A new paradigm arises out of advanced mindsets, knowledge, and approach. It is transformational to “step outside” of the organizational system for having different perspectives to gain an in-depth understanding of the business dynamics, handle those “fuzzy business logic” skillfully.
There is “fuzzy logic” of running an effective digital organization because of information exponentiality, “lost in translation,” and “integration hairballs,” etc. It’s important to fine tune all crucial “hard” and “soft” success factors in order to make a seamless paradigm shift.
Information quality & integration: The most powerful and differentiating asset in all of today's businesses is information. The quality of intelligence depends greatly on the quantity of information. Information quality also makes a significant impact on business quality. From human society evolution perspective, information systems are literally as old as life itself, because life is founded on an information system. There is a sense in which information from or about the world is incorporated into our very DNA over time by the processes of evolution. Now we are moving forward from an Industrial Age with information scarcity toward the digital era with information abundance. Too many businesses are data rich but insight poor. Sometimes they spend so much time and energy collecting data for that "just in case" scenario, without unlocking the full potential of information. Or even worse, information is something that can hinder the achievement of strategic objectives, having it unavailable or compromised.
In fact, focusing on the information aspect of the role in the context of the business is part of the digital transformation. Oftentimes, not understanding why they need to manage data causes a lot of confusion and unproductivity. Information Management (IM) strategy as an integral element in the business strategy, along with management activities & scenarios should understand and manage information complexity, know how to prioritize based on the business needs, communicate extensively, be able to mitigate risks and deliver tangible and visible business benefits and improve user experience, and focus on information adoption. A healthy Information Management cycle makes information available and useful, refine it into intelligence, capture insights, and make validation and predictability.
Communication integration & effectiveness: The business system is complex and the organization is multifaceted. Miscommunication enlarges business gaps and decelerates the organizational speed. Communication as a soft success factor is complicated and fuzzy” because there are differences in goals and contexts; there are different functional dialects, communication styles, and these contexts can shift frequently. Without the contextual understanding of people, process, technology, or the business system, the blind spots are inevitable and cause miscommunication across organizational functional or geographical borders. Without using common business language to bridge functional jargons, misinterpretation will further cause dysfunctional business management.
In fact, the “lost in translation” is the common pitfalls of strategy management because the business fails to translate the high-level language of business strategy into the sub-strategy of business functions and then into the professional language of the various staff specialism. Communication is not just the soft discipline, it’s both an art and science. Highly effective leaders and strategists are logical business “multi-linguists” who can overcome those communication obstacles, master different business dialects, know the logic behind communication -why to communicate, what, how, when, and who to talk, they can communicate objectively with strong logic, clarity, and convey the right message in the right format to tailor different audiences for harnessing communication effectiveness and enforcing business collaboration.
Integration hairball: Integration is a crucial business activity for ensuring the business as a whole is superior to the sum of pieces. There are technical information technology integration, operational integration, GRC integration or customer experience integration, etc. Technically, Integration could be very fuzzy and hard to justify ROI. Integration hairball is hard to get untangled. Integrating business processes in dissimilar businesses that have little in common makes little sense. And each integration effort perhaps spins off into chain reactions that may not be recognized until the budget is gone. Integration has a set of costs and benefits that are determined by the situation on hand and what is integrated such as revenue growth, margin improvement or customer satisfaction, etc,
How successful integration efforts are has to do with maturity of the organization. Integration has to be done with a “big picture,” having the business architecture in mind that supports the strategic goals of the organization. When possible, map out the whole integration hairball before taking it apart. After mapping things out, then goes about the actual untangling in small steps. Starting small is a good approach, but scaling up from there has to be carefully architected. The transition from a small initiative to demonstrate value to a completely integrated solution is a journey that continues as the organization's information needs continue to evolve with the business. The successful integration will depend on the underlying business relationships between all of the crucial points and how they influence each other in building solid and differentiated business competency.
In reality, every organization is at a different level of business maturity, has its own struggles and conflicts. What’s “best” yesterday will not always be the best tomorrow. A new paradigm arises out of advanced mindsets, knowledge, and approach. It is transformational to “step outside” of the organizational system for having different perspectives to gain an in-depth understanding of the business dynamics, handle those “fuzzy business logic” skillfully, keep developing their best and next practices, maintain and fix any imbalance in key business elements in order to make a seamless paradigm shift.
