Getting to Nimble , livre ebook

Getting to Nimble
Getting to Nimble
How to Transform Your Company into a Digital Leader
Peter A. High
For Alex and David, who keep me nimble
Contents Foreword Introduction: Only the nimble survive The history that is repeating From customer focus to customer out-of-focus Out of focus What was old becomes news Delivering innovation Focus on getting to nimble Notes 1 The path to nimble Measuring your nimbleness Notes 2 The foundation: people Culture Clear titles, roles, and responsibilities Supply and demand of people Evaluating people Growing existing people Recruiting new people Chapter takeaways Notes 3 Processes: the path to successful execution Agile development From project management to product management DevOps Change management Service desk Knowledge management Chapter takeaways Notes 4 Building a more future-proof and secure technology stack Enterprise architecture Cloud APIs and microservices Security Chapter takeaways Notes 5 Building and caring for an ecosystem Customers Peers Venture capitalists Executive recruiters External (vendor) partners Chapter takeaways Notes 6 Strategic nimbleness Communications Strategic creation and alignment Develop IT/digital strategy Data strategy Business capabilities Driving innovation Chapter takeaways Notes Conclusion From companies to countries The road ahead Notes Index
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 The getting to nimble dashboard Figure 1.2 Roles responsible, tools, and metrics to be weighed for each sub-theme Figure 2.1 Culture Figure 2.2 Clear titles, roles and responsibilities Figure 2.3 Supply and demand of people Figure 2.4 Evaluating people Figure 2.5 Growing existing people Figure 2.6 Recruiting new people Figure 3.1 Agile development Figure 3.2 Examples of product groups and shared services Figure 3.3 Project/product management Figure 3.4 DevOps Figure 3.5 Five moments of truth associated with Kotter’s eight steps to change management 27 Figure 3.6 Change management Figure 3.7 Service desk Figure 3.8 Knowledge management Figure 4.1 The building blocks of enterprise architecture Figure 4.2 Enterprise architecture Figure 4.3 Cloud Figure 4.4 Sequoia Capital’s guide to microservices Figure 4.5 APIs and microservices Figure 4.6 NIST Cybersecurity Framework categories, and examples of subcategories Figure 4.7 Framework categories and subcategories Figure 4.8 Security Figure 5.1 Customer Figure 5.2 Peers Figure 5.3 Venture capital Figure 5.4 Executive recruiter Figure 5.5 External (vendor) partners Figure 5.6 Procurement Figure 6.1 Communication Figure 6.2 Objectives, goals, tactics, and measures (OGTM) framework Figure 6.3 The SMART metrics framework 6 Figure 6.4 Assessing the overlap across OGTMs Figure 6.5 Strategic creation and alignment Figure 6.6 IT/digital strategy Figure 6.7 Three interlocking components of data strategy Figure 6.8 Relationship between business strategy, IT/digital strategy, and data strategy Figure 6.9 Cascade from enterprise strategy to data strategy Figure 6.10 Aspects of business strategy that drive the direction of data strategy Figure 6.11 Cascade from enterprise strategy to IT/digital strategy to data strategy Figure 6.12 Adobe’s customer improvement framework Figure 6.13 Data strategy’s influence on five facets of analytics Figure 6.14 Data-driven operating model Figure 6.15 Data strategy Figure 6.16 Components of a business capability 28 Figure 6.17 Business capabilities Figure 6.18 Innovation
LIST OF TABLES Table 6.1 Six types of data
Foreword
by General Stanley McChrystal
At West Point many years ago, my comrades and I studied the concept of inertia— the reality that, unless subjected to outside forces, an object at risk remains at rest. Also, an object in motion remains in motion— in the same direction. At the time, little did I realize how important that concept would prove through my career.
The world has evolved significantly in recent years such that whether you are talking about business, geopolitics, or war, an ability to adapt is key. The old ways of working will no longer suffice, and there are tremendous risks in believing that the factors that have led to your successes to date will sustain you going forward. But adapting requires us to act.
