Digital Transformation Mini Course for Every Employee

Welcome to Module 1 in the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee. I'm absolutely delighted to have you here and I'm quite excited of what you will learn on this journey.  With that being said, let's dive into the first module and what you can expect to learn. 

In Module 1, we have four lessons.

We're going to start off with the technological advancements over the centuries and in lesson 1, we will cover the technological advancement eras over approximately the last 200 years.  These different timelines are called industrial revolutions, which I hope sounds at least a little bit familiar to you.

Next in lesson 2, we will move on to see what the current era is which is called the fourth industrial revolution.  We generally use the common term Industry 4. 0 (which refers to all the new kinds of technologies used in this era), which is just an abbreviation for the 4th Industrial Revolution. 

In Lesson 3, I'm going to explain to you the different terminologies used in these transformations.

We're going to talk about what digitization means, then we'll move on to digitalization, and then ultimately, we'll end at digital transformation.  Now, I know it does sound quite confusing, but really, really, there is a difference. And organizations often confuse these, which ultimately means that they don't have a clear understanding of where to start with the digital transformation.

Lastly, in lesson 4, we're going to look at the reasons why organizations would embark on this journey of digital transformation.

In this lesson, we'll cover the technological developments over the centuries and the different industrial revolutions in order to understand how we got to where we are today with regards to the technological journey.  

Let's start at inventions in the recent years. I don't know your age, but for some of you, this picture will take you back to some fond memories of the past. As crazy as it may sound, some of these inventions were not even that long ago, and believe it or not, you will still find a fax machine in some organizations today.

But this is our reality now. Things have changed so dramatically over the last 20 years and as it says in the picture "Everything in this picture is now in your pocket". Now-Today, it's all about connectivity through things like IOT which is short for the internet of things and all things that has a chip in it really that's connected to the internet or cloud. 

So, for that, we have to go back around 200 years.  The first industrial revolution came about with the use of steam and waterpower and the initial mechanization of manufacturing. Think of how animals were used to plough the land to grow food and humans then used animals walking around and around the press to produce flour.

With the invention of steam and waterpower, this process was sped up dramatically by building a mill next to flowing water, and no more was it needed for animals to walk around in circles grinding the wheat. It was done using waterpower.

Next, in the early 1900s, came electricity and electrical power, with the second industrial revolution.

Think of Henry Ford and his automotive factories. The very famous Model T was introduced to the world in 1908. Henry Ford wanted the Model T to be affordable, simple to operate, and durable.  The vehicle was one of the first mass produced, vehicles, allowing Ford to achieve its aim of manufacturing the universal car.

You may have heard this before, but Henry Ford's famous saying, any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants. So long as it's black.  This policy was in place solely for efficiency and uniformity.  The point I'm trying to make here is the revolutionary thinking of the time regarding mass production and the specific industrial age at the time.

So, let's move on. Getting closer to us in time. Next was the third industrial revolution. Which was not that long ago, in or around the late 1980s, early 1990s, we entered the age of computers and more automated electronic systems, as well as the age of the World Wide Web.  If you're as old as me, you would recall the worry and mayhem of the change for computers from midnight 1999 to the 1st of January 2000.

Everyone was worried that all systems will come crashing down. Luckily, we know there weren't too much disruption.

Now, as you can see by the red arrow in the picture, we are in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. You'll note that the previous three industrial revolutions took many years, but the space between the third and the fourth industrial revolution moved at a lightning speed. 

It is the age of cyber physical systems with smart factories, robotics, co-bots, which is smaller versions of robots that work alongside humans, big data, AI and machine learning. But don't worry too much about all those technologies. This mini course is certainly not about technology.

And I'll explain that in a little with examples of how these Industry 4. 0 technologies have improved processes and created value.

One example example is, how mail sorting facilities now approach the mail sorting and how predictive maintenance is used to notify us before a machine is going to break down. How we can just scan a tag on an item of clothing to see if they have our required size in another store without any interaction from the shop assistant.  The list goes on.

Industry 4. 0 technologies like robotics, for example, of the scanning of a clothing price tag is used to take over the repetitive tasks from humans so that we can focus our energy and time on higher value tasks.

Robotics is not there to take over our jobs. We'll talk about how new roles saw the light in the fourth industrial era that never even existed before. Therefore, creating value not only for the organization, but ultimately for the customer and us.

Industry 4. 0 refers to the smart and connected production systems that's designed to sense, predict, and interact with the physical world.

So, as to make decisions that support production in real time. The term industry 4. 0 was coined in 2011 in Germany, where the German federal ministry of education and research centre asked the industry and academia to define proposals for the manufacturing industries creative disruption.  

Now - the term cyber physical systems  was coined by Helen Gill around 2006 at the National Science Foundation in the U. S.  And that refers to the integration of computation with physical processes. Often it has a communicating or network aspect.   

So here we talk about autonomous robots, simulation. That is, for instance, used in BPM, business process management, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, where you have 3D printing, the cloud, cyber security, and of course, IIoT, the industrial Internet of Things, and of course, IoT, which is the Internet of Things.  

