Unlock Operational Efficiency with a best-in-class Operational Model

Transcript

Hello to this session is about how to unlock operational efficiency with the best in class operating model and I am Quentin de Rome, one of your presenter. I am a practice lead in Adobe Digital Strategy Group. I help our customers becoming experienced businesses doing more with their digital investments and Moses will be joining me for the presentation. Hello everyone, my name is Moses. I’m a principal digital strategist here at Adobe. My focus area here is organizational design and change and what that means for our customers is I help them address any issues within the organization that might prevent them or limit them from realizing the full benefit of their technology investment. We’re going to be available at the end of the session today to answer any questions, so please feel free to post questions throughout the session. Over to you Quentin. Very good, let’s get started. So at Adobe we are about changing the world through digital experiences. We believe that every business has to be an expense business. Virtually every single business today is transforming to become more data driven, more customer centric and what we observe at most of our customers is something which we went through ourselves as we transform from being a company sending a series of the post to becoming a fully digital business that delivers most of our services over digital. So what does that mean to become an expense business? It’s about making customer management management a key topic for the C suite. It’s about recognizing the importance that today digital is more than just smart tech. It’s about delivering a very broad range of experiences that enable your business and that deliver value. So what we want to show you today is how we went through that journey ourselves and explain how we can give everyone creative to brands to experience teams all the tools and capabilities they need to become expense businesses. So what I propose we do, let’s get started and let me explain a bit the journey we went through ourselves, what we’ve observed at our customers and then most of this will explain in a bit more detail what does it take to become an expense business when it comes to organization. At Adobe the first recognition is that this is entirely driven by data and is the ability to do more with data across the enterprise and bring teams to work together to make the most of what the data has to offer. And as we started to transform what we observed was that typical challenges at Adobe that are very dissimilar to what we’re observing at customers revolve around challenges around technology stacks being fragmented as a result of companies having grown inorganically or even sometimes organically but are telling you consistent martech and companies end up having a very complex backend systems and what we find is that that leads to a significant level of complexity in the way you run operations in the way people work and that creates a lot of inefficiencies and obviously a very high TCO when it comes to running your digital martech areas. We also find that like ourselves a few years ago most customers are facing a very complex data landscape and as a result because they don’t have the right data to build a picture of their customers it is actually almost impossible to get an accurate view of customers and building what we call the 360 view and because they don’t have this 360 view they cannot activate the experience they cannot create a very effective marketing campaigns to engage their customers or even digital experiences that engage customers and deliver value. Looking again across some of the different challenges what we find is that the ability to measure what digital does for you is critical and very often companies are not able to do so simply because they don’t have the tools they don’t have the data but they don’t have a consistent way of measuring they don’t have the right metrics and as a result this makes it very difficult across a company to have a consistent understanding of what does digital do, how to look at conversion for instance and down the line it also makes it very difficult to justify any investment in digital simply because we can’t measure the value history bringing. And then lastly on the last point is about siloed teams working in isolation from one another using different data sets, talking different language and setting different priorities and as a result what we find is that the ability to break through silo by getting teams to work with similar data sets using a similar language is going to be critical to bring marketing, data, technology together so they can align on single objectives and so all of these challenges that we saw ourselves we find them very common at our customers today. If we look into how did we Adobe overcome these challenges we came up with other times something that we call the data driven operating model. It’s a new way of working where we align and drive the business towards strategic objectives across the customer journey to ensure continuous growth. It’s about bringing everyone on the same page and if you look into D-dom as we call it there are three pillars one is about data it’s about creating a single source of truth for metrics across the business. It’s about KPIs it’s about aligning the key stage of each customer journey and it’s about creating accountability in the business where we have VP level accountability for every stage of the journey so actions can be followed through. D-dom has been so far a reasonable success for us because it was sponsored from the highest level of leadership at Adobe and it was evangelized across all teams so we could drive adoption and success. If we look into the detail of what we have behind each of these pillars the first one is data. So data is the foundation of D-dom and it’s perhaps one of the most complex area to look into. Data is here in that case it’s about the ability to aggregate data from multiple different sources from multiple different systems and having everything accessible in one place and that’s a journey that took us quite some time to achieve and as you can see here it’s about not only about