Sunday, December 27, 2015

CIO’s Digital Agenda: Information & Knowledge Management

10:44 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Information is the processed data, and knowledge is processed information.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom.

Back to fundamentals, CIOs are Chief Information Officers, IT is the steward of business data and information, and one of the most important responsibilities for IT is to ensure the right people getting the right information, extract to sufficient knowledge to help them make the right decision at the right time and location. Digital IT is also shifting from “T” oriented support center to “I” driven value creator.

Information & Knowledge Management

What is Information Management? Information nowadays is a big resource and asset for organizations, and assets need to be managed successfully! When dedicating to managing business information for a couple of decades, shall CIOs go back to the fundamental, to ask themselves: What is Information Management theoretically, philosophically, strategically and tactically, anyway?

Information Management vs. Knowledge Management: Information Management is to connect people with the right information at the right time & location, to ensure that accurate information is accessible and shared within relevant business units. Knowledge Management safeguards full understanding business processes, tools that are used and the people using those to optimize business efficiency.

Is IT Part of KM or KM Part of IT? Digital means the abundance of information, information can be refined into the knowledge which is one of the most valuable, but intangible assets in business today. Thus, Information Management and Knowledge Management are two important management disciplines. However, the two terms are interchanged and the exact meaning becomes clouded sometimes, are they distinct or the same? Or the interesting question might actually be: "What about Knowledge Management exists or has value without Information Technology”?

The Benefits of Master Data Management In today's market where analytics is becoming increasingly important, Master Data Management (MDM) increases the validity of data used to model customer behavior, cross-sell and up-sell. If your organization has multiple customer touch points or multiple service lines, then MDM will help to ensure that you are able to assemble a complete picture of the relationship with customers.

Information vs. Decision Making At today’s digital dynamic, information is abundant and even explosive, the business has become over-complex also hyper-connected, what’s the correlation between information and decision making. If data-decision pair works fine to advocate analytics based culture; as information is the processed data; knowledge is processed information, how about the information-decision pair? It's not necessarily information, but the business insight leads to the right decision making. So how to measure information accuracy as well as decision-making effectiveness?

Agile Knowledge Management : Digitization makes information only a click away, but managing knowledge becomes more challenging due to the abundance of content, the multitude of information format, the timely delivery, and risk/compliance concerns, etc. How should you apply the Agile philosophy and principle to modern knowledge management, does “Knowledge on Demand” an ultimate goal in your organization?

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify your voice, deepen your digital footprints, and match your way for human progression.

“Digital Master” Holiday Intense Tuning Chap IV: How to Assess your Organization’s DNA?

10:41 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

The cultural transformation cannot be mandated--it must evolve.

There are many culture metaphors, such as culture is like soil, the glue, the fabric or the mixing colors of paint, and the DNA of the business. The word “culture” stems from a Latin root that means the tilling of the soil. A company’s culture helps define what a company is like - what it means to be part of the organization; how to act as a team or teams; and what others in the company believe and strive for, and even how the outsiders see the company - the business brand. So in order to optimize or rebuild a strong digital culture, the organization first needs to know how to assess its organization’s DNA more objectively and systematically via the set of questionnaires.

Q1: What’s your Organization’s DNA or Personality, and how do you Read it?

A: An organization’s culture is expressed or visible from the collective mindsets and attitudes: There are several factors that form an organization's culture, the most critical one is how decision-making process at various levels within an organization affects all other factors that form the culture over a period of time. An organization's culture is visible from the collective attitudes - how employees behave at the workplace with co-workers, interaction with customers, adapt technological changes and accept challenges and present creativity, show accountability, and bring wisdom to the organization etc. In all the conversations about culture, we need to remember that it is the policies, procedures, rewards, and retributions that drive behavior and it is the employee behavior that expresses "culture."

Q2: What are Measures on Culture?

A: It is important to do researching and validating a culture assessment instrument that measures culture from different perspectives; such as cultural constructs or dimensions of culture and cultural styles. The key issue is that culture is always a perception and to obtain an insight into this perception, you need to obtain a number of responses. Only when a broad sample has been obtained can some forms of extrapolation to the group be considered. Culture is difficult to "measure" because the measurement of culture is not only one dimension such as financial or a technical point, it’s a multi-dimensional evaluation. Though it’s hard to measure culture directly, there are logical steps in evaluating its impact indirectly. Culture can also be measured and managed against some models of the desired culture.

