The session today on uh leading digital transformation as digital champions. I'm a green cock of Shah. I would like to take this opportunity to thank uh Woman Tech Network and uh to all of you for showing interest in digital transformation.And uh I think, I think before we start, I can see that there are a number of attendees here. OK. So before we start, I would like to quickly introduce myself. Right? Briefly, I'm a technology and transformation consultant, futurist. Uh I'm having 12 years of diversified corporate experience across telecom industry, uh worked with Telco giants like Erickson Oro and so on. I've been engaged in entrepreneur space and tech start ups also in the promotion of futuristic technologies, which took me to start my own initiative called A Consulting Space recently. So to start off, uh we explore the notion of adapter dye. So we talk about the term wa I would like to know in the chat if you have heard of this term. So U A is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And it is originally a military term used to describe a multilateral world perceived at the end of the Cold War and what it entails is to stay relevant in the dynamic uh and changing business environment to survive. And that's one of the biggest challenges for companies today.

Be it any industry, if you look at it's facing disruption like nothing before. And you would agree that one of the classic example of H A situation is COVID, some of these companies, uh you know, they took advantages of the situation like Facebook, but the others were negatively impacted like airbnb. Now, the basis of W A has been talking about change and there is a hypothesis in evolutionary biology called red queen effect, which proposes that species must constantly adapt and evolve in order to survive ever evolving, opposing species. Now, this is a metaphor which is used in the business world to describe the unsuccessful efforts of a company to get ahead of its competition. It is inspired by the statement that Red Queen made to Alice. Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. And the fact is that companies either get bankrupt or taken over only 11% of fortune 500 companies from 1955 are still on the list today. So if we look at the current situation, industry 4.0 is driven by digital transformation or you can say digital disruption to begin with. And really we experience technology in almost everything we do. Be it our personal or professional space.

Whether it's self driving cars, drone delivery automation, everywhere, high speed connectivity at homes. We have come really far in our journey of technology. And so talking about the new business models of today, we talk about the disruptive companies, what are disrupting companies, those that have successfully gained the market and are now digital leaders because they have understood the mechanism of disruption when it comes to futuristic technologies.

So let's see how these companies are actually disrupting around us. Amazon, for example, changed the way we purchase. Netflix changed the way we entertain ourselves. Spotify, changed the way we enjoyed music. Uber changed the way we transport, Airbnb changed the way we planned our travel.

And of course whatsapp changed the way we even communicate. So could we have imagined a retailer like Amazon becoming a digital tech and cloud leader? It's all about reinventing yourself, right? Thanks to continuous improvement and innovation, it was able to disrupt Microsoft business.

Uh So if technology is available to every business, then what separates businesses that adapt and thrive the digital world from those who fail. So one central insight was that transformation is not about technology rather, it's about strategy and new ways of thinking. And we need to understand this to change our perspective around transformation. So digital transformation is about the integration of digital technologies into all areas of the business. Fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to the customer. It's also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo experiment and get comfortable with failure. Now, what are the things that digital transformed companies really do? Well, well, they ensure high customer Centricity. This whole program of digital transformation has to be sponsored by the leadership team empowered from the top. They have a clear digital vision and strategy so crisp that 10 years from now it should be adaptable. Then they secure a workforce with digital skills. They also nurture a very strong digital culture. Uh having a high level of automation where data is treated as an asset and their customer journeys are actually highly digitalized and they also have a very short time to value and new innovations and finally, their workforce and organization are responsible.

And so if we combine all of these elements or all of these uh you know, things that companies do, we come up to the four elements that comprise of digital transformation and what are those customer Centricity, digital ways of working culture and people. And finally, tech enablers and with these digital transformation is actually challenging us to rethink the rules of the business. Now, if we start with the first element, which is customer simplicity, uh customers in general are served by two parallel front ends, the digital end and the personal end and they do oscillate between both ends depending on what way it is given to which the digital end can involve website webinars applications.

So basically digital systems without human intervention, right, the personal one involves events, workshops, sales interactions or even presentations. So they are digital but all are personal interactions, uh you know, at, at some level. So there is a mix of physical and digital personal interactions.

