Charlene Li is a specialist of digital transformation. In her post ‘Big Gulp Decisions‘ she expands on the issue of taking the decision to move into actual transformation after the phases of analysis and planning. If it is a real disruption, the change will be dramatic and probably irreversible. What does it take to move forward?
“In many ways the reasons why most organizations do not go into the disruptive strategies and really move into that assertively and intentionally is that they come up to this big gulp moment and they haven’t prepared for it. For some reason they think some magic wand will show up and they can wave it and it’ll be an easy obvious decision. It’s never that way“
So, many failures in transformation programs could stem from the fact that when comes the time, the decision is not actually taken.
This decision can’t be a half-hearted decision. The governance body must be prepared to take it. It might be the main responsibility of the directors, in addition to planning for the transformation, and it might be the most difficult decision to make: what are you willing to stop doing? Are you willing to bet the house on the transformation? Will you stick to it whatever happens?
“Preparing for that big gulp moment is something that has to be built into a disruption strategy. What are the preparations, the data you need to make? Also, what are you going to do afterwards to be able to make sure that people are aligned and able to move forward from the big gulp moment?“