Everything we do today, shopping, interacting with one another socially, sharing news, ordering food, banking, even buying stamps, means that we are in some way, shape or form connected in a digital way.  This also impacts how we work. And that is why it is so crucial that organizations adapt and adopt digital, but only if it's fit for purpose and serves the organization's vision and mission.

Remember what we said in lesson one, it is not about technology alone, even though the technology is the enabler, we must make sure that it's part of the organization's vision and mission and their digital strategy. We will talk more about vision and mission in module 3.

In this lesson, you will gain an understanding of what digital transformation means and the difference between digitization, digitalization, and finally, digital transformation

Next, we'll move on and look at what digital transformation really means and the reason why is that there can sometimes be confusion or disagreement on what it is and more importantly where to start with the digital transformation.  

First, let me explain that in this digital and connected age, organizations are at different stages of transformation.  Sometimes these can be confusing, but it is of the utmost importance, and I will explain in the next slide why the organization needs to understand their starting point. 

In essence, digitization towards digitalization towards digital transformation is a stepped journey, creating more and more value in the digital world for all stakeholders. So, customers, suppliers, employees, and all other stakeholders.

Let's first look at digitization. When you digitize something or a process, you're not changing the process itself. Let's look an example.  In the picture, on the left, you see a book, pen, and calculator.  It's giving us the impression of someone filling in a paper purchase order.  A purchase order book traditionally was used in triplicate with carbon paper in between each sheet to make sure that the exact information was copied over by hand.

On the right side, you see a picture of a computer screen with something that looks like Microsoft Excel.  Here the purchase order that was done previously on paper, and that same process have been moved to create it on Microsoft Excel. The actual process has not changed.  They will most likely print the paper purchase order for the supplier and keep on printed copy on file.

The important thing to understand that it is still the same process, and it has only been moved from an analogue process to a digital process, and that is digitization.  So really, it's essentially converting analogue, I. e. paper-based information, into a digital format without changing the process itself, which fundamentally means that that process has been around for many years.

Now let's look at digitalization and what it means.  Again, you'll see the computer screen with something that looks like Microsoft Excel on the left.  Now if that purchase order process has been digitalized, then it most likely is a purchasing process connected to some computer system that is connected to the cloud or the internet, and the process will likely take on the form of email automation, sending the purchase order to the assigned person for authorization via the system itself or via an email and then perhaps towards the supplier.  With that, the finance department will have direct access to view any transactions in real time and will be able to use the data to assist in planning and spending of budgets.  

What this means is that value has been created for all parties involved in the purchasing process, I. e. the employee raising the purchase order, management approving the purchase order and managing budgets, the finance department, suppliers, it also means that data has been created.

So, digitalization is the increased connectivity and networking of digital technology. It means systems that communicate with one another to enhance communication services and trade between people, organizations and things. Digitalization is the conversion of analogue information into text, photographs, voices, among other things, to create useful data.  

With digital transformation, it means that the organization has digitalized all departments and processes in the organization, eliminating unnecessary steps involved or utilized, with people, the processes itself, and transform the whole organization completely. 

An organization is not digitally transformed if they, for instance, have the most digitally modern manufacturing processes, but all their admin staff are still doing all administrative tasks on paper or using a manual paper-based purchase order process, for instance.

Digital transformation goes to the core of the organization and digital touch absolutely every area and aspect of how value is created for all internally and externally to the organization.  Just so you know, digital transformation is often shortened to the acronym DX. 

As you could see from the previous slides, Digital transformation involves people, the processes used either internally by employees or externally by customers, and then lastly, supported or enabled by the technology.

Very often technology will be used to solve a problem without considering the vision and mission of the organization.  Many times, hundreds of thousands of dollars or euros are spent on that technology that quickly becomes obsolete because the bigger picture has not been considered.  An important consideration here is that there is a massive gap between a digitally born organization like Airbnb for example, and traditional older organization.

With DX, digital transformation, the organization must consider their Why.  Why does my organization exist? Why are we doing what we're doing? Why are we using certain processes in a certain way?  If the answers to all those questions brings us to the understanding that Why we do things have changed, then only is it time to look at how technology can help us bring the old traditional organization into the digital age.

You may ask why this all matters.  And that is because of digital competitive advantage. One of the goals of any organization is to always and constantly increase their competitive advantage and increase their market share. Nowadays it goes beyond that because we are right at the centre of this current digital revolution.

The importance of increasing one's digital competitive advantage unquestionably becomes the most important aspect for an organization. Did you know that in the 1980s, the average lifespan of a business used to be around 45 years?  Now, the average lifespan is around 15 years. You are a keen stakeholder as an employee, you don't want your company to go bust because you rely on that pay check every month.

It is crucial that you also understand the changes brought about by digital.  The digital transformation is the exploitation of digital technologies and supporting capabilities to create a robust, new, digital business.  It's a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new operating models and transform an organization's operations, strategic direction, and value proposition.

In this lesson, you will get a better understanding of the reasons why an organization may embark on the digital transformation journey.  As you know, technology always evolves and the pace at which it does has rapidly increased over the last number of years.