Q3. Can you Impose the Culture of Innovation?

A: The cultural transformation may be the desired outcome, but it cannot be mandated--it must evolve: Engaging in the existing practices, Introducing the changes and reinforcing the changes. It requires shared vision plus innovative, committed and passionate leadership and a commitment to alignment and integration of people, process, practices, and technology across the enterprise, including customer and vendor engagement. So culture is a collective mindset, attitude, habit, and business brand. You cannot impose your own thoughts or habit on someone else instantly, however, you can always inspire, influence, and innovate a digital culture which catalyzes business strategy execution and accelerates digital transformation.

Q4: Can Culture be Changed on Purpose?

A: An organization’s culture is extremely difficult to change. Getting all employees on the same line is always difficult because too many mindsets are not willing to adapt and accept the reason to change the existing culture. Most want to stay in their established comfort zone. Much effort has gone into changing the culture in organizations. For decades, practitioners have been trying various ways and means to achieve culture change. But still, culture is changeable with the right strategy and methodology. To systematically change a culture takes time, vision, and persistence by top leaders and the collaboration of employees, as well as the talent/performance process/structure putting in place to make culture change sustainable.

Q5: What are inextricable relationships between strategy, culture, and execution?

A: Today companies work more on the execution, and many said business is 30% planning and 70% execution. But culture is really the leader. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Culture is one of the main factors that affect implementation of strategies. Thus, it is important to “harden” the soft business elements such as culture, and add a layer to your strategy map describes the behaviors that are valued and encouraged, and that is critical to enabling the intent of the strategy, and you make it easier for people to understand how they can change or contribute to business growth via their daily behaviors and activities.

Whether at either organizational or societal scope, culture is complex and often invisible. Culture assessment is tough, but it is worth the effort because innovative and adaptive cultures tend to catalyze higher business performance compared to those with weak or nonadaptive culture. And it is the pathway to change, digital transformation and ultimate business success.

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CIO’s Digital Agenda XXII: How to Solve Chicken Egg Puzzles

11:12 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

"Which comes first, chicken or egg?" It is a classic debate which challenges the generations of scientists

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom.

"Which comes first, chicken or egg?" It is a classic debate which challenges the generations of scientists. There are also set of “chicken or egg” dilemma facing every CIO, it is not easy to figure out, because you have to leverage variable factors in making effective decisions strategically and operationally, to capture both short term gain and long term win, and contribute to the business’s bottom line and top line growth.

How to Solve Chicken Egg Puzzles

Strategy or Execution: Which Is More Important? The problem is that things are changing so fast these days, so what is the point of executing a poor strategy, and similarly why waste valuable resources and time forming a strategy that is never implemented. So here comes the classic chicken and egg debate in strategic planning arena. Strategy or execution: which one is more important?

Innovation Debate: An Ounce of Practice is better than a Ton of Theory? Innovation is the most critical type of activities to push the human world forward, and innovation is always a hot topic when searching innovation, it comes out more than 100 million relevant results. However, the majority of innovation efforts fail to reach expectation. Here is an interesting debate: Do you agree, that an ounce of practice is better than the tons of theory when comes to the innovation?

Employee Satisfaction or Customer Satisfaction : What's more Important? The purpose of business is to create a customer, but the brand of business is to satisfy customer, employee and shareholders, here is another Chicken-Egg Debate: Employee Satisfaction (ES) or Customer Satisfaction (CS): what’s more important?

Process vs. Data: Which Comes First? Data is like the life blood of business, processes are like body functions, made up of steps that convert inputs to outputs. process management is to manage known from the flow. Process vs. Data, which one should come first?

Poor Leadership, Poor Followership: Which Comes First? There are numerous leadership debates to explore the leadership fundamentals: Are leaders suppose to be good people or bad people? Poor leadership or poor followership: which comes first? What are the characteristics of poor leaders -poor character, low EQ, tremendous egos, bad

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify your voice, deepen your digital footprints, and match your way for human progression.

A Sociologist’s Mind: How to Manage Changes Effectively in Broader Scope

11:05 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Sociology brings much more depth to our knowledge with interdisciplinary understanding about human society.

