Digital Transformation and Impact on Management Consulting

Key insights of the webinar on 5th December 2020 ,

1. Customer need to be the center of digital transformation with technology as an enabler

2. However harder you push the system will push back

3. We need to move from a control culture to trust-based culture when building and managing the teams

4. Digital transformation is a multi-year journey and not a project.

5. Continuous learning and Adapting will be key to success in the digital era.

In the words of John Hagel, a very well respected Management Consultant from Deloitte

“All of these amazing digital technologies are coming together to create a world of mounting performance pressure for all of us, one where the performance pressure will continue to grow and expand on a global basis for the foreseeable future, rather than plateau and recede this pressure is not going away. Far from it. It will continue to intensify”

It brings two kinds of possible narratives

1. Threat based narratives. Things are going to be bad doom and gloom

2. Opportunity based narrative. Where Future environment will be one where it helps all of us to achieve much more of our potential - John Hagel calls this as Expanded Opportunity.

The challenges posed by a digitally transformed and interconnected world, the rising competition will force individuals and companies to hone their capabilities or risk losing their space and go into irrelevancy.

On the other hand modern means of production, knowledge are available readily. Today we all have over many years of experience accumulated assets and capabilities that we can leverage on and the resultant potential will be huge

We can sum it up as

accessible technologies + connectedness + accessible knowledge = growing individual potential

We are changing from the world of Information asymmetry to Inform parity?

For e.g 20 years when we visit the Doctor, He diagnoses and advises the medicines and we just follow the advice.

But today before visiting the Doctor, We research our symptoms, understand issues and also preferences. We explain our problems in detail and also our preferences. When the doctor prescribes medicines we want to know why we are taking this and if need be ask him for certain specific needs of ours.

With so much research and data available for consumption Its important for Doctors to include the patient's analysis as part of their diagnosis while still leveraging his Expertise to treat us.

This is a simple example. It applies across industries and where customers understand their business and want the consultants to listen to them, provide solutions personalized to their organization.

Customer collaboration and perspective-taking will be key to success in the digital era.

In the world of Information, parity Value is not delivered by one side but co-created through conversation

How does management consultant can look at these changes and leverage digital

1. Look beyond your core customers. There are large customers who don't access to expertise

2. Standardize offerings but deliver a personalized experience. Over the years of accumulated experience, each of us has built assets of knowledge. Standardizing them in the form of solution and still delivering a personalized experience will have a great impact

3. Understanding and Leveraging technology are Key. However, the fundamental of problem-solving and value creation is a priority

4. Think beyond Engagement Costs/duration to no of possible engagements

Why Transformation happens in industries we categorize in to

1. Declining Profits

2. Rapid Technology Changes

3. Underperforming industries

4. Structural change in the industry

5. Strategic preemptive efforts by visionary leaders

6. sudden crisis like covid

Many times its combination of more than 1 factor causes the industry to transform.

More information on this can be found here or the Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yvu6GSnycg&t=2s)

However, transformation is all fundamentally rethinking how the value is created and captured by the organization and its, in general, multiple-year journey with milestones rather than a solution implementation.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation is a strategic approach to build Competitive Advantage leveraging Digital Technologies and Competitive advantage is when the organization realizes

1. Growth in Revenue

2. Bringing down the costs

3. Improve the product Quality

4. Expansion into new Markets

5. Many others

While large organizations have resources at their disposal to undertake this digital transformation journey, MSME who has ambitions and growth doesn't enjoy such luxury. They start small and, their day to day challenges force them to stay small with minimal growth. In my view, Only when they are able to think out of this vicious circle they can realize their true potential and grow.

1. The Challenges in MSMEs today to transform are

2. Limited interaction between providers and seekers

3. Minimal knowledge about upcoming technologies

4. Lack of Coherent Strategies

5. Lack of access to Experts

nicheBrains with a mission to connect MSMEs in Manufacturing sectors across India with global digital transformation Experts. We want to break the traditional barriers of connection and build credibility, trust, provide access, and expanding new opportunities .nicheBrains help to build new capabilities while ensuring price, payment, and governances and help you to become thought leaders for the customer who matters to you.

Thank you Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI) for the webinar to share our perspectives on Digital Transformation both from the Industry and Consultant point of view. It was a great pleasure to organize the webinar through nicheBrains( www.nicheBrains.com). Thank you very much Francisco Santolo Enrico Pana for sharing your experience and in-depth knowledge on the disruptive forces in play.