Remember the slide that noted the timeline between the third and fourth industrial revolution?  For that same reason, it is important to note that the efforts to digitally transform continues perpetually because the organization must continually maintain and increase their digital competitive advantage.

Let's look at some reasons why organizations embark on this journey.

Firstly, it is a massive opportunity to look inwards on the organization and one cannot continue to do the same old things and expecting a different outcome, especially in the digital age. Something has got to give eventually. 

The organization may have a blurry vision, or they're unsure of what their future picture looks like.

They may have unclear, old and outdated, or perhaps no strategy.  

Perhaps the business model, how they make money, and how they create value may be outdated. 

A big issue is mindlessly adding technology.  You would know of the recent AI frenzy that was on everyone's minds.  It doesn't mean that if we add AI to our organization's processes, the organization is going to be able to continuously maintain their competitive advantage or that it is digitally transformed.

Perhaps, and one of the big reasons would be a decrease on their year-on-year revenue. Sales are just going down or they have a losses or a decrease of their competitive advantage.

These are just some of the reasons organizations may consider a digital transformation.

Welcome to Module 2 of the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee.  I'm delighted to have you are back, and in this module, we have another four lessons to cover. 

Firstly, in Lesson 5, we're going to look at common misconceptions about digital transformation. 

In Lesson 6, we'll look at the different kinds of barriers that exist that are blocking the transformation to go ahead and other ways in which success can be hampered.

In Lesson 7, we will cover the most difficult areas for digital transformation. Generally, this is culture and the impact of organizational resistance to change for a successful transformation. 

Lastly, in Lesson 8, we're going to look at the crucial importance of a changed mindset and the changed thinking that is required for digital transformations.

You might have heard of the saying, you cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. And that is exactly what we're going to talk about in lesson eight.

Welcome to Module 2, Lesson 5. In this lesson, we will look at common misconceptions about digital transformations.

 It is only about technology.  When you keep adding technology to an old machine, it won't necessarily make the machine run any faster.  Take, for instance, the picture of the car above. They have done a beautiful job restoring the car to look like new, but it will still have the same capacity, speed, and performance as before.

Digital transformation is truly about people, the processes transformed to automate, and eliminating any redundant steps within processes, and then only using the technology to enhance.  It is impossible to use the same processes, business models, and outdated strategy, only adding technology and expecting your organization to perform differently.

Everything around the Why needs to be clear and understood first, and then only do we move onto the How, the technology that's the enabler of the digital transformation. 

It's my manager's problem or responsibility or their concern.  It is not. Everyone in the organization is important to ensure the success of the digital transformation.

It is not up to one team or one person only. Yes, the CEO has the ownership of the transformation. But the execution is a matter of every person in the organization participating, contributing, sharing ideas, and executing on the strategic plan and objectives to ensure the successful transformation of the organization.

We only have to do it once and everything will be okay.  No, it's continuous because most old traditional organizations have so much catching-up to do. It will take a lot of time and effort to get on par with digitally born organizations and ones that's ahead of you.  Once you get to that point, technology would have moved on and evolved which means that ultimately, your organization will always be in a state to maintain the digital competitive advantage.

It's going to be a quick fix. It will take time and investment and effort.  A large proportion of management's time will be spent on deciding where to invest  and how to grow the organization.  Another decision to be made is what percentage of old revenue streams should the organisation keep, and what percentage do we move over to digital?

One cannot just unplug the one and switch over to the new digital value overnight.  Because digital will go to the core of the business, careful planning is necessary. But once changes are made, there is no going back. 

It's the IT department’s problem.  It is a common misconception that the digital transformation is the IT department’s problem or area of expertise. That is due to the misconception that it is only about technology.  Digital must transform every department, unit and area of the organization, and every department, therefore, is also responsible for the digital transformation in their specific area. 

Thinking all companies are the same.  It is another misconception that there is a blueprint for digital transformation, and if we are going to do A, B and C, we will be digitally transformed. Each and every organization is unique because of the people factor. And because of that difference, every digital transformation's challenges will be unique.

We have time. The only time there is for all traditional organizations is catching up time. As I mentioned before, in the 1990s, the average lifespan of an organization was around 40 to 45 years.  Now, it's 10 to 15 years because of an outdated traditional organization that refuse to budge on their old traditional business model and strategies and ways of working.

Comparing your organization to a digitally born organization, you see in the picture - you’re not Uber or Amazon or Netflix.  And that is another misconception that people think, the challenges, so the opportunities or threats, are the same for digitally born organizations.  They do not have the same barriers like culture and change and the difficulty around that.

They don't need to spend time and money on doing any catching up.

Welcome to Module 2, Lesson 6 in the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for Every Employee. Lesson 6 gives us an opportunity to uncover some of the biggest barriers to transformation.  We saw in Module 1 what the differences are between digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation.

If you have not identified the problems and future position, so the vision and mission, and why your organization exists, how will you know where to start?  Simply put, you won't know where to start if you don't know where you're heading to and where you want to be in the future. 

