We are living in an era where that is defined by one continual exponential technology wave after

another, called the Digital Age. It is transforming everything we do, from how we do business and
especially in how we learn, lead and coach people. In fact, we have never seen a change of this
scope and speed in human history, creating a seismic shift from an Industrial Age to the Digital Age.
After all, as we said in last month’s blog “Why mindsets matter in digital innovation and
Transformation” that innovation is an organizations ability to stimulate and transform new ideas and
knowledge into products, processes or services that tangibly increase value to customers, accelerate
growth, enhance operational effectiveness and/or improve profitability. To do this, you have the best
leaders and culture, digital architecture and mechanisms, flexible structure and systems in your
organization to support and enable ongoing growth and innovation.
What is the Digital Age?
Some defining characteristics of the Digital Age, mentioned in the Digital Leadership EdEx course I
am currently completing include:
 All information can be easily digitized, hence that data revolution.
 Digital devices that are fast, powerful, cheap, networked, and prevalent are in common use
globally, hence radical changes in medical, biotech and fintech.
 The global network of people and devices enables anyone and anything to connect
 to anyone in the world, hence the need for teaming and networking across boundaries and
geographies.
 Cheap storage (the cloud) and smart access tools connected by the broad-band, hence the
internet of things.
 Internet enable rapid access to information by virtually anyone anywhere and the plethora of
available information.
The Digital Age has unleashed three powerful forces:
1. Continuous change in customers’ needs, priorities, and preferences, especially about what is of
value.
2. Ubiquitous (pervasive, expected to be everywhere, global) innovation: digitization tools enable an
exponential increase in the speed of organizations’ ability to harness and apply new innovative
technologies to bring products and services to market faster and align them with evolving
customer needs. By quickly connecting on a global scale, people at any level can collaborate with
colleagues, partners, or customers anywhere in the world to create better ways to do their work,
or to co-create mutual value products and services that people value and cherish.
3. Global markets, customers and competition: the pace of communication and ability to share
information globally across customers and organizations means that new customer needs, new
technologies, and new competitors can appear at anytime from anywhere in the world.
Organizations are complex adaptive systems
To maximize both the constraints and the possibilities emerging in the Digital Age, it is important to
acknowledge that organizations are complex systems, rather than merely a set of complicated
processes. Organizations are influenced by their environments, and conversely have an effect on the
environments in which they function through new or refined products, services processes, or
structures that are offered through their innovation or transformation efforts.
“Organizations, as cognitive systems strive for ‘intelligent action’, meaning that they are ‘intelligent’ to
the extent that they are to ‘act with relevance to the maintenance (and advancement of themselves)’”
Suggesting that there is a duality existing between the people working within the organization and
the broader organizational system of which they are a part, which can be described as a cognitive
system. This in turn, influences how leaders think, act and make decisions. Making organizations
cognitive systems that posses a unique cognitive architecture, which is expressed through its
cognitive style, which then shapes a leader’s actions.
Making people matter
As we move further into the Digital Age, it appears that there is a greater disparity between an
organization’s members and the organization perceived as an independent entity. People (talent and
customers) now want more of a voice in how they are treated and how they are incorporated into the
organization as a whole.
 Making both management and leadership less of an “inside out” process, pushing products and
services out to customers, and more of a “outside in” process, of pulling people and customers needs,
wants and desires into the organization.
This requires the development of a new set of capabilities, to shift the cognitive system, re-scaffold
the cognitive architecture and a cognitive style that embraces;
 Deep & dynamic learning
 Collaboration & co-creation
 Adaptive change
 Revenue growth & long-term sustainability through innovation
The Digital Age requires new Leadership Capabilities
There is a symbiotic relationship between leaders and the organizational system of which leaders are
a part; leaders shape their organizational culture and it in turn, shapes how leaders focus their
attention, their operating mindsets, behaviours, how they solve problems and make decisions.
Especially in their willingness to adapt, grow, learn and innovate when for producing value for the
customer and drive success within their ever-expanding areas of influence and responsibility.
In our last blog “Why mindsets matter in digital innovation and Transformation” we reinforced the
need for organizations to focus on initiating a culture that supports digitization by strategically and
systemically aligning the culture through the 4 OGI® mindsets; Imagine, Resolve, Analyse & Align
®Mindsets.
These represent the basis for understanding and describing an organization’s cognitive
system, identifying its unique cognitive architecture, and measuring &
contextualizing the impact of its operating cognitive style, as evidenced by how leaders
currently thinking, acting and making decisions. This is illustrated in Figure 1.
Which of course, shapes the organizational culture both positively and negatively in
terms of its ability to achieve intelligent actions to change, adapt, transform to achieve
its strategic and revenue growth goals.

