Concept of enterprise transformation from my commercial excellence experience

A few general concepts about transformation that you can find on the internet are as follows:

• Align Digital Transformation with Business Strategy: Ensure that your digital transformation initiatives are integrated into the overall business strategy, supporting the organization’s vision, mission, and objectives. This alignment helps in creating new value propositions and enhances competitive advantages while meeting customer needs effectively.
• Engage Stakeholders Throughout the Process: Involve all relevant stakeholders, including customers, employees, and partners, in the digital transformation journey. This collaborative approach fosters transparency, encourages feedback, and empowers stakeholders to contribute to decision-making, ensuring that the transformation is inclusive and well-received.
• Leverage Data and Analytics: Utilize data-driven insights to guide the transformation process. Implementing robust data analytics allows organizations to understand their current state, identify areas for improvement, and measure progress. This focus on data ensures that decisions are informed and aligned with market trends and customer expectations.

The key word here is to start with the company goals. I want to dig deeper into the execution level a transformation project team should know.

The definition and role of a project team

A project team is an excellent independent task-driven unit in a company that reports directly to the CEO or COO. Its role is more like a supporting function, completing the help and resources needed for each business unit. Never try to lead a project on behalf of the BU. Why? The BU owns the targets and KPIs, which help them drive better. For example, BU started its digitalization project for the sales process on Salesforce for the front line. The BU owns the KPIs of adoption rate, number of success objects, and the percentage of leads on the system. The transformation project team gets resources such as budget, training, and devices for the BU. This model can help the BU own its result and eliminate the barriers it may face.

A necessary pilot

A pilot run is critical before a resource enters or doubles down. The project team should set the pilot's scope, stakeholders, members, and KPIs. Get members aligned and trace KPIs to ensure the team's concept is workable and useful.

The execution mechanism

First day of a week: If we split the weekly schedule into five days, the first day is to review all KPIs. The project team can use tools such as traffic lights and project management tools to monitor KPIs and understand what support the BU may need.

Working day in the middle: The rest of the weekday can be a small spring run to execute what is decided on the first day of the week. The critical thing here is to set the weekly execution plan considering the capacity and challenges. An example here is that if the project team has to complete a user interview this week, it should consider where the users are and if they can make it this week and think about the degree of comprehensiveness. Then, it should assign the tasks accordingly.

The last day of the week: Report to the CEO or COO, let the CEO or COO know the progress and the challenge, and get their support or resource approval. The transformation can be executed continuously if the project team can get the support to overcome the obstacles( resistance, communication. or extra budget)

Again, the transformation project team doesn’t lead the project but acts as a supporting role to remove all the obstacles to transformation projects in BU. Let BU lead the project, realize accountability, and get the honor back to BU.