No one really understands what digital transformation means. Education and getting everyone in the organization on the proverbial same page is crucially important.  If only senior management understand what it is and means and what needs doing to get us there, and the rest of the organization has no idea the language they are using or what they're talking about, it will hamper the success to be gained in the digital transformation.

The thought that it's too difficult.  Digital transformation is not difficult. It just takes a lot of time and effort. It is a matter of small projects, experimentation, and an attitude of failing fast and learning fast. 

Someone, somewhere, had a good business idea many years ago, and it worked. That has been your organization's success in the past. Now it is simply a matter of going back to the drawing board and realigning the organization so that it's fit for purpose in the digital age. 

It's not my job.  Everyone in the organization has a small part to play in ensuring the organization stays sustainable and if you think that it is not your job, then the digital transformation is definitely of to a bad start.

Silos between functional areas and the organization, and if we talk about functional areas, we mean the different departments or units. One functional area may be finance, another one may be administration or HR, and this is another huge barrier, not sharing information, successes, and winning or problems.

Typical old traditional organization is made up of departments or these functional areas.  And generally due to old, outdated computer systems, they don't share information and data.  With this comes a lot of unnecessary repetition of manual processes. Transparency is one of the pillars of a successful digital transformation.

No clear vision or strategy for the digital transformation. Now, this is a mini course and it is designed for every employee in the organization. And once you've cemented your basic understanding, you will be able to support senior management in the execution of the digital transformation. It is hugely important that every person in the organization understands and lives by the vision, and it can get difficult if not even management is sure what this really means. 

Unclear communication, fishbowl offices and closed doors with heavily layered hierarchies are characteristics of old traditional organizations, withholding information on a need-to-know basis.  Just as transparency is a pillar of successful digital transformation, so is clear and open communications.

It is a matter of not just instructing on what needs doing, but important to explain why it needs doing.  That way, buy-in and support for the digital transformation can grow and will become a lot easier. 

Resistance to change, but we've always done it this way. People generally don't like change because we are creatures of comfort. Processes and how to do a particular task generally gets passed on from old employees to newer employees. And then when the older ones leave, that cycle continues with any new starters.  Sometimes, this can be one of the biggest barriers to transfer because people simply are afraid of their job when asked to try out more effective processes.

In this lesson, we will look at the importance of culture and its impact on the digital transformation's success. Digital transformation is not just about technology, we've said this before, but also about organizational culture. The success of a digital transformation relies on a deep understanding of all the intricacies of culture.  Company culture is built through the people that they hire, the processes that they use and the values of the organization. Therefore, if these cultural factors don't shift to accommodate the impending change, your digital transformation will struggle.

Any digital transformation begins with a culture of innovation, inclusion and openness.   A digitally transformed culture takes different approaches and key attributes in adopting a digital first culture that would result in customer centricity, innovation, data driven decision making, collaboration and an open culture - a digital first mindset utilizing agility and flexibility. 

This, despite it being such a common term, many people wonder what workplace culture is. Workplace culture combines the principles and ideologies of an organization.  It's the environment you create for employees. The sum of your organization's traditions, interactions, attitudes, values, and behaviours.

The definition of culture is the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society. Culture is who we are as a people in an organization. Sometimes you find healthy, happy cultures in a workplace.  With a very positive attitude. Other times, they may not be so positive and sometimes it's just a bad culture.

A lot of thinking and analysis goes into creating strategies, and we know that those comes from senior management. We will look more in depth at vision, mission, strategy, and objectives in module three. However, it is said that creating these strategies and visions for the organization is approximately about 15% of the effort going into the digital transformation.

Execution, or getting the job done, and executing on the strategy, I. e.  making the objectives and plans a reality, is around 85%. Often there is this big gap or divide between strategy and execution, because employees simply don't understand Why they are asked to do something or Why they should participate in a specific project and how that fits into the bigger picture.

And that is also due to a lack in communication, misunderstanding, and poor teamwork. Culture has a lot in common with success in teamwork, especially when it comes to new projects that you will find in digital transformations.

Welcome to Module 2, Lesson 8. Our last lesson in this module in the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee. In this lesson, we will look at the required change thinking for the digital transformation's success.

The idea that we've always done it this way. But why should we change? Change can be a difficult thing for many people. However, it is simply the fear of the unknown.  And always the question, but what if?

You really need to have an attitude of going where it is uncomfortable. Change is difficult and uncomfortable. But it is only when we change that growth can happen. If we do not grow, we're staying the same and goes back to the saying, keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Ultimately, it's a matter of thinking outside the box.

Change thinking requires you to move outside your comfort zone, to think differently than the rest (the competition), and that reminds us of the organization's goal to continually and constantly increase their digital competitive advantage. We will talk about customer and customer experience in module 4. In the image on this slide, you'll see a typical example of unchanged thinking.

As you know, AI or artificial intelligence has been a major topic in the last couple of years.  We know that it is an Industry 4. 0 technology that can achieve wonderful things. But look at this person, Joanna's problem, you know what the biggest problem with pushing all things AI is?  The wrong direction.  I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that can do my laundry and dishes.  This is an excellent example of how you need to move your thinking outside the box and think differently. Changed thinking really in the context of digital transformation, it requires new ways doing, which means new ways of thinking, new processes and a new openness and that all will result in permanent change.

