Digital Transformation
Platform Strategy, Transform Your Business With AI, Platforms and Human Intelligence, by Tero Ojanpera and Timo O. Vuori, KoganPage 2021
Even the most flexible operations find the whole job of digital transformation intimidating. You've got robots and their cost, AI and its overpowering reach, platforms and apps and networks, not to mention the question of where the human intelligence asset lies and what it finally does. And a bits and pieces approach, as manufacturing innovators have painfully learned, can have mixed results. So what's the solution to the big question of how to move into next generation IT without killing off customers or products?
The authors Ojanpera and Vuori lay out detailed recommendations for companies looking at the whole of digital transformation so that they can review, think over what these changes would mean to their operation, and approach this new era with some confidence in the workability of the systems. In fact, as part of recognizing the intimidation factor always present in such a big move, they outline four steps to beat the terror, turning organizational fear into energy:
1, Involve members of the organization in the option creation and evaluation
2. Emphasize continuity in communication
3. Support and enable learning
4. Use internal analytics to optimize your timing.
This short list in fact contains some comprehensive surprises as the authors urge leaders to "reward behaviours that benefit the AI and platform use, not only local results," and support those rewards with internal tracking analytics. What we are seeing here is movement of digital transformation out of the IT cubicle into the overall workforce, with implications and explanations available to everyone.
The authors also address how to communicate and tie in with partners during the transformation because developing a new AI network alone will be self-defeating. Their corporate example of Tetra Pak illustrates how when the company launched its B2B spare parts and service marketplace, it had to convince third-party suppliers to join because Tetra Pak knew they could not attempt it alone. And the authors warn, "Even if leaders are confident that a particular platform will be successful, they may distrust the platform's owner," frightening in its implications for day to day operations. The beautiful example here is Nokia facing the choice between Android and Windows as its new smartphones platform. Although Android had the highest market share, Nokia felt uncomfortable going with Android and its worldwide web implications; they chose Windows, "but the Windows ecosystem never took off." What may have been characterized as a trust issue for Nokia escalated into a profitability and growth challenge, a warning to other operations working through the same doubts.
For each of the Seven Steps to becoming an intelligent platform the authors outline usable specifics. This approach makes the book easily approachable for companies working their way through an intimidating process. Each of these seven steps contains a human element, and users will find these recommendations important for getting through the AI challenges:
1. Turn fear into energy
2. Remove friction
3. Focus your actions to create fans
4. Create a learning loops
5. Open up with an algorithmic handshake
6. Create the unexpected
7. Organize around AI
The corporate examples and simple project steps covered in Platform Strategy offer readers a safe approach to this big transformation. Although Nokia eventually left the iphone business, the company chose to become a networks IT company, having learned from its initial experiences. Readers will appreciate other corporate examples taken from Goldman Sachs, Varjo, Google, Amazon, etc. because there is no sense trying to make this difficult IT journey alone.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, patriciaemoody@gmail.com