Adobe data but it’s about putting data together that comes from many different tools and the ability to bring these together so we can drive insights. Then it’s about making this data available in real-time dashboard and the real-time dashboard is actually going to act as a single source of the truth which is very important because for us everyone is looking at the same data in order to make decisions so that is absolutely key. And then lastly it’s about evangelizing the data, the insight across the organization and putting in place a governance where data is becoming democratized and where everyone can understand what the data means and how we can use the data to drive business growth. For us at Adobe one of the key objective was to develop the single source of the truth accessible across users across the entire companies. If you look at the second pillar now which is about the KPI side of things and the measurement, KPIs are going absolutely critical to drive accountability and when combined with a single source of truth we found that that was actually a winning recipe. So when we look at what it means in practice it’s about getting a clear understanding of your journeys so whatever they are across your industries but from discovery to renewal from the early stage of engaging a customer, enabling customers to discover the brand all the way to building loyalty. Then it’s about really trying to understand what we want to achieve, what does matter at every stage and again depending on where you are in an industry there’s going to be a very different focus at every single stage but each of these KPIs should have an owner and at Adobe senior accountability for each of these metrics is critical and as you can see here all VPs are actually accountable for ensuring that each of these metrics are being monitored and this is happening with the support of a center of excellence on marketing and customer insight team where actually process the data, run the reports, do the work from data to insights so they can communicate to our organization and this is based on one source of the truth which is ability to aggregate all of these insights across customer journey in real-time dashboards. So it all looks very simple when showing this slide but the key points really are clearly identified journeys with metrics, with senior accountability, ability to drive data driven decision making across all touch points across your organization and making sure this is powered by one source of the truth so everyone looks at the same data speaks the same language. Now if we look into the next pillar of our transformation we look at organization structures and here again there is no one size fits all. The idea is to understand that CoE’s center of excellence can be a good model to help you scale digital capabilities. In our case at Adobe we recognize that there’s not a single model of Siri. Every company has to find the right model depending on where they are in the journey based on their capabilities and their maturity based on their industry as well. So here that slide quite simply shows that there can be different models between something highly centralized to something more governance. So highly centralized in order to drive scalability for more native business that is acquiring digital teams or you could go all the way down to more governance series where typically global brands or multiple business units would be running their own digital capabilities working with a CoE. Both models are pros and cons and I think it’s for every single business to figure out what works for them and where do we see value. So what have we learned in this journey being Adobe and looking back at becoming a customer centric data driven business. So D-DOM for us has been a real catalyst for transformation and it’s become a philosophy in terms of how we work. So some of the key findings are it’s about mindset, data and people. By mindset what do we mean? It’s about changing the way the mindset and the way people work. It’s about going beyond the silos and it’s about using data as a way of connecting people. It’s about creating a strong governance and culture driven from the top which is going to be implemented by weekly meetings, weekly reviews with all the key stakeholders breaking everyone on the same page and making sure everyone works towards similar objectives. It’s about data is transforming the way you do marketing. Marketing becomes a 24-7 discipline and is data driven and it’s about creating this always on ecosystem underpinned by one source of the truth and driven by data democratization and with a strong cultural optimization. It’s about testing your experience, making sure it resonates with customers that it hits the mark and delivers value for you and your customers. Then lastly from a people point of view, well it’s about changing the way people work as we said but typically it’s about putting the data analyst at the center of the discussion. It’s about rescuing your people, making sure that any business owner is fluent in data, that you continuously optimize business processes with data scientists, with analyst help so everyone becomes fluent with data. So this is Adobe’s journey and what I will do now, I will pass on to Moses who can explain in more detail how is that working in practice with your customers. Moses I’ll go to you. Thank you Quentin. So what I’m going to talk about now is how we can support our customers through periods of change. So the issues and the topics that were raised by Quentin are reasonably ubiquitous across many clients and across many industries in that as an ambition, as a future state, there is a reasonable consensus that this is the right direction to move in. That said, the act of change and transforming an organization is absolutely unique to each business. Each has their own DNA, each has their own history and each was born in a specific context and climate. I’ve had the privilege of working in digital for the last 20 years and over those 20 years I’ve seen transformation and change focus on different areas. So going back to the early part of my career when organizations talked about transformation, they specifically talked about the digitization of