Receiving the cue to do something and you do it via your usual routine and then getting the reward.  Change simply means still receiving the cue but understanding the Why much better for a digital transformation, adopting the new routine, then the reward will be so much bigger.

Let's try something. Sit back and cross your arms.  Like the person in the picture.  That's your comfortable position, isn't it?  Now, if you uncross your arms, change over to cross them again, but in the opposite way. How does that feel? It's a little bit weird, and it's not really too comfortable. However, if you keep using this new position of crossing your arms, soon it will feel comfortable.

The same goes for someone that has perhaps a hand surgery on their dominant writing hand. The pen will feel out of place and uncomfortable in the beginning. But once the new change becomes a habit, it will become a feeling of comfort again.

Welcome to Module 3, and I am delighted to have you back. I'm also hoping that you're enjoying the course so far. 

In Module 3, Lesson 9, we're going to look at the vision and mission of an organization.  Now, a mission statement will describe the overall purpose of the organization.     Whereas the vision statement will describe where the company hope they will be going in the future to fulfil the mission statement.  

In lesson 10, we will cover the digital transformation strategy and the objectives for transformation. A strategic plan is there to provide focus, direction and actions. So really, what are those tactical moves or manoeuvres? I. e. objectives, an organization will make in order to move them from where they're now to where they want to be in the future.  

Lesson 11 will be about the business model changes and business model changes will describe how we deliver, create and capture value in the organization. Simply, it's how we intend to make money or create value.   

In the last lesson of this module, lesson 12, we will look at how and where value is created in the digital age, internally and externally of the organization.

Welcome to Module 3, Lesson 9. In this lesson you will discover the meaning of a vision and mission and the importance of those in a successful digital transformation.  Now saying that, this is merely for you to understand why your organization has a vision statement and a mission statement.

This is not something that will be your responsibility necessarily. That is the responsibility of senior management.  But because you are a keen stakeholder and an employee of the organization, it is important for you to have knowledge of and understand of what these means. 

So, the vision statement of an organization should describe their future picture. What is it that we're aiming to do? What is it that they're hoping to achieve?  The mission will describe what it is we are doing now. In essence, what purpose do we have as an organization?  What are we fixing, what problems are we solving for our customers?  Let's look at some examples in the next couple of slides to explain this better.

The vision and mission statement Tesla.  Their vision statement is, so their future picture, is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.  Tesla's mission statement is to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles.

The vision and mission statement of Ikea. Their vision statement is to create a better every day for the many people. The mission statement for Ikea to offer a wide range of well-designed functional home products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Now, we see the vision statement of IKEA, better everyday life for the many people, and that is what they do with their low-priced offering. And then the mission statement is, this is what we do. We offer a wide range of well-designed functional home furnishing products.

The vision and mission statement for Southwest Airlines. Their vision is to be the world's most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.  That's what their future picture is. The mission statement of Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth friendliness Individual pride and company spirit. It is what they are doing right now.

Welcome to Module 3, Lesson 10 in the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee.  Here we are going to look at the importance of a digital transformation or a DX specific strategy and the supporting objectives to execute the strategy.  As I've said before, the strategic setting for the organization or the planning, as well as the objectives will be a senior management function and responsibility.

Generally, the CEO will be the owner of the digital transformation, or should be in any way.  Again, it's not something that you may specifically be involved in.  But you will definitely be involved in the execution of the strategic objectives to support the strategy and the vision and mission of the organization. 

Firstly, let's look at what a strategic plan or a strategy. A strategy is a plan that will provide focus, direction, and action.  Now, always when I think action, I think of these tactical manoeuvres an organization needs to make to get them from where they are now to where they want to be.  And that is to execute or to realize that vision statement, the future picture.

In the past, it was taught in business schools that organizations would revisit their strategy every 5, 7 or 10 years.  That is the old school traditional organization's way of planning ahead and it did serve its purpose well in the past.  However, as we've heard earlier in the course, the average lifespan of an organization is now around a quarter compared to 40 years ago.

And because there are constant advances in technology, remember we’re currently in the fourth industrial revolution and things move super-fast at lightning speed, long drawn-out strategies simply don't work any longer. Nowadays, it's about constantly visiting the strategic plan and making adjustments in order to fulfil the mission and vision of the organization.

So how do you make a strategy happen you may ask.  You do that by setting strategic objectives to execute the strategy. Business objectives are a result that the company aims to achieve.  Such objectives act as vital benchmarks for the organization to assess its progress and strategic direction.

It is very important to set smart objectives. Objectives should always be SMART.  Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely, I. e. it must have a timeline.  let's make this simple by using you and me as an example. Say I have had a lovely summer vacation. I drank and ate to my heart's content.

I get home and at some point, after unpacking and settling into my normal work and family routine, I thought to myself, perhaps I should jump on the scale.  And I got the shock of my life. You get the picture. A not so smart goal would be to think to yourself, jeepers, I need to lose weight. And you jump in your car, go to the gym, sign up for a membership.

