Digital Transformation: “Do or do not. There is no try.”

“Digital transformation” is all the rage these days, or it’s supposed to be. Much like — in the past — other transformations were supposed to be the latest greatest thing.

We could make a list. It’d probably include things like these:

• Total Quality Management
• ISO 9000
• Empowering your people
• Business process reengineering
• 360 Degree Feedback
• Six Sigma
• Stack Ranking
• Core Competence
• Open Plan Offices
• etc…

Now, to be fair, several of these transformations were and remain worthwhile…while others were probably a bad idea at the best of times.

Image from Northwestern University

But, as we get further and further into the 21st century, Digital Transformation is no mere fad and it’s certainly NEVER a bad idea.

Many people regard “Digital Transformation” as being difficult for their particular industry or business. The excuses given are reminiscent of the old scene from Yes Minister.

If you recognize any of the excuses, you’re far from alone in the world. And if you take even one basic conclusion from this little article of mine, let it be that none of the excuses are valid and that you need to get on with your own digital transformation.

I’d like to tell you a little story about an industry….an industry that you may think is as traditional as it’s possible to be. Yet this industry has been moving with the times and has undertaken a huge digital transformation.

Wooden boat building has existed as an industry since before the dawn of civilization. Wooden boat building is older than agriculture.

A dugout canoe or log boat. Copyright Clive Perrin. Creative Commons Licence.

And yet the wooden boat building industry in mature markets like Europe and North America has changed beyond all recognition in the past 20–25 years. Common features of a wooden boat building business these days include:

• Build to order (zero stock, potentially negative working capital)
• Fully computerized design processes (CAD)
• Computer cut parts (laser, water and 2D or 3D milling)
• Fully online self-serve customization on the web or mobile
• Fully digital marketing and customer relationship management
• Use of high tech materials (epoxy, plywood, carbon fibre, etc)
• Remote manufacturing (close to the customer, far from the company)
• Low fixed cost of setup
• etc.

Building a wooden boat nowadays looks like this.

3D laser cut frame from Dix Designs. CNC flat cutting from CLC boats.

A wooden boat designed in Canada or South Africa on American software by a Dutch designer can by laser cut in France on a German machine and built in Switzerland by an Italian.

And without any of these people ever meeting each other.

And it’s not just the actual boat building. Boat building is — for many people- a hobby. They’re building a boat for themselves, not for others. So there are extensive training courses and classes and support services. And most are now entirely online, particularly since Covid.

So, again, an Englishman can attend a training course given by a Canadian company and taught by a Frenchman and then assemble an entirely computer generated boat.

And in case you think this is only happening at the craft or artisan level, here’s a picture of a rather nice French wooden boat.

A CNC cut wooden boat. Image from Yaching World.

Another important aspect of these boat building techniques is that the tooling is much less capital intensive than the moulds required for normal fiberglass boat building. So you can change the design faster in response to customer feedback and make each boat better than the last.

“Agile Boatbuilding” in fact.

Meantime, we have companies in any number of industries around the world still pondering whether they should engage in a “digital transformation”.

I’m not sure which of these images is the better response to that.

Homer Simpson — Copyright Matt Groening

Insurance companies are still “getting around to it”. Retailers are “looking at the possibilities”. Companies of endless sorts are “concerned that it will disrupt our existing relationships”.

There is only one univerally applicable message to companies in this mode.

Image from https://brightdrops.com/

If you are still having this conversation, you’re leaving it very late. Your competitors are probably well along their journey. If you’re concerned about your staff not having the necessary skills, start to train them…otherwise you’re not doing them any favours. If you don’t know what to do next, start talking to people and figuring it out.

Wooden boat builders were a pretty traditional lot. There are indeed some people still building boats “in the old way”, but they’re almost always one man bands and they’re dying out….usually (and sadly) literally. Jimmy Furey was one of the most skilled wooden boat builders of his generation. By all accounts an amazing man.

Here’s a video from the late 1980s.

Here’s a video from 2015.

His methods didn’t change. But the rest of industry has transformed itself.

If you want to approach your industry with the painstaking craft of Jimmy Furey, I can only admire your determination and let you at it. He built about 20 boats in over 30 years and his craft mostly died with him.

Meantime, others are building similar boats at a considerably higher pace and lower cost with CAD design tools and CNC cutting machines. And the boats will probably last longer and be easier to maintain.

A CAD designed and CNC built boat from Jordan Boats

Digital Transformation has many faces. It can include all aspects of the business. In fact it’s probably more accurate to turn the approach the other way up. If your business isn’t transforming itself and using digital technologies in the transformation, your business is already dying.

And yes, Yoda said it best.

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So, come back next week for “What is Digital Transformation anyway?” and the quick guide to “What should I do if I want to do?”

See me at https://www.hughsheehy.com and https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/hughsheehy/