But of course, now the focus is to make digital and more dominant because it has its own benefits of self service work, zero marginal cost uh whatnot, right? Uh Now, if if you look at the company's strategy and of course, every company, they have their own road map and strategy for customer simplicity. Uh But in terms of customer experience, new products and services and new economic models, if you look at Domino's, which is a pizza making company. And one of the best examples of digital transformation, what they realized was they aren't selling a pizza, which is a product rather than an experience or a service. And that mentality actually made their customers life easier by access through apps, virtual assistants, chat, bots and whatnot.

Of course, Netflix of of course, uh also innovated its contents to suit the customer's needs when we talk about products and services and briefly Spotify also disrupted the industry with a new economic model. Now the question is how to become customer centric. So the tools for you as digital champions because you are leading this whole program first think of the business challenge or the strategy. And for that, we have this, you know, customer experience management framework which keeps on evolving with time and gives internal perspective.

Secondly, understand the customer issues and the pain points, making use of the you know, value proposition canvas. And then finally coming up with a solution which is possible through technology. So now, uh I think, I hope customer Centricity is, you know, a bit clear to you if you move on to the next element, which is digital ways of working. The question that we have here at hand is that do we have a company where people need to work or people want to work? The answer of course should be that people should want to work. And that's where the role of digital champions comes in who builds a company where want is preferred. So understanding this concept can lead us to a bigger focus of this transformation, which is building a responsive organization. So as you can see in the picture that the lifespan of businesses shrinks to con uh continues to shrink from 60 years to 30 to 80 companies have to be responsive, responsive because it's their survival mode, they don't have a choice. And what are the characteristics of a responsive organization in which we want to actually move from a siloed or hierarchical organization to agile and collaborative one through which the role of those executing and the role of those leading change dramatically.

And such organizations of course, have empowered teams which are adaptable. Uh They are cost grabo collaborative, they're autonomous and also they are purpose driven. And this brings us to the concept of agile things. Now, uh actual teams are basically a new way of executing cross functionally with speed using digital ways of working. Uh These themes are set to be the key for digital transformation. They are actually as you can see small sized execution vehicle to scale digital capabilities, they work iteratively to deploy and develop using minimum viable product approach. They are cross functional to deliver faster. They employ transport uh transparent mechanism to showcase their new ways of working.

And they also work in close collaboration with customer to always ensure that they have an impact. Now, we have a question here that why not agile ways of working? Why digital ways of working? The reason is because we want to focus on not just on a framework but rather on so many other ways of working like lean Scrum, devops because you as digital champions need to really understand this as leaders that there can be other uh you know, uh ways of working depending on the company's situation, the complexity, its maturity.

So agile is not just, you know, it's just one way of going about work, but they might it might defeat the purpose of, you know, uh exploring different possibilities of ways of working. And so as change drivers, you need to figure that out based on your company's nature. Now, the of course, the rules or ways of engaging in today's world is changing. So, what's the likely relevant fit for purpose for your organization? If you notice here on the left hand side, we have normal products of services and on the right side, we have commodities. So the question that lies here, is that, what kind of you're looking for? Is it the hierarchical leadership or is it the hierarchy, leadership that you're looking for also, uh is it the uh you know, the, the rules and the constraints that we talk about? Do we have them? Uh do uh from the people's perspective, do we want artists for creativity or, you know, on the right hand side, are we looking for town planners for structures, how predictable it is? You know, because when you're doing something new, how predictable it is also the idea of exploration and exploitation, you need to have the I you need to be an idea generation machine, you know, compared to having just the knowledge and of course adding practices like design thinking agile lean and six sigma to reach the most optimal way of doing things.

All this depends, of course the kind of product or service that you know, your company is all about finally uh sorry. On the third, on the third number, we have culture and people I just wanted to show see on the chat if it's everything is OK. OK. That's, I hope that all of you are following and if you have any questions, please do put on the chat uh coming to the third, which is culture and people, it's very important because culture drives attitudes, behaviors and mindsets, which actually leads to uh you know, people transformation.

And as the slide says that it's, it's one of the most biggest challenge for digital transformation. Cultural issue is always one of the obstacles because it's very difficult to actually transform practices and perspectives which have been built over years. And as much as it is challenging, it is the key to, you know, digital transformation as well because this French multinational Louis Vuitton says that the big moment for an organization is actually to embrace the fact that digital transformation isn't a technical issue but a cultural one.

