Digital Transformations and Future State Visions

The last article focused on reengineering transformations and their future state visions and provided an example of a future state vision developed during a reengineering transformation in the 1990s.? This article focuses on the role future state visions play in digital transformations and provides a description and examples taken directly from a Google AI Overview summary.?

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Digital Transformations Have Future State Visions Too

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Future state visions are recommended for digital transformations just like they are for reengineering transformations. ?The only difference is digital transformations have future state vision statements instead of blueprints.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: “A digital transformation future state vision refers to?a clear, aspirational picture of how an organization wants to operate in the future by leveraging digital technologies, encompassing changes to business models, processes, customer experiences, and internal operations, ultimately aiming to achieve a more efficient, agile, and competitive position in the market.

Example future state vision statements:

• To be the leading provider of personalized, on-demand services through a fully digital platform, delivering exceptional customer experiences and exceeding market expectations.
• To transform into a data-driven organization, using advanced analytics to optimize operations, predict customer needs, and drive continuous improvement.
• To create a future where our employees are empowered by cutting-edge digital tools, enabling them to collaborate seamlessly and deliver innovative solutions."?

Digital Statements and Reengineering Blueprints

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Why is a vision blueprint so important for a reengineering transformation and not for a digital transformation?? A number of good reasons come to mind.

• Different change types - - digital transformations are typically planned change, while reengineering transformations are typically emergent change.?
• Different BHAGs - - digital transformations’ primary goal is often about implementing an ERP system on time and on budget, while a reengineering transformation’s primary goal is more likely to be about radically improving some aspect of operational performance.
• Different levels of perceived risk - - digital transformations are about software the vendor and outside integrators know well from the get-go, while reengineering transformations are primarily about process, structure, and culture redesign where the answers are unknown at the get-go.
• Different employee impacts - - digital transformations impact system users most dramatically, while reengineering transformations impact people managers most dramatically.

It All Makes Sense?

In the case of digital transformations, the PM often starts with a plan that will be followed because that plan has been used successfully before, where the goal is a part of the plan, and the PM knows the redesigned processes will conform to the ERP system functionality, and if they can keep operations employees informed and are able to train system users so they are competent on Day 1... all should be well. In a situation where so much is known about the future state going in and so many of the enablers are controlled a vision statement works just fine.

In the case of reengineering transformations, the PM often starts knowing they don’t know much. What they do know is problems are lurking, and they know they must rely on their ability to anticipate trouble to reduce that risk, and they are trying to achieve a goal that requires lots of disparate parts of the organization to operate harmoniously, which depends on people managers figuring out how to manage consistently, in spite of their various skill sets and styles.? ?In a situation where so little is known going in and so many of the enablers are uncontrolled the future state vision needs to be a blueprint.

Future state visions don’t make either of these approaches better than the other.? They both fail at approximately the same very high rate.? They both leverage all of the best tools available.? They both can potentially deliver huge benefits.??

Certainly, there are exceptions to the descriptions above for both digital transformations and reengineering transformations, but based on my own experience they are accurate.?