Fast, agile and dominant. These are the terms used to describe technology companies and that McKinsey believes are key to the success of the organisation.
The customer, be they within the B2C or B2B space, has the same demands as the brands they use – be faster, more agile, give us disruption and innovation. It is critical, says Mandla Mbonambi, CEO of Africonology, that companies focus on a rapid, high-impact revamp of how they support customers, create experiences and explore new business opportunities.
“Organisations have to move faster,” he explains. “They have to embed transformation within their existing systems, and need to focus on strategies that allow them to benefit from incoming technologies across the critical touchpoints of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), FinOps, DevSecOps, and security.”
The Accenture report ‘Total Enterprise Reinvention’ captures this ethos perfectly, describing those companies that are paying attention to high-impact change as the ‘Reinventors’. These are the organisations focusing on deliberate technology strategies that allow them to achieve higher levels of performance and growth while redefining the boundaries of their sectors and their capabilities.
The report echoes McKinsey in the belief that a coherent focus on technology underpins the organisation’s ability to redefine how it connects with its customers, how it expands into new markets, and its ability to deftly manage costs over the long and the short term.
“The past four years have put immense pressure on the organisation,” says Mbonambi. “Change, move, adapt, and change again. Many are still trying to find their digital feet within the myriad investments they made into technologies that would allow them to remain in business in 2020, and there is a growing need for companies to focus on how they can leverage their existing investments without losing momentum.”
Accenture believes that this is a challenge with only 8% of companies adopting the strategy of total enterprise reinvention. Most are just transforming disparate parts of the business to ensure they are capable, and that they can deliver on what the business needs. It is a limited view that also tends to see transformation, digitisation and development as finite processes that will come to an end once the technology is up-to-date.
“The reality is that change should be baked into business strategy,” says Mbonambi. “This takes us back to the principles of high-performing technology companies – agile, fast and dominant. Adopting the DevOps mentality of constant radical change means that companies are always moving forward, and always have the momentum they need to catch customer trends and capture market opportunities. This is an approach that ensures technology and strategy have the same priorities.”
McKinsey found that companies with a solid blend of technology, strategy and priority were able to measurably improve customer and employee experiences alongside reducing time-to-market by up to three times. There is value in putting the end-user experience at the heart of development.
“At a time when technologies are radically changing the shape of the business and its interactions with customers, an agile DevOps mentality is key,” concludes Mbonambi. “If you want your company to sit at the edge of AI potential, to fully realise the value of automation, and to gain tighter control over costs and optimisation, then you need to be open to making mistakes, building on feedback, moving beyond traditional expectations, removing silos and enhancing collaboration.”
Achieving change at a scale allows for the organisation to embrace a high-impact and revolutionary approach to business. It’s a space within which failure is valuable, growth is essential, and the customer sits at the heart of operations, development, strategy and decision-making.