You leave the gym thinking, oh wow, now I have a plan. But as the days goes by, thinking to yourself, oh, I have to get to the gym.  But the problem here is that you have no specific plan of action and specific goals in when you'll start.  How often will you exercise? How much weight do you want to loose?

Again, I'm sure you get the picture here.  Just as with yourself personally and how you manage your life, so does an organization and it is of the utmost importance that their objectives are specific,  measurable, achievable, realistic and it has a timeline.

Module 3 Lesson 11 in the Digital Transformation Essentials Mini Course for Every Employee.  Why the business model will change once the organization start transforming. So, by now you hopefully are understanding that digital transformations are all about change and bringing old traditional outdated organizations into the digital era in order to stay sustainable and relevant.

Next, we will look at how these changes will impact the business model of an organization and we'll use an example organization.  So first, let's have a look at what the definition of a business model is.  The organization's business model will describe how they deliver, create and capture value. So simply really how they intend to make money.

It is very important to realize that when we talk about value, it’s not just about making money. Yes, of course, it is important for every organization to make money and profits, but how we solve problems for our customers by providing products and services extends beyond the monetary value.  We also create value for staff, for suppliers, and for all other stakeholders. We will see about value creation later in the course. 

Let's look at Boeing's business model.  Boeing build airplanes and defence products.  Then they sell these various products and support services to their market, which is how they make money.

Now, what support the business model?  It's an operating model. An operating model describes the way that a business structures its operations. How everything is put together. Parts, raw material, technology that they use, how they organize their staff, the systems, their logistical processes, sales processes, et cetera.

So literally everything to do with how all the parts are put together to create the final product is the organization's operating model.

Welcome to Module 3, Lesson 12.  In this lesson, we will discuss how and where value is created.  Everything we do, and more importantly, how we do the things we do, in an organization, is there to create value. It is the strategy that's set by management, the services or the products that we deliver, how the company function as a whole, the quality and the excellence that we provide, It’s for our teams and for our customers.

Now, you might ask the question, what does this have to do with me as an employee? Why should I know anything about the operating model, the business model, the strategy, the vision, and everything that goes into the organization?  Because everything we do to transform the organization through digital will have an impact on how we create value.

Now you may wonder, what is value? It is the idea that something is held to deserve, that it means something, it has importance and worth, and that it has usefulness of something.

Every organization will always be impacted positively or negatively by internal and external factors. So external factors to the organization is opportunities and threats. How we as an organization go after the opportunities to increase our competitive advantage, create new products and services perhaps, and add value, or how we minimize any threats will impact our value creation. It is important to note that an organization cannot control external opportunities and threats. 

Internally, we as an organization have strengths and weaknesses.  Those are the things that we have control over. We can constantly increase our strengths as an organization and build on our successes, and we can eliminate any weaknesses that exist inside the organization.

So, let’s make this more tangible for you in the next slide by using a personal example. In this infographic you see is a SWOT analysis and we can see how you as a person can create value internally for yourself but also externally for an organization.  As we said, internally we always see strengths and weaknesses, and those are the things that we can control. Externally, there are opportunities and those are the things that we cannot control.

The example we have here is you. You have an excellent CV, in the strengths quadrant and you have the right experience for a specific job. That's internally.  An opportunity came with a vacancy that opened at your dream organization in the next town. That's externally.  A weakness that you have is you have a driver's license, but you don't have a car to drive to the next town.  That's something that you have control over.  A threat externally would be that there's no public transport to get to the workplace. And that's something that you cannot control.

In Module 4 of the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee, we have another four lessons to cover. 

In Lesson 13, we will look at who your customer is, meaning customers, the ones who pay money for our service and products, and users, internally and externally to the organization.  

In lesson 14, the customer is covered and CX, which is customer experience excellence.    

In lesson 15, we will study the importance of the customer's dynamic network. So how things have changed from the very linear movement of the customer within the traditional marketing funnel, from initial interest towards purchase, where the brand was at the centre and how that has changed towards a dynamic customer network where the customer is at the centre.  

And finally in lesson 16 we will study the change to business processes because of digital and all the industry 4. 0 technologies that we use to bring the old traditional organization into the digital age and enable the organization to compete with digitally born businesses.

Welcome to Module 4, Lesson 13. Who is your customer?

On this slide, on the left we have business unit and co-workers, and we have exactly the same picture on the right side, our customers.  That is because users and customers.  should be treated the same. 

We all know that if someone is paying for a product or service, essentially that makes them the customer, however, we also have internal customers or users.  Let me give you an example. When the sales department is requesting some information on a customer's credit facility. This is part of a process, correct?  Now we will talk more about business processes later on in the course. Ultimately it is a user experience that we deliver and how effectively the finance department is going to respond to that request for the customer's credit that will become part of a positive or negative user experience.

Some of us are familiar with dealing with our organization's IT department, raising a ticket when we run into any technical problems with our systems or our IT equipment. Resolving these issues is linked to KPIs, key performance indicators, for the IT department. Essentially, that is a service level agreement, which means the IT department will aim to resolve and replace the hardware within a certain time period.