Sociology is the study of human interaction, usually within the context of organized groups, communities, or "societies." It is the systematic study of human society, especially present-day societies. Sociologists study the organization, institutions, and development of societies, with a particular interest in identifying causes of the changing relationships among individuals and groups. Sociologists have a different language, but does that language offer any substance not offered by the other disciplines? And does a sociologist’s mind help to manage change more effectively in a broader scope?

Change Management is about breaking the old habit, and cultivate the new one: It takes a lot of habit-breaking exercises – the act of looking at all the different elements that affect a particular behavior, is very useful. We define most societies by shared patterns of beliefs, attitudes, and actions, but that sounds a lot like the substance of culture. Psychology, politics, literature and, even, economics have models of culture. The cultural system would include everything that has to do with how they "informally" interrelate and interact, such as language, music, literature, the way we greet each other, the way we were raised. The best we can individually do is to start breaking chains of habitual perceiving, thinking, willing, and feeling and cultivate the digital mindsets which lead to changes and innovation.

Managing change is about being aware of specific groups (smaller societies) and how their interests are impacted. Society is loosely defined as the web of cultures within a geographical location. It is loosely defined since there is a constant cultural diffusion of traits with nearby societies. So, boundaries between societies are never clear. Acknowledging the ambiguity of a theoretical term does not invalidate the concept because that's what society is; a concept. Saying that there's a rhetorical disconnect because you can't define "society" is moot -- that's not how social science works. Sociology is an epistemology to study that concept. Thus, you define society as it applies in context to your argument. And as a matter of principle. Community' is one of those words that feels good: it is good 'to have a community,' 'to be in a community.' And 'community' feels good because of the meanings which the word conveys, all of them promising pleasures, and more often than not the kind of pleasures which we would like to experience but seem to miss. Society is an organization that belongs to us and the way to change it is to modify our individual, group, and collective practices so that they facilitate both the development of our fellow citizens and the functioning of our collectivity.

Sociology brings much more depth to our knowledge with interdisciplinary understanding about human society. Artificial “boundaries” between the disciplines (“sciences”) are the actual issue in modern society because often the physical boundaries are blurring. We do need to glue back together all of the disciplines, both “hard” and “soft” in order to understand the world as a whole. With such in-depth understanding, we can cover present chasms (“boundaries”) – leaving nothing “outside of the scope” of scientific inquiries. From sociology perspective, understanding that societies are organizations helps clarify many of the terms we use daily: citizen, freedom, liberty and even your favorite word system. Societies are organizations, societies belong to us, both through our actions and the delegation process, societies manage. Of course, since each society is different, societies will use the practice that is base suited to them. From this information, we can identify individual, group and collective best practices that we can then choose to implement in our own societies, with the goal to advance human society systematically.

Either at an organizational level or societal level, change is a journey, and umbrella term to encompasses extensive planning, outreach, culture-cognition, communications, discovery of concerns / objections / potential points of failure, addressing fears and resistance, developing a shared vision, communicating valid and compelling reasons for cooperation, recognizing sacrifice and incremental success, measuring outcomes in a shared and mutually understood and agreed upon fashion, being able to declare an end-point and successful conclusion -A sociologist mind has an interdisciplinary understanding and in-depth knowledge about business and society in order to manage change and amplify its impact with intensity and multiplicity.

Intuition vs. Creativity

11:02 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Intuition is more about “gut feeling,” and creativity is about “thinking out-of-box.”

The word intuition comes from Latin verb intueri which is usually translated as to look inside or to contemplate. According to the online dictionary, it is "the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning."Creativity is a person’s innate ability to create novel ideas. Creativity is as much defined by the problem as by the capacity of the individual to connect things to resolve that problem in new and sometimes unexpected ways. What are the further correlations between creativity and intuition?

Intuition is about “thinking fast”; and to be creative, you need to be conscious and curious about surroundings. Intuition is thus often conceived as a kind of inner perception, sometimes regarded as lucidity or understanding. Many may think intuition is opposite to logic, but more precisely, an intuitive mind is a complementary thinking process to rational thinking. So intuition is the quality or ability to have such direct perception or quick insight. It’s a subconscious mode of evaluation that can help better understanding the so-called "reality," in which we operate, maximizing our engagement with the broader and deeper aspects of our mind and our experience. Creativity is a combination of something currently non-existent, thoughts, acts and with or without constraints. To be creative, you need to be conscious, curious about things that surround you. To be conscious is to be aware and engaged with both the inner world of thought, feeling, choice, and the exterior world of experience and relationship. The interaction between these two parts of our existence is the home of our creativity.

