Digital Disruption from the Peach State – but where can you buy peaches in the future?

Last week I was in Atlanta with our founder Ray Wang as well as with my colleague Alan Lepofsky. We were hosting a successful second road show event for Ray’s wonderful book – Disrupting Digital Business. During the event we were able to listen to leaders from Adobe and Infosys about how they are dealing with the rise of digital in their businesses. Of course we also heard from Ray on main stage about the key findings of his book. Click here for a link to the tour information.

Alan and I had the opportunity to host two round tables. Alan focusing on how these trends will impact the future of work and collaboration while I focused on retail and the supply chain.

As for my round table, both sessions had lively discussions around how this digital revolution is fundamentally changing the retail and overall supply chains. Here are some take aways:

• Digital is impacting the future of the store. What is the role of the storefront? eCommerce, mobile, social were a few areas that have had deep impact on how we trade and the role of the store front. We covered such areas as stores becoming multifunctional assets – acting as both traditional stores as well as distribution centers. Or even becoming primarily show rooms. One of the issues that this creates is how the financials will also have to change. Revenue per square foot may not be a true measure of a store’s usefulness with these new functions. Savvy CFOs need to be aware of this shift and figure out how to navigate those waters.
• Can players within the supply chain work to do a better job with data sharing? A question we have been dealing with as long as there have been supply chains. Anyone who has played the beer game can attest one of the biggest hurdles is to have better data exchange amongst all the players in the supply chain. While all the parties know that conceptually this would help all their causes, the ability and desire to actually share data continues to be an issue. Clearly based on our discussion at the round table this has not been adequately solved. An ever increasing infusion of digital technology within the supply chain is not a panacea. The ability to have players within the supply chain to share more information is all about process change, cultural transformation and trust. What digital and data can provide, are some hard numbers to demonstrate the value of being more open. But remains a challenge.
• Our shopping experience has only seen the beginning of disruption! We spent a good amount of time thinking ahead, what will the retail experience look like in 10 years. Everything from virtual reality shopping, similar to what Burberrys has attempted in London, to shopping experienced leaning on driverless vehicles that would whisk us from our homes and through stores to purchasing products in customized packages, quantities, sizes – true customization for the individual. All great examples, all that could come true due to the digital revolution we are in the midst of. Of course few CxOs are willing to invest capital in futuristic concepts that do not have a tangible ROI. As with many of these changes, CxOs need to focus on the use cases that can provide returns and benefits in the short term, build on these use cases to lay down the digital rail road tracks that will be necessary for the more futuristic opportunities.

A whirlwind tour last week, between being in San Diego and Atlanta, but the Digital Disruption tour was a wonderful event. Selfishly it was great to spend time with companies such as Coca Cola, Carters, Adobe and Infosys to name a few and discuss how digital is impacting their businesses. The road show will continue, now swinging through Europe. Well worth attending.

Meet me in Atlanta to discuss digital disruption

Digital disruption is all around us, how is that for a bold statement! But the reality is we are in the midst of a business and supply chain world that is being transformed, in ways we could never imagine, by the digital revolution that is underway.

We are all aware of these changes in our personal live – Uber, Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter, Amazon are a few examples of how digital has impacted our daily lives. But what about in our businesses and supply chains? In these areas we are also seeing disruptors emerge – 3D printing and IoT are the latest to capture the headlines. But we have already seen mobile, social, big data and the cloud have major impacts on our businesses and supply chains. These forces are both disrupting but also empowering the supply chains of today to move forward.

 

Join my colleagues Ray Wang and Alan Lepofsky in Atlanta on May 14th as we discuss how digital is impacting business. Ray will highlight and delve into his recent book – Disrupting Digital Business. While Alan will lead discussions on how the intersection of analytics and collaboration tools will power the next generation of productivity software.

I am excited for the event which will undoubtedly be a smashing success. If you are in the area and want to join us for what will be a lively discussion and enjoyable event click here to register.

The is open to VP or C-level executives and is free of charge.

The team at Consteallation Research and our sponsors from WiPro and Adobe look forward to seeing you there.

>>>REGISTER NOW!<<<

Death, Taxes and Supply Chain Disruptions!

It is that time of the year again here in the United States…tax day. You know how the saying goes:

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

—Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789

I might add another certain to Ole Ben’s letter – supply chain disruptions. Unfortunately much like death and taxes, these disruptions are not something to look forward to. But much like taxes and death, the inevitability of their happening does not mean we shouldn’t plan for their potential impacts. By preparing for these events we can ensure that we emerge from these situations in the best shape possible.

