- [Jessica] Hello and thanks for joining us
for another Q&A Friday,
a series where we chat about issues
facing manufacturing companies in the world of industry 4.0.
I'm Jessica Vodden, a team member here at Mountain Point,
and I'm joined by Andrew Rieser,
our president and co-founder.
Hey Andrew.
- [Andrew] Hey Jess.
- [Jessica] Okay, so.
This is actually an ongoing conversation
that we've kind of launched a couple of weeks ago
where we are breaking down the 10 best practices
for managing a digital transformation project.
So, if you guys out there listening
follow along on our blog,
we recently released a 10-step guide
to managing digital transformation.
It got a lot of great feedback from a lot of you
and follow-up questions,
so we are breaking down each step of the 10 steps
and having a more robust conversation about it,
picking Andrew's brain and utilizing some of his experience
to talk through these issues.
And today we're gonna tackle
the importance of having a C-suite or a C-level champion
supporting the effort.
So, Andrew, why is that important?
- [Andrew] I think in any organization
having a strong leader and a strong set of C-suite champions
in digital transformation is key
because everybody within the organization
wants to know where the business is going,
wants to know that the transparency
and the changes that are gonna be made
to keep the business thriving,
so I think that a top-down communication in leadership
is absolutely necessary.
- [Jessica] Okay, and so,
if I'm somebody that is working in a company
and I've decided that I'm going to make this my project,
I'm gonna take this on,
I'm gonna manage this and be that champion,
what can I expect as I undertake this sort of project?
What kind of time commitment?
What do I need to be good at in order to make sure
that the project is successful?
- [Andrew] I think the sarcastic but yet real answer is,
whatever you think it's gonna be, triple it. (laughs)
Change is hard, change is difficult,
and the amount of time that needs to be invested
in these transformations
needs to demand focus of the leadership
but also the key stakeholders within the organization
that are helping drive this change as well.
So, I think it's really interesting
over the past five to 10 years,
if you look at all the different articles,
it seems like every year they're identifying
who the new C-suite champions wanna be
and coming out with new terms for that.
So it's the CEO's responsibility or it's the CTO's
and then it becomes the CIO's and then it's the CXO
and into your letter that you wanna replace for the (laughs)
the middle initial of what they're describing.
But the point being is that,
I think it's everybody's responsibility
and everybody needs to know their role in this
and ultimately I think that starts at the top.
So even within our own organization here at Mountain Point,
we are constantly evolving and changing
and it falls on me to set those expectations,
to set the vision,
and just to circle back to the original statement,
I've gotta be focused and I've got to realize,
and I have realized,
that it takes way more time and energy
than what you anticipate,
and the willingness to be in the trenches
and invest that amount of time is absolutely necessary.
- [Jessica] Right, so, I think your point about,
insert the letter here,
is really characteristic of this concept
because it touches every aspect of the business.
And so marketing is interested
in moving to an omnichannel experience
and a more automated series of pathways and funnels.
The shop floor has modernized
and they want to integrate more fully with supply chain
and order fulfillment.
So, if I'm the champion
and I have the goal of modernizing my company,
where do I start?
Do I build a team?
Do I pick a problem?
Obviously,
I've probably got a pain point that I wanna solve,
but how do I really make sure that our entire company
is focused on this issue?
- [Andrew] I think the beauty of the manufacturing space
and how this industry is evolving
is that there a plethora of pain points and opportunities
that exist within organizations today.
So when you think about the process
and the systems challenges
and all these different leaders across the C-suite
that you highlighted,
whether it be the CIO, the CMO, whomever,
they all have their own digital initiatives
that tie together to make up this whole transformation.
So I think it's whatever term you wanna use,
establishing an internal steering committee, tiger team,
to really get in alignment
across each of those different verticals
so that you're not doing this in a silo.
Which is also I think common in this space
and in business in general,
it's that folks tend to go off
and take control and ownership
of the things that they can control
and it's hard to step outside of the swim lanes.
