Last time, I described how my improbable journey to Igniting New Growth using ‘Digital’ methods began. I was an engineer and Lean/OpEx acolyte and had spent decades learning & applying the powerful methodologies and mindset of the Toyota Production System (aka ‘Lean’). Then, through my colleague, Laurent Simon, I began to experience the world of ‘Fintech’ and Financial Services Innovation. I attended international conferences in innovation hot spots. I absorbed the work of Steve Blank, Alex Osterwalder, Ash Maurya and Clayton Christensen.
During frequent visits to Singapore, I observed and participated in Digital innovation sprints led by Laurent and team. I made friends with people like Paul Cobban, Chief Transformation Office (retired) of DBS, repeat winner of the ‘Best Digital Bank in the World’ award. I came to realize that ‘Digital’ was as profound as the Lean/OpEx revolution led by Taiichi Ohno, W. Edwards Deming, Shigeo Shingo and Peter Drucker.
Lean/OpEx is necessary, but not sufficient. We also must ignite new growth using Digital methods. Laurent was right. At the same time, I realized that I had a great deal to teach my colleagues in the world’s innovation hot spots. Young innovators have large gaps in their knowledge – (how could it be otherwise?) Things that I took for granted were opaque to them. And so began a journey of shared learning that has inspired me these past eight years.
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Singapore, Bugis, the Arab quarter and Sultan Mosque, one of my favorite |
Igniting new growth entails understanding the customer better than they understand themselves. I know that sounds like a ‘line’, but I have experienced it, and it is true. Igniting new growth entails defining the customer’s journey, needs, wants and jobs-to-be-done through rapid experimentation. And then defining countermeasures, including ‘exponential technologies’, to those needs, wants and jobs to be done – again through rapid experimentation. Each iteration entails the ‘Double-Diamond’ of Design Thinking, surely one of the great paradigms of our age, and recurring cycles of Discover & Validate, Discover & Validate.
Igniting new growth often, but not always, means partnering with technology companies, and developing digital platforms to complement traditional value stream businesses. Igniting new growth often entails digitizing existing Customer Journeys, developing new digital offerings, and new digital ventures.
And here’s the proviso: igniting new growth requires a solid foundation of Lean/OpEx. This insight really landed for me thanks to a senior RPA1 executive whose firm we had engaged to digitize critical elements of a client bank’s ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) process.
‘If you bring us garbage processes,’ the RPA exec told me, ‘you’ll get garbage at the speed of light.’
You cannot sustain Growth unless you have a stable foundation. Andy Grove, Intel’s legendary CEO, called it ‘High Performance Management’, whose principles he expressed in his classic book of the same title. High Performance Management mirrors Lean/OpEx.
My practice these past eight years has comprised mentoring senior leaders through the following programs:
- Exec 101 – Protect your core business
- Exec 201 – Ignite new Growth
I’ve experienced the ‘hockey stick curve’ with Innovation teams around the world – there’s nothing like it. It’s as exciting as launching a major new car model.
Our challenge is a) to fully absorb and inhabit the world of Digital transformation, and b) to help anchor this marvelous world in the eternal verities of Lean/OpEx.
It’s helpful, but not essential, to have a Digital Sherpa. I supplemented Laurent’s teaching by doing robotics projects with my teenage son, Matthew. It was a challenge – the languages I’d learned as a young engineer were now antiques.
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Laurent & Pascal at a hockey game in Toronto |
Participating in Digital innovation sprints led by Laurent has been invaluable. I thereby absorbed the core methodologies including Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Agile ways of working, and Growth Hacking. I also began to understand the nature of digital transformation in major international organizations. The chessboard became clear, as did its players, laws and core stratagems.
And so did our overall approach to Digital Transformation, which now comprises three ‘Swimlanes’:
- Digital Strategy & Executive Coaching,
- Capability building through the Pragmatic Intrapreneur Network, and
- ‘Hot house’ innovation projects aligned with Aspiration
Laurent and I decided to express our ideas in a business novel, a format I’d had success in the past. People love good stories, especially if they’re based on lived experience. We’d both lived through intense transformations – why not write about what we’d seen and felt?
We chose a glamorous location and industry – Singapore and the heady world of international finance. The story would be a no-holds barred account of real people in a real company in trouble. We wanted to illustrate the situations, characters, and blockers you’ll likely face as you progress through your own journey of discovery and transformation. The book is also love letter to Singapore, and the settings include our favorite watering holes, neighbourhoods and hangouts. In fact, the Appendix includes a map and links to all our favorite places.
Fittingly, we released Harnessing Digital Disruption – How Organizations with Design Thinking, Agile and Lean Startup during the COVID-19 pandemic, which shed a bright light on our core themes.
How do we create better customer journeys, new digital offerings and ventures, while protecting our core business?
What new skills and ways of thinking must we develop to remain relevant in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world?
What battles must we win on the path to revival and prosperity for all stakeholders?
What kind of leadership will be required?
I’m considering launching a Newsletter to answer such questions & to tell stories about what I’ve seen & learned. Is that something you all would be interested in reading?
Best wishes,
Pascal Dennis
E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS Drop me an email to learn more about my executive mentoring programs:
- Exec 101 – Protecting the Core Business, and
- Exec 201 – Infighting New Growth
1. Robotic Process Automation, also known as software robotics, uses intelligent automation technologies to perform repetitive office tasks of human workers, such as extracting data, filling in forms, moving files and more.↩
In case you missed our last few blogs… please feel free to have another look…
Igniting New Growth – My Improbable Journey, Part 1
Year-End: Why Is Reflection So Difficult?
What is a Good Life?
All Systems Must Support Humanity – Including Lean