Intuition is more about “gut feeling,” and creativity is about “thinking-out-of-the-box”: Intuition or being intuitive is when you have a gut feeling about something. It is when there isn’t an exact answer to the puzzle because you don’t have all the pieces. Chaos needs to be navigated by intuition. Intuition is also called gut-feeling; because it seems to have got to do something with the gut. Creativity is a result of living in your intuitive space: It is an action or a reaction to the world, from that place, it has no fear or traditions. It's not only about trying to "think outside the box," but an intuitive expression and alternative path that takes you wherever it needs to go, without boundaries. The fear or uneasiness is only the ego getting in the way. On the broadest level, creativity is embodied in the act of creating a self, through narrative, and this is the most fundamental creative effort we make. The big issue is that intuition needs some kind of catalyst - we need to be provoked to make our intuition work. Sometimes that can be as easy as asking a right-brain-oriented question. Intuition should be taken as a new insight, a new idea, a new angle, but must be backed with sound reasoning in the end before putting it into action. In this regard, intuition and creativity are converged.

Intuition is a deeper sense, and creativity is an innate process: The research suggests that intuition, despite its flaws, is integral to our thinking. Intuition is a deeper sense which gets activated only if we are aligned with nature and the present. Some say it helps us to make connections between events to understand a chaotic world, and others suggest it's necessary for us because we must have some immediate perception of events. Creativity is an innate process to create novel ideas. There’s a critical link between creativity and intuition. An intuitive mind has the strength and the willpower to follow the courageous heart, and thus, having the better chance to be creative, and creativity is more a process like flow. It starts somewhere, it is thought over, it is brought into relation and it is worked out; a process with a seemingly beginning and end. Creativity plays its part in all the steps.

When you are courageous enough to follow the gut and curious enough to understand the surroundings, you learn how to liberate the imagination, unlock creativity, and come up with a new approach to the world. So, every person has the ability to be creative, just tearing down the mental barriers they have and tapping in their inherent abilities and enlighten the intuitive wisdom.

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 12/25/2015 to Celebrate Holidays

11:15 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

Holidays is not just the time to open the gift, but also the time to open the mind.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog - to celebrate the holiday season.

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 12/25/2015

Digital Master Holiday Intense-Tuning: The Future of Digital Organization: It is almost the end of the year, many start to read their tea leaf or crystal balls, what is the future trend of technology and business? Digitalization now opens the new chapter of innovation, it connects silos across walls, seas, mountains, and the planet, as the notion of “digitalization” is now affecting all aspects of business operations from within and around business ecosystem, woven into the DNA of business, to customer engagement, business models and processes, and no industry is exempt. It also raises questions about leadership, strategy, culture, talent management and almost everything else. So How to run a high-effective and high-mature digital organization with the very nature of digital “persona” and amplified digital influence? From an organizational development perspective, what would be the digital dimensions to harness its unique strength and styles? And how to find tune a digital master in the upcoming new year?

Three “Rigidities” to Avoid in Innovation Management Innovations at the digital era are coming at seemingly much fast space, more changes and more potential disruptions, and therefore, innovation management also becomes more complex and dynamic, so what are the potential barriers to stop people from being creative, and how to manage innovation more effectively?

CIO’s Digital Agenda XVIII: The Pitfalls to Avoid in Digital Transformation: Digital transformation is a thorny journey, there are many roadblocks on the way, and numerous pitfalls lead to the failure, so how to identify and avoid them in order to drive digital transformation effortlessly?

Three Questions to Assess an Employee’s "Digital Fitness": Digital workforce is multigenerational, multicultural, multitasking and multi-devicing; digital workplace is more flexible and productive, propelled by technology to affect where we work, how we work and at what time we choose to work. However, it doesn’t mean you are perfectly fit in because you can play the latest digital gadgets, or you are an active user at multiple social platforms. So how to assess an employee’s digital fitness via inquiries?

