Category Archives: Change Leadership

Change Leadership, Digital Transformation, Operating Model, Project Management

The Danger of back office Digital Transformation without Balance

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With all new technologies, there is a danger that they get misapplied. misused and abused. Given the drive to digitalize the back office and deliver ROI, there can be a lack of consideration and practical understanding on how policies, people and processes are optimized.

Finance and Procurement functions measure spend managed by the team, encouraged by compliance and governance committees, to steer towards a ‘one size fits all’ approach in how the technology platform is configured. This usually leads to an overstretch of available resources, creation of process bottlenecks and a failure by finance and procurement to service the business adequately. The result is seen as an over promise and under deliver, and the technology is blamed.

This is not a technology problem, rather reflects the challenge of how the technology was implemented. Organizations must spend time to get into the detail on how the stakeholders buy; seeking to differentiate and simplify the different sourcing channels that can become configured correctly in the technology platform, and supplemented as appropriate, with complementary solutions. The output defines the new target operating model, matched with organization’s capability, to deliver value add across the end-to-end process without hampering one function over the other.

Together with investment in change management and all that it entails, digital transformation becomes a journey that starts with this first purposeful step.

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Change Leadership, Project Management

Chicken or Egg – Which came first?

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Organizations seeking system digitalization often want to know the sequence of steps required to set-up a project. The order is less important, there is more than one right way, but there needs to be an inherent business understanding required to determine the height and depth of the leap required to deliver business change.

The foundational understanding of what you have as a start point, As-Is, and assessing both appetite and ability, for a new To-Be process is critical in ensuring the organization can implement a successful change. It is not unusual for a software solution to be selected, and then handed over to be implemented. The challenge is then to create a strategy and plan to balance people, process and system elements in an optimal way. For example, you can have the best people, but if your process is flawed and/ or your system inadequate, then performance will be poor. Contrary, you can have the best system, but if your organization lacks the skills, and /or people are not trained to use the new system or process, adoption and performance will be poor.

As with the chicken or egg dilemma, a circle that has no beginning, a better question should be how far can we jump and what will enable us to jump further.

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Change Leadership, Operating Model

Procurement Leadership Competencies

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In this age of supply chain disruption and market shocks, what are the key attributes Procurement need to navigate these challenging times to sustain value:

  1. Understand the business and supply market
    • Without the fundamentals of understanding your business needs, Procurement cannot align its supply side strategy to support business success
    • Finding and matching the right strategy to those business goals requires procurement leaders to act and think like business managers
  2. Transformational leadership
    • Transformation and change management requires procurement leadership to have a clear vision with benefits that can be articulated appropriately across the different stakeholder groups. Communication skills are critical.
    • Walk the talk, leading by example, helps build trust with stakeholders
  3. Know the Technology
    • Technology is only an enabler – it is only one element of the success equation
    • Map and apply the right Technology based on the maturity of the function and organization
  4. Transition the Operating Model
    • Change the model – insanity is doing the same thing again and again, yet expecting different results #
    • Take small bite steps that support incremental improvements in a steady direction
    • “Sell success based on success”
  5. Collaborate with Partners to Innovate
    • External supply side resources are typically the largest single resource pool available to the organization – involve your partners in your business challenges
    • Share benefits to encourage win/win
  6. Operate flexibly and transparently
    • Open your mind to alternative approaches
    • Challenge and change to seek better ways

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