Enterprise
Words by Yeo Siang Tiong
PLAN YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 5 key lessons from Sun Tzu’s Art of War
B
eing in the IT industry for the last 28 years, I had the chance to observe the many advancements and upheavals in the field – advancements in technology, changes in standards and protocols, mergers and acquisitions, layoffs, and re-organizations. But I have never seen Southeast Asia (SEA) transforming at a breakneck speed until this pandemic. This transition boils down to one segment — digital. In fact, the region reached more than the forecasted 310 million online consumers for 2025 in 2020, five years in advance. Thanks to the 40 million first-time internet users last year from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. As a result, there is now an urgent need for businesses to reconsider their infrastructure, their business model, and their ways of doing transactions. The stakes are higher for firms to wade through this digital wave, with this global crisis in the background.
September 2021
So today, I want to share five key areas decision-makers should consider while planning for a digital transformation. Inspired by Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the concepts and examples are based on my views and lengthy experiences in the IT industry. These 5 areas are 五事：道、 天、地、将、法。
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Alignment Alignment from the board level or CEO to the last men in the frontline like customer support and sales is important. If aligned, the men will fight the toughest war. The “Shared Values” and “Strategy” in the McKinsey 7-S Model are probably the closest elements to this concept. Unfortunately, modern management theory sees shareholders as the ultimate people to please, with employees as mere digits akin to the factory workers of the Industrial Age. Coupled with disproportional use of debt-based leveraged buyouts, owners are no longer owners, and, alas, the voices of employees who staked their well-being on the company are hijacked.
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Fortunately, this is probably true only for larger corporations where the gains are meaty. Nonetheless, for all corporations of various sizes, the spirit of the company is the thread that weaves all together. Without a clear sense of direction and purpose that is well communicated, the individual parts can be difficult to summon and align. Applying this logic to digital transformation, the whole company, from the C-suite to the groundwork staff, should be structured correctly, aligned, fully aware, and onboard. A good example is how companies pivot into digital retail. It is important that the company is well aligned to execute this. The company needs to understand that digital retail is another channel to reach the same customer. So for companies who do not have a consistent strategy for omnichannel, they end up setting up a new department to target this without rallying the other conventional channel to join the race, causing fault lines to divide the company.
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