Figure 2

The OGI® measures organizational and employee mindsets, capturing the crucial emotional,
intellective and volitional elements that other cultural tools overlook because it incorporates a multi
factorial model within a holistic organizational assessment illustrated in Figure 2.
The 4 OGI® Organizational Mindsets also relate to eight specific factors, the OGI® Orientations, and
the seven core Leadership Capabilities required to underpin success in the Digital Age.
Shifting leadership styles to adapt, grow and innovate
What is crucial to success is for the organization to develop the ability and the capacity to shift and
target what is needed in each organizational context, to adapt and grow and deliver organizational
strategic objectives. This is achieved by understanding the operating mindsets, and how they impact
on the current organizational culture, as illustrated in the Figure 3 below, in our innovation culture
case study introduced in last month’s blog.
Our Client Case Study Continued
 Figure 3

For our client to achieve its strategic intent and growth objectives, at a high level, it needed to
cultivate stronger;
 Participative & inspirational styles of leadership to engage and cultivate people’s collective genius.
 Pace setting style to develop a more connected customer centric element towards adding value
through innovation.
 Analytical style to see and solve problems to ensure consistent delivery of high quality products to
salvage the brands reputation.
The emerging digital leadership paradigm

Adding to this, entrepreneurs are emerging as new role models & engaging in the art of harnessing
human energy towards creating better futures embodying and enacting these capabilities through
cultivating the following key roles that integrate cognitive, emotional and visceral elements illustrated
in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Integrating people, leaders, culture and the system

For an organization to succeed in the digital age it needs to intentionally and strategically ensure that
the cognitive system, architecture & style get expressed by completing an initial cultural diagnostic
incorporating the OGI® that;

1. Measures and contextualizes an integrated summary (picture) of the Cognitive System &
Architecture.
2. Measures and contextualizes an integrated summary of the Cognitive Style (mindsets) & the 8
Specific Factors (orientations) that influence its ability to adapt & grow through the OGI®.
3. Diagnoses and analyses the initial OGI® results & defines the Cognitive Style and its impact of
the operating mindsets & orientations on revenue business & growth strategies.
4. Aligns and describes the desired core cognitive, strategic & systemic changes & the gaps
between the current and desired future states.
5. Develops & implements change, leadership & learning strategies to achieve the desired
cognitive style and corporate culture.
Making the commitment
As the Digital Age continues to evolve at a dizzying pace, organizations that are not keeping up, will
continue to be disrupted by digital attackers and will not survive in today’s fragile macroeconomic
environment. In our current VUCA times political and economic uncertainty are continuing to increase
whilst company life expectancies are on the decrease.
What about hitting your pause button, and retreating and reflecting, as to what all of this
means to your long-term sustainability?
What if you could immerse yourself in a long-term vision as to what could be and make
the commitment towards understanding your cognitive system and architecture and
cultivating a cognitive style that intentionally achieves intelligent actions that deliver
your revenue, strategic, business & growth strategies, and long-term sustainability?
At ImagineNation™ we provide innovation coaching, education and culture consulting to help
businesses achieve their innovation goals. Because we have done most of the learning and actioning
of new hybrid mindsets, behaviors and skill-sets already, we can help your businesses also do this by
opening people up to their innovation potential.

When businesses and the way they operate shift from their traditional mode
of operation and management to the modern and technology oriented ways of
operation, the transitions referred to as Digital Transformation or disruption.

Since change is the only thing constant, digital transformation has become
imperative for all businesses, small, medium large. Be it automation, logistics,
software, retail or medical — digital disruptions is omnipresent. Delivering a
good digital business experience to customers and employees requires the use
of-of new innovative business application.

Enterprises should be able to deliver custom applications at the speed of

ideas. That’s the way to stay ahead in competition in today's world. Lowering
operational costs and enhancing customer experience is the core of digital
transformation.

