The company was a pioneer in adoption of technology for a
long time; this was facilitated by a visionary business leader who believed
that IT will make the difference when every other aspect of business had been
copied by competitors. Thus he pushed the enterprise to invest in technology
which none in the industry had deployed; they did not succeed all the time, but
he continued to push on, challenging not just the business team, he also nudged
the IT team to take risks and come up with new opportunities to grow the
business.
As the company grew, so did competition expanding the market
as well as taking advantage of newer technologies. That did not take away the
advantage of process and technology maturity from the early adopter; with new
leaders taking on the primary mantle of business, they however did not pick up
pace that was necessary in the face of new paradigms of business. Leadership
change made decision making shift to lower risk model for new projects and
doing more of what made them successful in the past.
A shift occurred when a new CIO was hired to replace the
exiting IT leader who had lost interest due to change in organization dynamics
and the fact that he had lost connect with the business. With the new came wave
of expectations; he got off the ground running and had the IT team charged up
with his collaborative approach. Business also loved his connect, can-do
attitude and the ability to get things moving; he established credibility with
projects that were deemed difficult and path breaking in the industry.
The project was neither
innovative nor first for the industry, but its scope impacted the entire business
and company reputation. The CIO worked with the business head to present the
case to the management and then the Board. They were given an in-principle
approval but with a low-risk caveat attached to keep investment to the barest
minimum. Even if it does not work, we will not be too much out of pocket. So
the investment schedule was changed along with the solution to adapt to set
expectations.
Since the project required
cross-functional collaboration, they had difficulty in aligning everyone to the
goal which stretched timelines and budget a bit. Coaxing and cajoling the
non-believers, they managed to get off the ground and launched the new
business. Ramp up was slow and steady as business slowly found traction with customers;
the peak during the following festive season broke the process as they faced
the ire of customers and internal teams who were stressed by the additional
workload.
Learning from the
incident, root cause indicated the nonchalant behavior of the unaligned as the
primary reason. The CEO unwilling to acknowledge the failure by the business
team blamed the technology and implementation partner seeking a change to an
alternative solution. With no recourse, the team reluctantly moved on to evaluate
a better system which would help them scale up and also meet expectations; the
caveat remained this time around also, do more with less, we cannot invest too
much.
Usual project travails
and a year later, the new system found light of day; newer technology comes
with new features which were expected to provide better capability to the
business teams. Some of the non-believers converted and joined the wave which
made good addition to their resumes. Since the root cause was not fully
addressed, the next big surge created problems of larger proportions, also
impacting the brand apart from loss of business; the ostrich CEO fired the team
and decided to go to market again for a better solution !
The new team wiser to
history took cautious steps towards selection of the new solution going with
global leaders, unwilling to try any other approach. They patiently waited for
budget approvals and the cross-functional team to be formed that would drive
the project along with the technology team. They chose the best of
implementation partners, collectively turning it into the mother of all
projects for the company. With the large budget the CEO was under pressure to
deliver the project right third time, the Board demanding results.
From the first attempt
to the one now, the gap was close to a decade; competition had risen with the
waves, many had fallen too. Customers had evolved expecting better experience,
service and bargains. Changeover took some effort, the new platform was
deployed with new capability and expectation of higher business. The large
investment rankled somewhere, the Board expecting commensurate returns in a
fast growing market. The business teams continued their other lives while the platform
struggled.
Internal process alignment, market dynamics and customers finally
decide success; the CEO was heard blaming the tool again !
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