During the first few months of this month I have heard the same concerns about our supply chains:

• Acts of nature are unpredictable. Yes floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, blizzards, ash clouds, hurricanes and the list goes on, of natural events are unpredictable and constant. While one day we
  

  Making cars not boats

  maybe able to control the weather and other natural phenomenon (according to some James Bond villains) today we remain at the mercy of Mother Nature. Our abilities to predict acts like the weather are better but certainly not 100% accurate. And we have have to find good ways of pinpointing where earth quakes and volcanic eruptions will occur.

• Macroeconomic drivers are constantly changing. Exchange rates, the price of oil, deflation and other economic characteristics are driven by government, corporation and human action, but sometimes we cannot really understand the outcomes of these acts. Of course at some level of supply chains entities can afford to pay for influence at these economic levels…but even that does not ensure full control or understanding of outcomes.
• Humans…yes we are unpredictable at the end of the day. When I studied political science and economics I always struggled with the notion of a “rational” actor or state. What is rational to me might not be to you and vice versa. Yet all of our theories started with some assumptions around “rational” behavior. Of course the same is true within our supply chains. Whether it is a buyer, a worker, a partner or any other human within the supply chain we cannot always assume we understand their behaviors and actions.

So what does this mean? When it comes to our supply chains we should focus on three rules:

• Embrace the growing amounts of data and sources of that data. While data is not the panacea for our ills, it can provide clearer picture of what is happening and where things are being impacted. The growth of data as well as what is producing the data (think IoT) opens the door for companies to get a greater understanding of their supply chain. This digital disruption will only continue to grow in importance – maximize the value for your supply chain.
• Constantly push yourself to keep an eye on possible new business models. Anyone who has been in business, gone to business school or just read a business publication knows that the secret is to always be ahead of your competitors with “paradigm” changing models. True. But not easy to identify. However within our supply chains we do not need to always identify but more – be open to discovering and leveraging these opportunities when they present themselves.
• Focus on what you can control. Understand what you cannot control and think about how it can impact your supply chain, but focus on what you can control. The data should help you better understand what is possible as well – but there must be a discipline as to what is controllable and what is not. Within the context of modern supply chains, this discipline is even more crucial.

Like death and taxes, disruptions to your supply chain will be a constant. The good thing is that new digital aspects have given supply chains a fresh arsenal of solutions and business processes to offer solutions to meet this disruptive realities.

 

Software AG isn’t picking sides

It must be the season for analyst days, for the second week in a row I attended an event specifically for industry analysts, the media and financial analysts. These events are a great way to get a quick update, spend some quality time with executives and see old friends. Plus this one was a few blocks away in Boston! Software AG rolled out their executives to provide a recap on where they came from in 2014 and more importantly where they see the future for the German software giant.

Software AG stressed their transition to helping their customers’ transition to a digital business. Where does digital disruption come from? From Dr John Bates presentation, Software AG pointed out three areas they are seeing disruption come from:

• Connected customer: This is nothing new, but we are all aware that the consumers’ voice is growing in importance. Digital aspects such as social media, mobile, big data to name a few, force companies to seek a 360-degree view of their customers.
• IoT – the Internet of Things: In a way IoT is making machines and devices as connected as the customer. Having this level of connectivity brings great opportunity as well as potential additional IT strain to companies.
• Proactive risk compliance: This is particularly true in such industries as finance, but also in other verticals such as life sciences and even food and beverage.

In order to address these disruptors and empower their customers they are focusing on providing a digital business platform. An agnostic middleware that will allow developers to create applications that can be created “as needed.” All interesting ideas and make sense. The main question moving forward is how will Software AG balance their desire to remain neutral and agnostic, while trying to create the suite and ecosystem that can propel the software vendor in to a leadership position. Their belief is that the software industry has changed and that the old style that package application vendors went about developing solutions cannot meet the needs of today’s businesses.

There is some merit to this point of view. The fact software has “eaten” the world is the reality of the business environment we live in. Companies will look to have the flexibility and tools available to quickly spin up necessary applications. Solutions that are crucial for these companies to respond to their business needs. For example companies such as Turkcell can ensure they have the proper solutions in place to respond to their

Leaning on SAG to address customer demands

customer needs. Being capable of flexibly creating solutions that address demand creation and shaping are vital to drive their retail practice. Turkcell is dealing with the connected customer, where demands and needs are constantly evolving. The ability for Turkcell to have the flexibility to create solutions to address these ever changing needs is crucial. Taking advantage of this flexibility has offered Turkcell the ability to offer their customers the right promotion at a precise time, yielding $15m of additional revenue.