processes and the automization of processes and that means trying to find operational efficiencies by moving analog processes onto digital platforms. However, as time moved on and new entrants came into the market, smaller nimble organizations, large businesses realized that they had to address their core business proposition as well in order to compete. Moving on again, as these new propositions took hold, businesses understood that perhaps they don’t have the right skills and capabilities to be able to deliver to the customer experience or the customer promise and so there was a big process of bringing the right people and into the right roles. And then moving on to more recent histories, there’s been an increased focus on how teams work together as collaboration and a unified approach to success has become more and more important and that references the issues that Quentin raised a few moments ago around a single set of KPIs that aligned to business-led objectives. These days, the biggest lever of change that we are hearing about from our clients is actually the systems and the context that exist in organizations, how all of these previous stages of transformation exist. So now we’re looking at organizational design, how are businesses built from the ground up and how can we improve the way that they are structured so that they can realize the maximum benefit from their transformation and technology investment. So if we look at the data and find where do organizations really come up against issues, what are the biggest hurdles for successful transformation? If we’re looking specifically at technology adoption, we’re seeing that lack of skills, lack of the right people in the right places and the lack of management buy-in. So management not really kind of understanding the case for change, not leading into the change tend to be the biggest barriers to successful transformation. And when we’re looking at issues that are getting in the way, 42% of issues do relate to technology, but that is only a smaller element compared to 54% for organizational structures and 47% around governance. So what we’re seeing here is that although technology is a really important enabler of change, it’s the systems and the environment that they exist in that tend to be the biggest obstacle to realizing the benefit. And one way in which we can start to move organizations forward is really by engaging employees. So bringing people into the process, trying to build an awareness of why there is change in the first place. What is the context for change and what does it mean for them individually? And once they understand what it means for them, giving them the knowledge and the environment and the reinforcement to work in different ways. And those organizations that have highly engaged employees tend to get much greater operating margin. They have a high satisfaction scores across their employees and a lower turnover. And that’s really important now as the importance for holding knowledge and skills and capabilities within an organization becomes more critical. So at Adobe, we can address many issues related to organizational design. But I think just to make it real, it’s worth just calling out some of the more frequent issues that we talk to our customers about. Firstly, whenever there is a large technology investment, there is a job of making the case for change to be made. So those people who are in leadership roles have to understand. What is the value of embarking on this change? And also, where is the organization going to go ultimately? And another issue that we can address is an organization to have difficulty. Driving adoption of new processes, new ways of working, we can go in there and help address some of these issues before the impact is felt. And in other cases, there are customers who have bought technology solutions from us, have had them enabled, but they are just still not seeing the value of that investment because the adoption just isn’t there. We can come in and diagnose what is getting in the way and help move them past this little speed bump in the road and onto much greater and fuller adoption of our solutions. So one of the ways that we do this is really moving on from a design thinking approach, which looks specifically at the business value of the change, how technically feasible it is to be able to actually apply this change in the real world, but also how desirable is this change for our people? Now, design thinking is incredibly useful to help us look at a problem from multiple perspectives. But when we’re looking at things like organizational design, we have to be able to go wherever there might be an issue to address. And that means being able to look beyond these three lenses and potentially going into other areas like governance and finance and commercial and human resources. If those areas of the business can unlock more value, that is where we should go. So there’s taking a much more curious and a much more question and inquiry led approach to change and strategy. So when we talk about a holistic approach to change, what are we really talking about? Well, for us, it’s looking at things through the lens of your people, your processes and your technology. So if I was to break that down further, what would that sound like? So, first of all, working with customers to really be able to bring a vision to life. Organizations carry a lot of people with them, and we have to consider what we are trying to do and what we are trying to communicate in the language of those people who are working with us and really be talking to the concerns that people have around change. So one of the things that we really help our customers do is express a vision in language and in terms that their employees really understand and resonate. Then, of course, there is leadership alignment to making sure that the organization speaks with a single voice and is able to role model the change that it wants to see in the organization. And then stakeholder engagement, we need to be able to mobilize those people who are going to be the real champions of change and who are going to be really leading on the ground. And, of course, communication, being able to communicate with our