Game of Thrones (popularly known as GoT) is one such television series which you can either love or hate but cannot ignore. If you would have followed the GoT, you’d probably be aware of the common phrase, “winter is coming”. The phrase, used predominantly by the Stark family in the series, has transcended into one of the most defining quotes in the world television history. The meaning behind those words are a warning of the inevitable and to be in constant vigil when winter arrives and with them, the perilous creatures of death. You must be thinking its relevance on businesses? Let us fathom further.
No-one is indispensable
‘Winter is coming!’ This is a major theme in the series so much so that the season finale is based on this. Everyone seems to be preparing long-term for the inevitable which will affect everyone with its might. Digitization and process transformation, on similar lines, is bound to engulf the entire gamut of businesses in coming times.For such a winter, or digital storm in today’s IT world, enterprises would need to plan strategically and brace themselves for the future. That is probably the reason for a shift from efficiency and costs savings to revenue, productivity, and top-line growth.
There are waves of cold in GoT. The one caught in those waves certainly cannot remain alive. Similar is the digital transformation wave. Those lagging behind are going to be wiped out. Digital is blowing away pillars of traditional businesses, wave after wave. To remain relevant one needs to brace and navigate through this storm and for that enterprises need to have their foundations strong.
Foundational technologies such as business process management (BPM) helps to orchestrate by making processes nimble and removing silos. On the other hand, a robust enterprise content management (ECM) framework enables contextualizing it by delivering context to those processes and systems. Customer communication management (CCM) makes engaging with your customers a breeze and improves customer acquisition and retention. Afterall, a strong foundation is one which keeps a house from being engulfed by a tornado.
Sustenance is the key
In GoT, attaining reign is tough, but sustaining that supremacy is twice as tough. We see all the characters or kingdoms racing for supreme power, but once they have it, they aren’t able to handle it for long.
Similarly, in today’s era, it is discomforting to realize and acknowledge that digital is tough. But sustaining digital is equally so. According to a report by Gartner* 66% of business leaders have plans for digital business transformation, but only 11% have achieved it at scale. Businesses may have all the innovations and technologies they need. In their digital journey, they have tried Mobility, implemented Social, gone Cloud, leveraged RPA, but are their businesses truly digital?
To understand this, one must first understand the crux of being digital. It is not just becoming digital, but creating an ecosystem where they enable customers, partners and vendors alike to participate in business digitally. They should be able to get access to information and perform business operations without roadblocks. Enterprises need to focus on aspects such as customer experience, agility and responsiveness and turning into an anytime-anywhere business.
Communicate well
As digital stares at enterprises, there is no room for mediocrity. They need to ask themselves if their business is siloed or, can they abandon our legacy infrastructure to give way to a new one? Or how secure is our present to build a future? Are my systems and processes fully jointed? A kingdom working in silos is bound to have misunderstandings and failure of judgments. One should communicate and take counsel not only from people within, but also from outside. Just like the Ravens in GoT which were highly trained for delivering and bringing messages which were also words of counsel.
A disjointed enterprise is just like the king who doesn’t seek counsel from his advisors and even worse when his advisors too don’t talk to each other. The idea here is to build a connected enterprise. The idea is to remove the silos in form of disjointed applications, systems, processes, functions, and people. Because, let’s face it, even superheroes can’t fight it out in silos.
Forging alliances
The most successful leaders in the GoT are the ones who foster strategic alliances with others in order to have positive outcomes for both parties. For instance, when StannisBaratheon’s army was invading King’s Landing, the Lannisters joined forces with the Tyrells to crush the coup. At current times, any organization cannot be successful playing solo. Besides their workforce, they would need a partner, a vendor who can be their allies in winning those tough-getting-tougher competitive battles.
It is highly likely that a connected enterprise with all the resources, internal as well as external, need to collaborate real-time in an orchestrated manner for both business success and remaining competitive.
Finale
As we all wait for the upcoming season finale, we would want to believe that may the best houses, who happen to be everyone’s favourite, Digital Transformation is not just about digital technologies. It’s an exercise to create an organization that is customer-centric, fast, and infinite.
It’s about orchestration, contextualization and engagement. It’s about creating a connected enterprise.
Because, a connected enterprise is what helps you become – ‘truly digital!’