I saw this firsthand through my military experience. When my soldier grandfather served, his expertise remained largely applicable throughout his long career. Warfare evolved, but not so significantly that it rendered his hard-earned experience irrelevant. There were many innovations between World War I and World War II, but many key elements of strategy were similar in those two wars despite the passing of decades between them.
I first met Peter High when each of us spoke at a conference in California. My remarks provided lessons from my book Team of Teams , and Peter’s were from his book, Implementing World Class IT Strategy . We would meet several times more at conferences where we were invited to speak and got to know each other well enough that I invited him to meet me in my office in Arlington, Virginia. By then, I had started the McChrystal Group, bringing the lessons from my military career to corporate clients, as I believe that what I saw on the theater of war was happening in companies around the world.
Peter’s theme of nimbleness is an effective description. He defines it, in this book, as setting one’s organization up such that one can seize opportunities more readily or stave off issues more readily. Just as I learned through my military experience, the skills you learn at university provide a foundation to learn, but the specifics of what you learn may quickly be rendered irrelevant given the pace of change and the wiliness of the competition.
When I led the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the mid-2000s, warfare was going through a significant shift. Al-Qaeda was highly networked and highly adaptable, driving them to victory in many cases despite our having advantages in almost every conceivable traditional metric used in warfare. It led my team and me to evaluate why organizations tend not to be adaptable or nimble. We determined that there are often the advantages of smaller organizations rather than behemoths. We determined that factors such as a common purpose, trust, and the empowerment of individuals to act were among the hallmarks of these smaller teams. We would change the way in which we worked, creating a team of teams, each with the feel of the smaller teams that had the advantages and reaped the rewards noted above. The theme that emerged is one that you will find throughout this book: the breaking down of traditional silos.
As Peter correctly notes in these pages, military hierarchy like large corporate hierarchy has traditionally been a top-down exercise with generals or CEOs setting strategy and leaders of different silos doing their part, from their vantage point, to deliver against that. Today, those leaders and the teams in those silos must collaborate to a greater degree. There is value in mixing the disciplines, and there is a need for people to develop skills that cross the traditional silos.
Peter organizes this book into the buckets of people, processes, technology, ecosystems, and strategy. In my experience, I believe each must, indeed, be rethought. Our people must strive to learn new skills and upgrade their capabilities. Our processes must be more agile in nature, and they should facilitate greater levels of experimentation and collaboration across silos. Technology facilitates better gathering of and dissemination of information, fostering better and faster insights. Likewise, building a coalition or ecosystem around your organization, drawing inspiration and insights from them becomes crucial in the current environment. Finally, strategy has and will always be important, but it now requires a willingness to reevaluate and change course more readily when the inputs prove that is necessary. It cannot just be a top-down exercise. Rather, it must also draw in greater insights from the field, often meaning from the most junior members of your team.
By following the lessons Peter offers herein, you will set your organization on a path to sustained success. The stories he offers, and the leaders he profiles should offer you the confidence to emulate the practices highlighted throughout this book.
Introduction
Only the nimble survive
The future rhymes with the past. The pace of change is faster than it has ever been, and it will never be this slow again.
Imagine a consumer packaged goods company that largely worked with traditional players in the retail space to sell its goods. One day, a fast-growing, disruptive retail player emerged that could dictate prices and practices from those who sold goods through them. The retailer had so much power and gained so many customers so fast that it was feared that it would put small retailers out of business. Amid the disruption, the CIO of the consumer packaged goods company saw an opportunity to work with this major retailer. He also saw a chance to work better with the traditional, smaller, and regional players and mom-and-pop operations through the use of mobile technology, which provided salespeople with the tools to note feedback and place orders upon delivery of goods. That technology also enabled data analytics, which evaluated the profitability of different customer relationships and allowed salespeople to act accordingly. The technology, together with the team that brought it to life, provided information for better decision-making and helped the company remain competitive. Using financial return as the guide and making a strong case to the CEO, the technology leader helped set up an organization and a culture that was nimble. By “nimble,” I mean the organization was able to pivot rapidly toward opportunities and away from threats as they presented themselves.
I bet that you had a guess about who the major retailer is that has been cast as the disruptor, leading tra