That precisely is aim.  We need to understand we don't only serve paying customers, but we also have  internal users or customers of our departmental functions.

In Lesson 14, we will learn more about Customer Experience or CX.

Starting with the Customer Journey and CX, which is an acronym used for customer experience or customer excellence.  It really looks at all the aspects within the interactions we have as an organization with our customer between the brand, our products and services and all direct and indirect actions.

This infographic beautifully illustrates what possibilities that exists pre-purchase, during the purchase and post purchase for us and the customer to create the customer experience.  We will see a little later that the role of a customer has completely evolved due to digital, and the journey don’t just come to a dead stop or a dead end once we have the customer's money in our hands.

So, what is a customer journey map?  It really is all and every unique interaction that the customer has with us and our organization and brand.  Bear in mind that if we serve the exact same customer in a different channel, I. e. on a website versus on an app or over the phone with customer service, that customer journey will be different in each of these channels.

It is not a one size fits all customer journey. More specifically so, because if we delve deeper, we need to understand customer hyper personalization. Literally meaning each and every one of us is a unique human being with our own blueprint.

That is the challenge today. In all traditional organizations, the customer had one face. In the digital world, we are seen as unique beings interacting with a brand and services tailored for the individual.

CX or customer experience is the overall perception a customer will form based on their interactions with our marketing products, services, the way the team handle their needs and simply the way they feel. Are they excited?  Are they wowed? Are they unimpressed or sad?  All that is the customer experience.

Some questions you can ask regarding your customers or users. Does the organization deliver on its promise? Is it doing what it's saying it promises it will do? Does the organization understand the unique customer circumstances and needs.  Does the organization help them when things go wrong? Or is it a struggle? These are the perception we're talking about.  Can the customer trust the organization?  Does the organization make it easy for the customer to do business with them?  Important to remember, we said that we also have internal customers and users, which means we should consider employee experience as well.

You can simply replace the word customer in the slide with employee or colleague and ask the same questions.

How do we, as an organization, become part of this new customer dynamic network?  Customers have changed, so let's have a look how digital has impacted this change in customers. Don't forget to always think of customers and users in the same way.

First, let's start with the marketing funnel.  The marketing funnel describes your customer's journey with you as an organization from the initial stages where someone learns about your business to the purchasing stage. Marketing funnels map routes to conversion and beyond.  These are the high-level stages and not the actual customer journey map interactions and feelings and customer experience.

For many years, it was only the top five layers of the marketing funnel referring to the stages a customer traversed through until they become your loyal customer.  In recent years an additional layer called advocacy has been added to represent how customers become ambassadors and advocates due to their social media use and interactions.

The marketing funnel is shaped like a funnel because you naturally get dropped off along the way. Everyone who becomes aware of your business, product or service will not necessarily complete the journey to becoming a customer. It used to be viewed as a very linear journey for the customer, so one plus one plus one, et cetera. And it was assumed that if they have gone through the preceding stages, a certain percentage should in theory end up becoming your customer. Remember what we said in the previous lesson where in the traditional old organization, a customer had one face.

In previous years, organizations placed the brand at the centre, and the customer's place was around the brand. That has changed, and instead of viewing the customer as having one face, it has moved to viewing the customers as hyper personalized. Now the company or the brand is within the customer's dynamic, and they're connected via nodes, through things like email, Twitter, forums, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.  It is no longer the customer following the brand around, but instead, the brand or company following the customer, trying to connect with the customer wherever and in whichever channel they frequent. These channels each has their own customer journey map because of the changed customer and because of digital. 

Customers now compare their next digital experience or interaction to the best last one they had, regardless of the product, the brand or the channel. And that is how they measure their experience.

So for them,  digitally interacting  with their bank, paying an online bill, or doing online shopping, even ordering food, they will compare their next digital experience to the best last one they had.

In this lesson, we will discover the impact of digital transformation on business processes.

Digital transformations are concerned with people, processes, and technology, and for that reason, it is important to start looking at what processes we use.

Also, for the very same reason, we studied the customer and users in the previous lesson and why we are now looking at business processes.  Remember, technology is only the enabler. It is not the be all and end all of a digitally transformed organization. We can plug in however many technologies we want into an old organization. The transformation truly happens with the people and the processes. 

So, what is a process? A process is usually defined as a set of activities or tasks that are linked together based on certain conditions. Any and everything we do in an organization can be translated or mapped out in a process map. Think of a sales order or onboarding a new employee or even delivering goods to a customer. Everything has a pattern of actions that can be documented.

Everything we do in an organization will always be linked to a process. Think of yourself, what routines do you follow every morning once your alarm has gone off?  Processes becomes habit and eventually we don't even need to think about how we do something. Remember what we said previously, keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome? The brain conditions itself that that is the way to do something.