people, as I said earlier, in the language and in terms that are really meaningful to them. And that often means thinking about where that communication is coming from, whether it’s coming from senior leadership, from people managers or outside voices as well. And, of course, learning and enablement. There is a job of being able to tool our people with the knowledge and the ability to do their jobs in a way that will support the future ambitions of the organization. And digital experience capabilities, ultimately, our people need the tools to do their jobs. And that often means letting go of old ways of doing things and old tools and embracing new technologies and new solutions that enable employees to do their jobs in a way that we need them. So everything that I’ve spoken about so far is reasonably high level and reasonably theoretical. So I want to just bring it down to something that’s quite practical and talk about how we apply organizational design and change to a real project. So here we have an example of some of the problems that we would seek to address for one of our customers. And in this situation, we have a customer who is about to roll out a enterprise-wide technology stack. So the risk here is a lot of disruption. So if they get something wrong or if they focus their efforts in the wrong place, it will be an enormous investment to make and potentially the disruption will be felt across the business. So there’s a few things that they need to be satisfied about and comfortable with before they can proceed. So the first area is around value realization. And when we talk about value realization, we’re asking the question, are you doing the right things? So are you, is your strategy sound? Are the things that you’re planning to do really going to be able to deliver against the strategic objectives that you’ve set at a very high level? And the way that we do that is that we look at the plan, the strategy for deploying this technology, and we ask ourselves, is this technology really going to benefit in any way? The customer’s experience. So is this delivering against our customer promise? Is it going to be able to help us deliver more than we can today for our customers? The second one is looking at commercial feasibility. Although this might be really desirable by our customers, will it ultimately lead to a greater return on investment for the organization? Is this going to be able to drive more profit, more revenue or reduce costs? Don’t we have technical complexity? Every organization exists in a legacy system. There is no organization that is absolutely greenfield. We have to work with all the systems that have been built up over the years. So is our proposal, is our plan technically feasible? Can we deliver it within the time scale that we need to? And lastly, we’re looking at organizational readiness. How ready is the organization to adopt these new technologies, to adopt new processes, to adopt new ways of working? And that helps us prioritize a rollout plan based on these four factors. And then we look at organizational impact. And what we’re trying to do there is trying to identify issues that fit outside of technology that will have a bearing on our ability to deliver successful outcomes. So we’re looking at the organization basically anywhere else other than technology. And we will look specifically at how teams work. Does this new technology investment or does this new technology present new ways of working? Are people going to have to work with one another in new ways that they might not be familiar with? Are there new processes that will need to be introduced beyond what we have today? Are we going to have to take away existing processes and replace them with new ones? And what disruption might that cause? And of course, there’s governance. How do we make decisions? And are we able to make decisions today in the way that we need to in the future? And if not, what needs to change? And lastly, we look at change management. And that is how do we take our employees through a change journey? And we use five stages. The firstly is awareness. Are your employees aware of why you’re doing this in the first place? And if they are, do they desire the change? Do they see what’s in it for them? If they see it, what’s in it for them? Do they have the knowledge to be able to work and operate in a different way? Again, if they do, do they have the organizational environment that supports that way of work? So do they have access to the tools they need to adopt this new way of working? And of course, if all of those are in place, are we constantly reinforcing those behaviors? So they go from being something new to something that really feels like business as usual. And these are just an example of some of the things that we might deliver at the end of a project like this. So we would provide some outputs around value drivers. So a definition of the business objectives and how they align to the strategies you’re looking to deploy. Understanding also how KPIs that lead individual teams all feed up to a single set of business objectives. And of course, we are able to help you prioritize what capabilities to deploy in what order. As far as organizational impact goes, we can perform a risk assessment. We can provide a register of all the various issues that might have an impact on the successful outcome. We can look at it through a lens of time. So how long might it be before this risk? The impact of this risk is felt. And also how significant will the impact be as well? We can provide some personas around internal stakeholders. So you understand the differing needs across your organization. And of course, we can provide recommendations around how you go about mitigating this risk so you can eliminate it altogether. And if you can’t eliminate it altogether, how you can mitigate the impact. So it’s not so felt. And with change management, we can provide high level change plans, or we can go into very, very deep planning cycle around a specific change that an organization has prioritized or is looking to do immediately. Thank you very much for joining us today. Quentin and I are now available to answer any questions that you’ve posted throughout the session.