Synthesizing Leadership : Digital is about changes, closer to reality is that 'change' is continuously happening in such a dynamic environment of a company. The desires of stakeholders, clients and employees are evolving naturally, not to mention that many of organizations today are facing a more radical digital transformation, and some of them are at the inflection point to radical digital. Businesses need to recognize the change and help leaders meet the challenge via business savviness and agility. Improvisation, fact finding, analysis and synthesis, trial and error, all are necessary ingredients of leadership. In particular, synthesis becomes an important element in digital leadership due to the "VUCA" characteristics of digital, Here are three perspectives of synthesizing leadership.

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

Holiday Dots Connection: Sympathy vs. Empathy

11:12 PM Pearl Zhu 2 comments

Sympathy is an emotional attachment, and empathy is an Emotional Intelligence.

Once again, it is the holiday season and it’s almost the end of the year, it is not just the time to spoil your appetite, but also the moment to open your mind, and connect more dots to discover the new meaning of holidays - Are you sympathetic to give more to others, or are you empathetic to understand better of the world? Are you compassionate about many man-made disasters; or are you passionate to overcome the challenges facing human society? What’s the further dot-connection between sympathy and empathy?

Sympathy vs. Empathy: Sympathy derives from Latin and Greek words meaning 'having a fellow feeling. The term empathy originated in psychology and has now come to mean the ability to imagine or project oneself into another person's position and experience all the sensations involved in that position. Both empathy and sympathy are feelings concerning other people. Sympathy is literally 'feeling with' - compassion for or commiseration with another person. Empathy, by contrast, is literally 'feeling into' - the ability to project one's personality into another person and more fully understand that person. (Dictionary.com).

Sympathy is an emotional attachment, and empathy is an Emotional Intelligence: Sympathy is to feel sorry about other’s unfortune. Empathy is about thinking as if you were in the other party's position. Sympathy is an emotional connection and Empathy as evidence of emotional intelligence. Someone in the throes of a strong emotion is simply unable to hear rational arguments or respond logically. The only way to move them from the heart to the rational mind is to use empathy to disarm their emotion. When people receive empathy, they truly feel heard and they can learn to listen more proactively and respond with empathy. It takes effort and we have to find our own words and our own way of saying them and become more focused on problem-solving.

Sympathy touches the heart, and empathy connects the minds. Sympathy feeds the hunger, and improve the bottom line of human society. Empathy fulfills the minds to raise the top line of human potentials. Be grateful to understand others and be understood. Sympathy makes the world caring, and empathy makes the world equal. When someone is sharing a thought with you, do you focus on what’s been told contextually and listen OBJECTIVELY with an open heart and mind. Empathy means using the right language with the right people. "Nothing in the world, in business or in life, is black and white. It could be hinting at another important skill for great leaders, which is respecting other people as if you were in their position. One can empathize with someone else without agreeing with their perspective. However, if we send out a feeling of respect towards others, we listen more selectively.

Sympathy is a positive feeling to help others with compassion. Empathy is an ultimate level of human cognition of being wise -nonjudgmental, active listening and balancing between tolerance and respect to achieve that. Sympathy shows the willing to give and support, and empathy is the path and practice to convey the human wisdom. Once a person understands that we all have different lenses, perceptions in the way we look at the world, it becomes easier to open your heart to another person and have a "soul to soul" conversation with RESPECT. It does take a lot of practice and is achievable. So sympathy reflects the holiday spirit, and empathy lifts up the holiday spirit and brings the new perspective for the upcoming new year.

Digital Master Holiday Intense Tuning Chap 3: Five Points of Digital Strategy

11:10 PM Pearl Zhu 1 comment

The strategy is the roadmap to navigate through the business's digital journey.

The strategy is the art of designing a way of navigating and effectively utilizing available resources to attain a clearly defined objective. However, in many business contexts, the word strategy is demotivating. Some organizations have strategy meetings days and weeks only to go around in circles. Now businesses step deeper and deeper into the digital era, in which everything is touched by digital technologies, but how do they put effort on reshaping the digital version of corporation strategy?