So what kind of leadership this demands as Satya Nadella says, anything should anyone should be able to actually tell me anything that's the culture we strive for? So for this unique challenge to develop a unique culture, we need to actually build a unique leadership skill for the future, right? And how can we as digital champions reach there? Uh So now if I if I tell you like everything around us is being digitized, but if anything that cannot be digitized or automated will actually become extremely valuable in the future. And from this, we understand that the human only traits like creativity, imagination, intuition, ethics, they are going to be such important skills for us in the future. And for the future leadership. So this concludes that the only space which is left for innovation is actually you, it all starts from you because you are the movers and the shakers of digital transformation. So it really depends on you no matter how much technology savvy your company is or, or your, your your colleagues around you. We need to keep in mind that it's all about humans at the end of the day.

And we also need to ask ourselves and challenge ourselves whether we are being, we are driving the change or we are being driven by because transformation rarely happens accidentally, right? So the point here is that why don't you try and experiment, not only with yourself but your teams on daily basis. Like you can acknowledge what you do not know, you can be, you know, a leader who coaches and guides and engages the team. You can demonstrate empathy with your team, develop a clear and engaging digital vision and uh engage your team to develop the plan around it, empower them to do more experimentation in this way, create an environment which is innovative and you know, where you can learn continuously and also embrace failures and learn from them.

You should be focusing on the goals and the what and the why of both. Let your team decide how on how also challenge your team with the feedback, continuous feedback process. You can also identify digital skills for yourself and your team. What are the reskilling and upskilling needs, you know, for your monthly and quarterly plans and be a continuous learner and lead by example, you know, maybe from today onwards, you can start some of the rituals on daily basis, which can really impact change, not only for yourself but your team.

And you'll see that over time, this uh you know, these rituals have actually made their impact. Now moving to the last tech uh uh element which is tech enables. Now, finally, we are talking about technology because we know that digital transformation is not about technology.

Uh So our challenge today is that we are evolving into a super complex environment with more diverse service requirements coming from the customer. And no matter we move towards cloud based model or use edge computing, we are increasing complexity. The fact that all things around us are connected, you know, powered by sensors, cloud service A I what not they become intelligent and they generate real data of the way we operate, behave and go about our businesses. This gives an extraordinary power to businesses to leverage data, to enable us to differentiate and innovate our product offerings, automate automating everything around us and creating smart and intelligent ways to capture new value. Uh which of course, the legacy approaches will not be able to solve the problems, you know, solve all the, all the issues or all these you know pinpoints. So when we say that digital technology is not about technology. We're actually saying that these digital tech enablers like data automation and A I, they are basically enablers of the business transformation that we are aiming for, which could be 10 times being more efficient, for example. And where the data is a key intangible asset for value creation because data is not only the new oil, it is also the oxygen for digital economy.

Uh considering the potential of these enablers, we can move from, I know the past to know the present to I can know what's going to happen in the future. Two, I can know what should happen in the future. You know, because this is the new owner of any company today. Just imagine if you know beforehand which decisions our cus our customer is going to take and you know, put all our effort around those. Another example of better understanding of our customers, competitors and how we make decisions is Adidas. They are using 3D printing technology to know the unique needs of a user and then build a particular sports shoe just for them. They have realized that we have a problem of uh you know, moving from a fit for all models to unique shoe experience. And finally, what should be the A I and automation strategy. It's a journey, right, starting from manual to basic automation to machine learning. And A I A I gives us a proactive way to automate intelligently helping us to basically break the complexity curve and with A I algorithms, we can adapt to the complex environment and the constant changes that it provides. Thus outperforming any human driven solution, right? Uh A A I of course has the kind of power to predict prevent and handle events, incidents that can take down our Opex cost can help us save Capex by implementing the real time intelligent features into our products and our offerings and our services.

So A I along with data and automation brings value by enhancing existing offerings, enabling new functionalities and improving internal external processes always by trustworthy implementation. Uh Finally, the future doesn't just happen. Are you prepared enough for digital transformation of your company? That's the question. Thank you so much.

I hope you enjoyed the session. If you have any questions, I'd like to check in the chat. OK? For now. I don't.