And I think for these transformations to be successful,
everybody has to be willing to take part in it
and realize that the objective
isn't to continue in these silos and create more silos
but to get all the different departments and divisions
talking and sharing their ideas and prioritizing those
and setting those initiatives
so that the business can continuously improve.
- [Jessica] Okay.
So, what about bringing in outside help?
Is it valuable to have an external consultant or a team
to give that insight?
Or are homegrown initiatives typically more successful?
- [Andrew] I think it has to be a balance of both.
I think the value of bringing in outside support and help
helps create that focus and accountability
and lessens the finger pointing, if you will, internally,
because it's another set of eyes that brings best practices
and can share experiences of our lessons learned
and trials and tribulations of working with other companies.
So I think that is extremely valuable
in these transformation efforts.
But there also has to be
the internal homegrown accountability of it as well,
and I think balancing time across all those
is what usually proves to be difficult.
So, again, you've gotta tie it back
to making sure that the focus and time management
of setting your priorities and evolving off of those
is key to all this.
- [Jessica] Right, so it's not just hire somebody
and then hand it over to them,
it's really a collaborative process, then?
- [Andrew] Absolutely.
There's no silver bullet, there's no easy button to push.
If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
So I think the challenges that are out there
are absolutely valid
and I think that it's a team effort across the board,
internal, external,
and really approaching it holistically like that.
- [Jessica] Yep.
And, I know you and I have talked in the past
about which projects are most sort of right
for digital transformation.
So, if I'm looking to tackle my organization as a whole,
should I start with the easiest project,
the hardest project, where do I begin?
- [Andrew] What we see is
it usually falls somewhere in between.
I think that it's easy to just say,
"Oh, our problem is
we need to have customer relationship management
because in order for us to improve and solve
and make doing business with our customers better
we need to have a CRM in place."
And I think that's fine
but I also think that the expectations
around what that means
and how that will actually transform the business
sets the bar pretty low.
On the flip side of it, undertaking an ERP
and replacing your 30-year-old legacy ERP system
is extremely painful
and nobody wants to jump right into these initiatives,
with the equivalent of an open-heart surgery.
So I think that somewhere in between
and really tackling a project
that can show near-immediate value is where to begin.
- [Jessica] Awesome.
Yeah, and I think this level of focus
and really thinking through the various components
of these initiatives is really important.
And we mentioned having a partner, I think that's key.
Because the awful truth, I mean,
I've seen statistics recently estimating
that about 70% of digital transformation projects fail.
And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't take them on
but, like you said, if it were easy everybody would do it
and it would just happen,
but you have to be very intentional about going into this.
So, any final advice for somebody
who's considering watching this type of initiatives
and make sure that they beat the odds?
- [Andrew] Yeah, I think it's going into it
with eyes wide open and knowing that it's gonna be hard,
it's gonna be painful,
and it's gonna touch multiple aspects of the business.
And the people aspect of it
is probably gonna be the most difficult,
from a business process standpoint.
Business processes are easy, right?
It's identifying how you're currently doing it
and where you can improve
and identifying that gap analysis,
so you can go through those drills all day long.
You can look at your ERP system
or your systems of engagement
and refine and tweak those all day long
but ultimately you've gotta be able
to get your internal resources on board
so that they see the value
but more importantly your customers
and whoever you're doing business with
begins to reap the benefits of these changes.
'Cause that's ultimately the way that this world is going.
Like we talked about before,
customers are evolving and changing
and their expectations are changing,
so these initiatives need to drive value back to that focus.
- [Jessica] Yep.
And, you know, we've seen that when done correctly,
they can yield tremendous ROI.
And we have a couple of case studies
where people have seen
upwards of 200% return on their investment
within just a few months.
So, when done right,
they're absolutely offering a competitive edge
to companies that are able to undertake them,
but getting it right is obviously key.
And we'll talk through some of the other issues
surrounding getting it right
in future episodes in this series in the coming weeks,
so please follow along, subscribe.
For those of you out there listening,
please let us know if you have any follow-up questions
or anything that you'd like us to tackle,
you can hit us up on social media.
You can email us, call us, we're always listening
and we're here for you.
Andrew, thanks again.
- [Andrew] Thank you, Jess.