Digital TouchPoint: The traditional strategy is the view via narrow “frame,” but digital strategy view is broader to oversee business ecosystem.The traditional strategy-execution are linear steps, but digital strategy execution is an iterative continuum. Thus, the radical digital strategy shall not only put emphasis on defining how to take advantage of digital technologies, but also refine the broader digital effects, which include culture factor, agility trait, and business maturity. Digital strategy includes all kinds of digital touch points that help businesses get to the strategic objectives in a more structural, adaptive and cooperative way.

Digital Focal Point: One of the important aspects in strategy making is to make choices, and set priorities to maximize the business benefits. These can range from an enterprise focus, which considers the broader opportunities and risks that digital can bring in. So it also requires the new focal point of strategy such as, people centricity (human touch) will become more central to competitive advantage; cross-functional collaborations multiply and enforce the effectiveness of strategy execution, and organizational structure is becoming flatter. Further, a new strategy implies a lot of change and hence capital investments. It is not like you can change a strategy at no cost. Therefore, one has to be very careful before coming up with the suitable strategy, strong focus, and commitment. Things will change here and there along the way, indeed as to the choice of routes to the destination.

Digital Inflection Point: Many organizations are at the inflection point for digital transformation, from strategy perspective, it means digital strategy need to look holistically into the business ecosystem and try to answer the big WHY- is it critical for such digital paradigm shift; WHAT are current business problems need to be solved, and HOW - to set guidelines to enable changes, and HOW MANY - measuring the right things before measuring them right.

Digital Decision Point: Decision points are connecting strategy making and strategy execution. A combination of internal and external factors needs to be considered to achieve a winning digital strategy. You have to think about people, products, customers, competitors, etc. Due to the “VUCA” digital characteristics, having the right information to make the right decisions at the right time by the right people is simply one of the most challenging management tasks facing in digital organizations.

Digital Practice Point: Digital strategy management practices need to be proactive, not reactive. A digital strategy is just as much about knowing what you will not do as it is about knowing what you will do. Stay within what you will do in the strategic forum, but change some priorities or weight of effort in the short term, be opportunistic about emerging event, and you will reach your goal. So it is not about the plan; rather, it is about the planning process that you will go through continuously as you implement the strategy. Digital strategy is more dynamic, inclusive and informative. And digital strategy needs to be shifted from top-down to operational inclusion, from linear, static to cascading continuum, and from inside-out, operation focus to outside-in customer centricity, getting more perspectives about the future, and making digital strategy more future proof.

Digital Master Tuning XX: Is Digital Strategy “Anti-Strategy”? In many contexts, the word strategy is demotivating. Some organizations have strategy meetings days and weeks only to go around in circles. The traditional strategy is more like a “shelf-ware” - the document put on the shelf, instead of the shared guide to compass the business transformation journey. What are the essential elements and unique styles of digital strategy to groom a Digital Master? And how to rejuvenate the fresh strategic thinking and crafting, is digital strategy “anti-strategy”?

Digital Master Tuning XXXXVIII: How to Make Strategy Work under Uncertainty. VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) is digital new normal, as complexity and uncertainty increasing, the connection between any single individual organization’s strategy, and their tactical plans and actions can become diluted and disconnected. How to craft a good strategy, and make strategy executable under such uncertainty and unpredictability in order to transform the business into the Digital Master?

Digital Master Tuning #55: How to Mind the Gap between Strategy and Execution? As companies around the world transform themselves into digital business that is based on ‎information, innovation, and intelligence, their ability to well align the strategy and execution, for delivering the solid result; their capability to explore intangible assets (leadership, culture, innovation, knowledge etc) has become far more decisive than their ‎ability to invest in and manage physical assets.

Digital Master Tuning #66: Three Perspectives in Strategy Planning. Today’s businesses are over-complicated and hyper-connected, hence, strategy planning also becomes a more challenging and complex scenario. Who should participate strategy making, how are you anticipating and preparing for the road ahead, without anticipation, any strategy you develop is flawed by design?

Digital Master Tuning #75: How to Align Digital Vision with Strategy? In many organizations, vision is just a statement written on the wall and strategy is the set of documents put on the shelf. Usually, VISION is left as a corporate requirement, and strategy is not broadly understood. Metaphorically, vision is your destination, and strategy is like a GPS, to navigate you through. So first things first, how to align digital vision with strategy and keep the end in mind to business your business as a Digital Master?

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