Literally every process we use at work can be mapped out in a business process map. An example of this is the financial accounting process in the picture. You can use some kind of BPM software, or you can simply use Post-it notes. You design, then model and execute the process. Next comes monitoring and analysing how the process executes.  The last stage is the important one, stage five, to make changes to the process, to improve it, to optimize it or to automate it.

Now, very important to remember when you do an exercise like this business process mapping, to always get a group of people together that use the process. It is also important to know that you must start with the As-Is.  Do the analysis and monitoring.  And then, with the optimization, you get to the To-Be stage. There's no point in coming together and say what features would be wonderful. That's only happening at stage five.

Because we constantly automate and optimize processes in the digitally transforming organization, business process mapping is a way for the organization to look at their internal processes and how we can do things better, faster, easier, more effective and cheaper.

A very warm welcome to you once again and congratulations. You're nearly there.  This is the last module in the Digital Transformation Essentials mini course for every employee.    

We will have two lessons in the final module. Lessons 17 and 18 will comprise of what to expect from your organization's digital transformation, what will the impact for you as an employee of a digitally transforming organization be? 

And lastly, we will study the reasons why digital transformation is never ending. We will finish up with a conclusion and a recap on what you have learned throughout the 5 modules and 18 lessons in the digital transformation essentials mini course for every employee.

What can you expect from your organization's digital transformation? 

Things will change and we need to be adaptable. It's about leveraging digital technologies. Remember, technology is the enabler that will create business models or modify the organization's existing business models and their processes. There will be a lot of cultural changes and customer expectations need to be continuously looked after, therefor digital will impact all aspects within the organization. It will be internally with employees, operational processes, the operating model, but also externally with customers, with suppliers, with governments.

You really should embrace a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability for the digital transformation. Every day should be a learning day for you in your digital transforming organization. Be open to change. Be prepared for a shift towards a culture that values innovation, that values flexibility, and quick adaptation to changes. Digital transformation often aims to empower employees.

We said previously, digital and technology does not take jobs away, and give it to robotics, AI, etc.  It takes away the repetitive tasks so that employees can do higher value work and provide them with better tools and data to make decisions much faster, so many routine tasks will become automated. Embrace digital and change. It's all about your attitude towards the continuous change. Remove the mindset of, but we've always done it this way.

Digital transformation will focus on improving the customer experience. We've seen previously in module 4 how customers have changed from the linear funnel movement towards a dynamic customer network within the funnel and that will improve the whole customer experience through personalized services and efficient processes.

Leadership absolutely plays a key role. Support the leadership initiatives that will execute the digital transformation objectives, strategy, vision and mission. But always remember that teamwork, communication, and transparency are key pillars for a digital transformation. With digital transformations, it's a matter of experimentation, failing fast, learning fast. Small projects and scaling up once success have been achieved.

It will not be an overnight success story. As the organization transform from the inside out, it will take time. George Westerman, from MIT Sloan, an expert in digital transformations, in 2020 famously said, when digital transformation is done right, it's like a caterpillar turning into a beautiful butterfly. But when done wrong, all you have is a really fast-moving caterpillar. 

Digital transformation opens up new career opportunities pathways for within the organization. We see the likes of AI trainers and AI auditors, ethics experts in AI, cybersecurity analysts, data brokers. Even AI explainers, so a lot of new opportunities will come into play. So, the roles, even current roles, will evolve and change.

And as we said, learning and having an open mindset is really crucial for the digital transformation. So be open to role changes and the need to acquire new competencies and embrace digital transformation.

That is essential for employees to remain relevant and effective in the digital age. By continuously learning and being adaptable employees can contribute significantly to their organization’s success in digital transformation in the digital age.

In this last lesson, we will look at why the digital transformation is never finished.

For the organization to stay relevant and open for business, they will have to continuously adapt, adopt and change how products and services are delivered. It will be a matter of innovation, creativity and constantly thinking outside the box and ahead.  New products and offerings will be created, and your organization will most likely adopt digitally adaptive ecosystem thinking.

It's a matter of continuous change and improvement in technology that will drive how we organize our organizations in the digital age with regards t people, processes, and then the enabler, which is technology.  There will be changes in digital and data driven opportunities and threats external to the organization. We know that we can only control what's inside the organization, not externally. 

We as an organization do not have a say in what new technological advances there will be in the future.  Let me give you an example of this.  All car manufacturers did not one day sat together and said to one another let’s start developing electrical vehicles. It started with one, and then the rest of them had to adapt and adopt the new technology in order to stay relevant and stay in business. 

The journey will be continuous to maintain and increase the organization's digital competitive advantage. Old, outdated, traditional organizations have a lot of catching up to do and it is simply not good enough to protect and maintain the status quo and the organization's current competitive advantage. It is all about the organization’s continuous digital competitive advantage.

 It's a continuous journey, and you are part of that continuous journey.

Welcome to the conclusion.

Thank you very much! It was an absolute pleasure to have you on this course! I hope you've had a great time learning about Digital Transformation and how you as an employee and a very important stakeholder in your organization can play your part to ensure success in the digital transformation. 

Remember, no knowledge is ever wasted. Knowledge is power and I sincerely hope that you can take away as much knowledge as possible from this course.