Navigating Business Transformation: Strategies for Aligning Technology, Diversity, and Adaptability

In a conversation with Asia Business Outlook Magazine, Senpathi Jayawickrama shares her views and thoughts pertaining to Business Transformation. She is a seasoned expert in business transformation and strategy, bringing 16 years of professional experience in effective change management. Her strategic leadership has made substantial contributions to enhancing the company's financial performance and operational efficiency.

What role does technology play in driving business transformations, and how do you ensure the alignment of technology with overall business goals?

Technology is pivotal in driving business transformations by enabling organizations to adapt to market dynamics, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. Key components like innovation and agility allow rapid response to market changes and seamless cross-border operations.

Operational efficiency enhancements are critical, with technology playing a significant role in business analytics, artificial intelligence, big data, and automation. These technologies not only improve efficiency but also free up resources for strategic initiatives. Data-driven decision-making, supported by advanced analytics, leads to better customer experiences and cost optimization.

In the fashion and apparel sector, technology and sustainable solutions are driving transformation. Our focus on digital adoption and cleaner data lakes, along with better system integration, is crucial. With supply chain challenges, real-time data on production and logistics has become essential. Additionally, customer demands for speed require tech integration and faster product development through virtual processes using systems like CLO3D and Browzwear.

Effective communication between transformation teams and stakeholders ensures alignment in priorities and cross-functional collaboration. Technology strategy should be integrated into the overall business strategy, necessitating continuous assessment to stay agile and relevant.

What methodologies and frameworks have you found most effective in driving organizational change, and why?

My personal favorite or go to mantra is communication – an aspect most organizations fail in driving change. Lack of understanding in communication, employee training and engagement are killers of enabling change. Engaged and knowledgeable employees have a higher tendency to support transformation efforts at any level of the organization.

Another key to making effective changes is to celebrate the wins – irrespective of their size. Not only outcomes, but values and behaviours that drive the outcomes should always be celebrated. This serves as indirect reinforcement to the rest of the organization as to what values are appreciated during/post transformation.

Establishing strong feedback loops across all layers of the organization is also pivotal to understanding the pulse of the change. This enables quick adjustments and lets the teams driving such efforts be more agile. 

The McKinsey 7S framework is effective for formal planning, addressing Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Skills, Style, and Staff. This holistic approach ensures a higher success rate in change management plans.

How do we handle communication during a business transformation initiative to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged?

The key is to have a plan for communication first. It is then critical to identify the key stakeholders as they can be from different areas of the business and the message that should reach each segment should be crafted differently, addressing their respective areas of importance. 

Once their buy-in is secured, it is pivotal to keep communicating the progress, challenges and wins while taking a collaborative approach to solutioning any problems encountered. 

A set cadence for information dissemination, based on stakeholder mapping, ensures timely updates. Celebration of big and small wins is another important aspect of stakeholder management. This publicly reinforces the new environment.

In the realm of business transformation, how significant is the role of diversity and inclusion, and what strategies can be employed to promote it?

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) are crucial for business transformations and continuity. D&I extends beyond gender to include individuals from various business areas, levels of hierarchy, and experiences. Diverse teams bring innovation through different perspectives.

Successful transformation leaders need system thinking, exponential thinking, and future thinking. It is important to find individuals who can bring in the above three different dimensions to the table to make it successful, hence the importance of diversity.    

Selecting the right change agents from diverse backgrounds facilitates relevant communication within different organizational segments. Having diverse individuals involved in this process makes it much easier and relevant to different groups within the organization, as the message is delivered at different levels focusing on what is important to each segment. For example, the success rate of change is much higher when you choose team members and team leads on the factory floor to communicate amongst our sewing operator team members instead of executive level leaders from office front-end functions. 

When it comes to assessing the effectiveness of initiatives driving cultural change during a transformation, what approaches can be leveraged to gauge their impact on overall satisfaction and productivity within a technology-driven environment?

Evaluating cultural change effectiveness requires a multifaceted approach. Surveys and feedback mechanisms gauge behavioral changes, allowing for candid feedback and necessary corrective actions. Incorporating transformational elements into employees' KPIs ensures structured monitoring and accountability. Whether it pertains to cost optimization, digitalization, or overarching business reform, aligning deliverables with stakeholders, beginning with leadership, fosters accountability and ensures regular tracking.

Conducting before-and-after analyses is another prevalent technique in technology-driven environments to assess resource utilization, efficiency enhancements, improvements in man-to-machine ratios, and reductions in process steps. These comparisons offer insights into the extent to which desired outcomes have been achieved relative to initial program objectives.

Benchmarking against industry best practices also provides insights into performance improvements post-transformation.

How do we keep a business transformation strategy adaptable to unforeseen challenges, emphasizing leadership and tech and process flexibility in a rapidly changing business environment?

Adaptability is crucial in transformation journeys, requiring regular milestone checks and adjustments. Management and transformation teams must stay updated on industry changes, ensuring timely course corrections.

Tech integration must remain agile to meet customer and legislative requirements. For example, EU regulations on sustainability demand transparent supply chain collaborations in the Apparel industry, necessitating adaptable processes and systems.

Leadership commitment is vital for successful transformations. Aresearch conducted by McKinsey in 2019 on business transformations state that approximately 70% of the transformations fail due to lack of leadership support and not establishing the required change management infrastructure in place. It is imperative that there is a set cadence for leadership oversight meetings for problem solving.

Regular oversight meetings and integrated transformation offices ensure alignment with strategic decisions. Flexible tech and process solutions, compatible with value chain partners, are essential for successful digital strategies.