Information quality & integration: The most powerful and differentiating asset in all of today's businesses is information. The quality of intelligence depends greatly on the quantity of information. Information quality also makes a significant impact on business quality. From human society evolution perspective, information systems are literally as old as life itself, because life is founded on an information system. There is a sense in which information from or about the world is incorporated into our very DNA over time by the processes of evolution. Now we are moving forward from an Industrial Age with information scarcity toward the digital era with information abundance. Too many businesses are data rich but insight poor. Sometimes they spend so much time and energy collecting data for that "just in case" scenario, without unlocking the full potential of information. Or even worse, information is something that can hinder the achievement of strategic objectives, having it unavailable or compromised.
In fact, focusing on the information aspect of the role in the context of the business is part of the digital transformation. Oftentimes, not understanding why they need to manage data causes a lot of confusion and unproductivity. Information Management (IM) strategy as an integral element in the business strategy, along with management activities & scenarios should understand and manage information complexity, know how to prioritize based on the business needs, communicate extensively, be able to mitigate risks and deliver tangible and visible business benefits and improve user experience, and focus on information adoption. A healthy Information Management cycle makes information available and useful, refine it into intelligence, capture insights, and make validation and predictability.
Communication integration & effectiveness: The business system is complex and the organization is multifaceted. Miscommunication enlarges business gaps and decelerates the organizational speed. Communication as a soft success factor is complicated and fuzzy” because there are differences in goals and contexts; there are different functional dialects, communication styles, and these contexts can shift frequently. Without the contextual understanding of people, process, technology, or the business system, the blind spots are inevitable and cause miscommunication across organizational functional or geographical borders. Without using common business language to bridge functional jargons, misinterpretation will further cause dysfunctional business management.
In fact, the “lost in translation” is the common pitfalls of strategy management because the business fails to translate the high-level language of business strategy into the sub-strategy of business functions and then into the professional language of the various staff specialism. Communication is not just the soft discipline, it’s both an art and science. Highly effective leaders and strategists are logical business “multi-linguists” who can overcome those communication obstacles, master different business dialects, know the logic behind communication -why to communicate, what, how, when, and who to talk, they can communicate objectively with strong logic, clarity, and convey the right message in the right format to tailor different audiences for harnessing communication effectiveness and enforcing business collaboration.
Integration hairball: Integration is a crucial business activity for ensuring the business as a whole is superior to the sum of pieces. There are technical information technology integration, operational integration, GRC integration or customer experience integration, etc. Technically, Integration could be very fuzzy and hard to justify ROI. Integration hairball is hard to get untangled. Integrating business processes in dissimilar businesses that have little in common makes little sense. And each integration effort perhaps spins off into chain reactions that may not be recognized until the budget is gone. Integration has a set of costs and benefits that are determined by the situation on hand and what is integrated such as revenue growth, margin improvement or customer satisfaction, etc,
How successful integration efforts are has to do with maturity of the organization. Integration has to be done with a “big picture,” having the business architecture in mind that supports the strategic goals of the organization. When possible, map out the whole integration hairball before taking it apart. After mapping things out, then goes about the actual untangling in small steps. Starting small is a good approach, but scaling up from there has to be carefully architected. The transition from a small initiative to demonstrate value to a completely integrated solution is a journey that continues as the organization's information needs continue to evolve with the business. The successful integration will depend on the underlying business relationships between all of the crucial points and how they influence each other in building solid and differentiated business competency.
In reality, every organization is at a different level of business maturity, has its own struggles and conflicts. What’s “best” yesterday will not always be the best tomorrow. A new paradigm arises out of advanced mindsets, knowledge, and approach. It is transformational to “step outside” of the organizational system for having different perspectives to gain an in-depth understanding of the business dynamics, handle those “fuzzy business logic” skillfully, keep developing their best and next practices, maintain and fix any imbalance in key business elements in order to make a seamless paradigm shift.
0 comments:
Post a Comment