2002, the business began as a DVD rental-by-mail service that made renting and returning movies and television shows easy. No longer did consumers need to visit movie stores in-person – they could simply request a DVD from Netflix instead and wait for it to arrive in the mail before returning it much the same way. This business model grew quickly and thrived even as in-person movie rental businesses declined dramatically. Netflix identified market wants and needs and adapted their business to suit them.

For several years, Netflix was the go-to DVD rental service for much of North America. By the time YouTube opened in 2005, however, their customer base was quickly moving towards on-demand and streaming services rather than physical DVDs. This initially left the organization floundering as its business model began to fail, no longer meeting the needs of their subscribers. Instead of sticking to their previously winning formula of rentals – a move that would have likely led to the business shuttering permanently – Netflix reassessed their business and their market, ultimately making the decision to shift to streaming services and allow DVD rentals to become a secondary source of income.

Netflix began offering their video on demand service in early 2007 and saw rapid growth even as

Reviews for Business Transformation

[Ali Abbas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Geared up with thorough research and implementation guide for any organization to bring change for good. Learned alot and created action items for my firm to educate transitions at every step to enhance productivity.