Software AG is heading in the right direction and is providing relevant case studies when it comes to creating a true digital business platform. The question is can they continue to be Switzerland (with regards to their neutrality) of the solution providers or will they eventually have to commit themselves to an ecosystem?

Capgemini – all about making innovation a habit

Last week I decided to escape the snowy and brutal winter that has blanketed Boston and head to a sunny and warmer location – Chicago. Ha, clearly I am suffering from cabin fever. The reality is Chicago was warmer and had barely any snow, but enough about the weather.

What brought my colleague Ray Wang and me to Chicago was to visit Capgemini and attend their well-organized analyst day. The theme over the two days was pretty clear – innovation is the future for Capgemini. Easy to proclaim, difficult to execute. So can Capgemini live up to their lofty proclamation? Only time will tell but here are three take-aways that indicate they are on the right path:

• Instilling the closed loop process to innovation: Innovation cannot be a one time event, something that falls into a to-do list that we can check off as complete and move on to the next task. Being able to innovate must be something an organization takes on as a habit. Similar to exercising – going to the gym or for a swim is okay as a one-time event, but making it a habit is where we draw the greatest benefits. Capgemini emphasized the importance of infusing a habit of innovating with not only their clients but within their own organization. They highlighted work they did with many of their customers to constantly seek and execute on innovative needs. One such customer is one of North America’s largest agriculture co-operatives, who highlighted two large-scale workshops they had leveraging Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment facilitated process. These resulted in some important changes as well as greater innovative process for the companies 17 divisions. The framework from Capgemini is simple but requires discipline and rigor to stay with the process:
  • Discover – These are where the in person sessions are vital to flesh out where the needs are and what can be implemented.
  • Devise – Think of this as the fail fast segment. Implement quickly and learn quickly as to what works and will not.
  • Deploy – Take the successes from the prior stage and begin to deploy across the board.
  • Sustain – This is the key closed loop element. This cannot be a one-time project but must constantly build on itself. Sustain brings you back to the Discover phase.
• Failure is just as important as success: It could be argued that failure is the foundation of success. The whole notion of “fail fast” is what allows you to get to the successes sooner. Capgemini highlighted an example of working with a large CPG to exploring greater efficiencies via using Google glass. Unfortunately, the project did not achieve the goals. But fortunately for all the parties involved they absorbed plenty of learning from the experience. As Capgemini stated, just because the project did not catch on, does not mean it will not resurface down the road. The use of the technology for the original goal did not get adopted, but the learning that came from the process was successful. Capgemini’s customer shelved what would have been a large expenditure, Google was provided with the feedback to improve their product and the findings from the experience provide the basis for potential similar projects in the future. As a client stated during the conference “The toe stubs are where innovation comes from.” Which is why the next take away is crucial to the innovation journey.
• Long term relationship, not speed dating: Capgemini clearly displayed that their mind set is to develop and maintain long-term relationships with their customer base. They truly want to be seen as a partner for their customers and not only as firefighters being brought on to put out fires. Capgemini highlighted a number of clients Hydro One, Syngenta, Jamba Juice and Coca Cola to name a few. Wanting to create a long term business relationship is the goal of most companies, regardless of their industry. But it is clear for companies such as Capgemini, Accenture, KPMG and TCS to name a few, the days of large one off projects to implement large package applications are dwindling. That revenue stream cannot be sustainable. Becoming a trusted advisor to navigate the continually shifting technology and business process landscape could provide a more reliable revenue stream. It certainly will not be easy, but marriage never is!

It is clear that Capgemini recognizes the needed to move from being an integrator to a trusted advisor. They provided some thoughts and some voice of the customer that seems to point to Capgemini being on the right path. However it will be interesting to see if they can make this innovation partnership a large enough chunk of their business. They did mention during the session that they did see lots of business from merger and acquisitions. These feel like firefighting opportunities. Companies need to consolidate systems and processes after a business event, but does that translate to long-term partnerships? To be determined.

The new model for innovation is about delivering a stream of innovation not just one great idea. The right strategic direction for the company, but the journey will not be without major difficulties. But nothing worth achieving is simple.