Once a Sense of Urgency and the guiding coalition has been created for Digital Transformation we need to ensure that we have vision and strategy in place. Vision & Strategy provides Why & How to ensure that the end result of Digital Transformation is successfully delivered.
Vision refers to a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on why people should strive to create that future.
Here are some of the best and widely known vision statements.
Google
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Amazon.com
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Importance of Vision:
- Clarifies the general direction of change to ensure that everyone is moving ion the right direction.
- Motivates to take action in right direction. Motivation is the most important ingredient for the success of any change.
- Coordinates the action of different people. It provides autonomy to Individuals and teams and while reducing conflicts.
“An ineffective vision may be worse than no vision at all”- John P. Kotter
It is very important to spend time and energy to create an effective vision. Effective Vision is imaginable, desirable, feasible, flexible, focused and can be communicated.
It is able to convey a picture of what the future will look like. It should be deeply rooted in the reality of product or service markets and also appeal and serve well to the long-term interests of enterprise stakeholders. If it is not feasible it is a pipe dream hence should consist of realistic and attainable goals. At the same time it should be general enough to allow individual initiatives and alternative responses in light of changing conditions.
If you look at example mission statements on the top you can see how easy it is to communicate and successfully explain them within five minutes. These are clear enough to provide guidance in decision-making and ensuring all projects are done in support of the vision.
Some famous quotes on Creating Vision:
“Developing a good vision is an exercise of both the head and the heart, it takes sometime, it always involves a group of people, and it is tough to do well.” – John P. Kotter
“Vision is never created in a single meeting. The activity takes months, sometimes years” – John P. Kotter
Strategy provides both logic and first level of detail to show how a vision can be accomplished.
A good digital strategy provides a clear guidance on:
- Current state
- Competitive and Industry Analysis
- Roadmap that defines high-level initiatives
- High-level timeline
- Required Investment
- Benefits & ROI
It is important to keep in mind that even a digital transformation is just not about technology. The strategy for any digital transformation should cover the following four areas:
- Technology
- Projects
- People
- Processes and People Enablement
Tools to build Strategy: I have tried many tools in the market but every time I have settled back with the basic tools like Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world. – Joel A. Barker
