- [Jessica] Hi, and thanks for joining us
for another Q&A Friday, a regular series
where we chat about issues facing manufacturing companies
in the new world of industry 4.0.
I'm Jessica Vodden, a team member
here at Mountain Point, and today I'm joined
by Andrew Rieser, our president and co-founder.
Hey Andrew.
- [Andrew] Hey Jess, how are you?
- [Jessica] I'm doing great.
Hey, so we're kinda kicking off a new series,
where we are going to spend a few weeks talking
about the concepts related to digital transformation.
For those of you who follow our blog,
we recently put out a ten-step guide
to managing digital transformation projects.
Got a lot of great feedback on that,
and some questions, and people just kinda wanting more,
and so, we thought we'd just break down
each of the concepts in that guide
over these interviews over the next couple of weeks
and today, Andrew, I'd really like to start
by getting an overall picture of what
a digital transformation process looks like,
some of the key factors that you need to keep in mind,
and what that really means for your organization.
So, kinda give me the 10,000-foot view
of undertaking a modernization effort
in your factory or your company.
- [Andrew] Yeah, sure, so I think what's really interesting
is in the world we live in, buzz words and themes
always resonate and are all over the place
and digital transformation is absolutely one of those,
you probably can't open up your browser window
and type in a technology or change management related
search query without having digital transformation
show up at least 50 times on your screen.
So, the good news is that everybody is recognizing
that change is inevitable,
and organizations need to change
not only their people and processes,
but the technology and the encompassing data
that surrounds all that, so that's what we think of
when we think of digital transformation,
it's not just digitizing the business,
but it's taking those four pillars
of people, process, technology, and data
into consideration to get the whole business
to kinda think differently and think about how they're going
to sustain and operate for the coming decades.
- [Jessica] Yeah, and I think one of the things
that we highlight, and I actually saw a research article
on this recently, was driving digital transformation.
Obviously, you gain increased efficiency,
and you can, you know, cut cost, and do more with less,
but really, most companies that have recognized
the value of this are making these changes
with the customer in mind, right.
It's really about the customer satisfaction
and customer service goal.
So can you talk a little bit about
how some of these technology shifts
are better supporting customer service?
- [Andrew] Yeah, absolutely.
So, I think you hit the nail on the head
that all of these transformations are being driven
by the expectations and the changing
of those expectations of consumers
and you can take a look at your everyday life
and the services that you consume, everything,
from Uber to Netflix to dealing with Amazon,
and having same-day deliveries, or next-day delivery
through services like that, so I think
that in your consumer world, these types
of things are tables stakes,
and everybody has become accustomed
to this service oriented, on-demand world
of having information at your fingertips
and mobile apps to kind of drive these needs
that consumers expect
and the business world just haven't kept up with that,
so, I think that this kind of merging of B2B
and B2C is now all kind of blending together to be one,
where it's all about driving better value for your customer.
- [Jessica] Absolutely.
And so, like we said earlier, this goes beyond
a technology upgrade because if you're really shifting
the focus of your business
and almost your business model, and adopting more
of a B2C lens, that's a huge cultural shift,
and that takes a lot of change management expertise.
So, in our ten-step guide,
we kind of walk through ten considerations,
so I know this kind of is a lengthy question,
but can you hit on those ten points
that you think everybody should consider
whenever undertaking that level of organizational change?
- [Andrew] Yeah, sure, so I think that the ten steps
that we outline are pretty much driven
by what we experience in the projects
that we do here at Mountain Point.
And so it all kind of starts with that
identifying a champion, so making sure
that leadership understands that the value
and the need for why the organization needs to change.
And then we follow that up with really
walking a mile in your customers' shoes,
so, knowing those interactions,
whether it be B2B or B2C,
and how do you make those types of engagements
with your customer and that customer's journey
more valuable.
I think the next kind of piece that we like
to uncover is how are you going to define success,
so as a service's organization, and just organizations
in general, I think there's been a poor job historically
of measuring success and really ultimately
defining what success looks like for an organization.
So as you can imagine, a digital transformation
is this massive thing that touches every aspect
of the business, so how do you break
that down into bite-sized chunks
that you can actually show and measure those results.
That also leads into establishing accountability
and setting expectations for change,
so, circling back to identifying the key stakeholders
and having that top-down buy in from leadership,
it's now how do you effectively communicate
that vision and mission and the ripple effects
that are inevitably going to take place
within the organization.
Everybody fears change, so how do you communicate
and set those expectations effectively.
And then also, I think that a lot
of these industrial businesses
have gotten stuck in the status quo,
so how do you align and evaluate
your business processes and really revisit them,
so, "This is the way that we've always done it"
mentality does not fit in well
with digital transformation
so it's really turning over every stone
and identifying where you could be better as a business.
The next item that we talk
about is digging into your data,
so, data is, and should be,
an organization's most valuable asset.
I think a lot of manufacturing, industrial-based
companies put all that time and energy and value
into the product, but what we're seeing more and more
is that that's just only one component,
so yes, having insights and information
around your product and how your product evolves
with the data behind your product is great,
but there's plethora of other data points
and data elements that make the business successful,
so really diving into that and understanding
how you're measuring your organization
and leveraging data to be an asset,
a driver, for your business.
Then we start thinking about the systems
that are involved too, so moving
from a "System of Record" to a "System of Engagement."
So, back to the descriptions
that we were using previously
about Uber, Amazon, and these consumer-based
technologies, Systems of Engagement really
help drive that, so cloud-based platforms
with your CRM, your service, your marketing,
those kind of things are ways you can engage
with your customer in a more streamlined fashion
and really provide value across the devices
and systems that they're accustomed to using.
I think as we move away from the process
of the people side, now you're starting to get
into talent and identifying how to plug in
these key stakeholders within your organization,
so, people and the talent of not only folks
that are on the verge of retirement
and leaving the organization,
but how do you bring in the next crop
of talent to help them facilitate this change.
- [Jessica] Okay, awesome, we've mangaged
to cover steps one through eight, really quickly,
which is really taking a look
at your entire organization,
but this is a long-term project, right,
so, I know steps nine and ten are really focusing
on keeping that momentum rolling and moving
for the long haul, so tell us how
you go about not just launching this project,
but making sure it's successful
and it's implemented well.
- [Andrew] Yeah, absolutely.
So, I think the key is, again, kinda ties back
to communication and that transparency
within an organization, so being able
to work in an agile fashion and continuously
iterate and improve on the steps
that you're putting in place, like we mentioned,
digital transformations are massive
and all-encompassing, so to have the expectation
that just by doing one project is gonna
solve all your problems is crazy talk.
We need to re-level set the expectations
of these initiatives and projects
and treat them in that agile fashion
where we set a goal and a series
of metrics that we wanna measure
and learn from those and continuously improve
and keep pushing the metaphorical snowball
up the mountain so that once you get to the top
and it gains the momentum and speed
that you're now iterating faster and faster
and the value shifts are really showing
and speaking for itself as you ultimately transform.
- [Jessica] Awesome.
Well Andrew I know that was a crash course
in digital transformation and for those of you
listening, if you're interested, definitely
would encourage you to check out
our ten-step guide if you haven't already.
In the coming weeks, we're also gonna break down
each of those steps, and have more thorough
discussions around each one of them, so look for that,
hope you'll thrive and follow along.
And, if you have any questions, please hit us up
on our social media channels, you can email us,
you can call us, we're always looking
for your feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
Andrew, thanks again, and we'll talk again soon.
- [Andrew] Sounds good, thanks Jess.
(upbeat music)