Only 30% of Digital Transformation projects are successful. The power of strong kick-off meetings for Digital Transformation programs is often overlooked. Too often, companies set off on their journey to ‘digitize’ their business but leave behind a critical element in any collaborative, long-term project: it is all about the people.
Visioning Workshops – fundamental for supporting B2B Ecommerce
B2B Ecommerce projects, just like any Digital Transformation project, are likely to demand change from a multitude of internal (and external) stakeholders. Which is why we at Aquitude believe that the people element is the starting point. For all of our projects we being with a ‘Visioning’ Workshop. Sometimes we have to convince our clients to take this approach, but our work-flow does not start without it.
What are Visioning Workshops?
Our Visioning workshops aim to get the internal stakeholders (Leadership, Sponsors etc) to future-scope their project. What does the organisation look like when the project is complete? What is the impact of the project to the bottom – line? What are the implications for its customers and their interactions with the business?
Without asking these questions, the organisation runs the risk of non-alignment from the most critical stakeholders in the business.
Building a detailed Project Vision
Through a collaborative and interactive process, the key stakeholders work to define a detailed Vision, including:
- How internal stakeholders view the future of the business once the project is completed
- The operational model which will underpin the new Vision
- The desired ROI from their business model (s) which underlines the new Vision
- A clear statement of their future Value Proposition for customers which underpins the Vision
- How the organisation aspires to maintain its customer-centricity throughout the project and beyond
- How the organisation will drive and maintain internal engagement throughout the life of the project.
Setting Common KPIs
A critical part of the Visioning workshops is to define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which will be the guide in achieving its future commercial objectives; these include the North Star Metric and Objective Key Results which we explain in a different article. These KPIs create the gel for the project to be managed and tracked throughout the organisation. Without these common KPIs which all stakeholders are accountable for, the organisation risks different departments rowing in different directions rather than steering towards one common goal.
The Human Element: Creating a real sense of Alignment
In business, people make things happen. Technology is driven by people, processes are driven by people. Consequently achieving a sense of purpose for each stakeholder in the organisation as part of a B2B Ecommerce project is fundamental. It is not enough to declare a company is digitally-minded. Employees need to be accountable for and believe in their contribution to achieving the Vision. There is no other way to build this accountability than with all stakeholders building a united Vision, which is why at Aquitude we are proponents of this powerful approach.