Digital transformation is not just about embracing new technology, it is about

a change in thought and organization culture. There is a need for
organizations to address the change in business scenarios, dynamic business
demands and innovate ways to quickly cater to these changing needs. Leaders
and IT teams in any enterprise should work hand in hand to meet the business
requirements, drive innovation and march towards continuous improvement.
This is what Digital transformation is all about — accelerate business
activities, lower cost, improve time to market, bring about a positive change in
processes, people, and competency models.

Digital transformation is also sometimes referred to as business

transformation. In fact, some prefer to use the term digital business
transformation, which is more in sync with the business aspect of the
transformation.
Digital business transformations are driven by key factors like Innovative
Technology, consumer customer behavior and market demand, and also
environmental factors.

Technological innovations lead to technology disruptions. The business

process moves away from legacy systems to adopt modern technology like a
cloud. Big data, IoT, RAD etc. These and many such technology innovations are
then used and acknowledged enterprise-wide. They bring value to the
business, increase speed, lower effort and cost and deliver results more
effectively.

Then comes the next factor: customer behavior. What are the customer
demands and expectations on the business (and the demands on technology
to meet business needs)? Customers demand increased technological
capabilities combined with the desire for ease of use. And finally,
organizations have a deal with external influences such as regulatory laws,
changing the economy, market competition, and business partner demands.

What the customer demands and whether the technology changes are able to
cater to the business demand is of manifold importance. Increased capabilities
and lower cost are important in this.

A Forrester Consulting research study done by Accenture Interactive found

that the key drivers of digital transformation are profitability, customer
satisfaction, and increased speed-to-market.

For a successful digital transformation in any business organization, digital

maturity and a modern organization culture are of paramount importance.
Let's see in details

• Customer Demands: Providing customers with a delightful experience in

every aspect of delivery. Gain customer loyalty in a way that customers speak
of your brand.

• Process Orientation: Process digitization and employee enablement that

promotes data-driven decision-making resulting in greater performance
improvement and overall operational transparency.

• Innovation in Business: New digital products and/or digitizing existing

business models that goes beyond existing business needs and foster new
innovative products and service and cater to changing business needs.

Business Transformation is the real change that is causing a storm in the

business world. Its impact is felt not only in operations but also in industry
structures and also at all levels in the organization. Business leaders and CIOs
are coming forward to ensure that digital transformation coupled with
innovation is driving business and bringing in productive changes and
delivering value.
Business Transformation is the real change that is causing a storm in the
business world. Its impact is felt not only in operations but also in industry
structures and also at all levels in the organization. Business leaders and CIOs
are coming forward to ensure that digital transformation coupled with
innovation is driving business and bringing in productive changes and
delivering value.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,

nor the most intelligent that survives; it is the one
that is the most adaptable to change.”

– Charles Darwin

What exactly is digital transformation?

Digitalization in organizations makes data easily accessible across
different platforms, interfaces, and devices. The process of creating new
business applications that assimilate this digitized and digitalized data is
called digital transformation. Netflix is one of the best examples of digital
transformation since the digitization of films, which paved the way for this
new business model of movie streaming. Among the other game changers
in the world of digital transformation that are worth a mention are
augmented reality tools for the field service sector, predictive
maintenance, and crowdsourcing. In all of these applications, innovation is
the buzzword.

How innovation management enables

digital transformation?
According to a report by MWD Advisors and HYPE Innovation, innovation
management practices and tools enable open, iterative, and collaborative
change to support digital transformation. Such practices can help
organizations build a more innovative, open organizational culture by
aiding their internal and external communities to adapt and fast-track
innovation. They further enhance an organization’s innovation culture
when they are applied to its business model, its products, and its
processes.
Innovation management encourages an inclusive approach to innovation
where everyone is allowed to participate and share responsibilities to
define and achieve the organization’s goals. Contrary to the traditional,
top-down innovation approach, innovation management makes
organizations more responsive and agile and improves their adaptability
to embrace the changes brought about by digital transformation. It makes
digital transformation a part of that organization’s culture.

Innovation in traditional management processes and principles have the

capacity to produce a dramatic shift in an organization’s competitive
advantage. Innovation management practices make it easy to test, validate,
and iterate in real-world scenarios on a large scale, both internally and
externally.

Here’s how innovation management makes digital transformation possible:

It accelerates the pace of change: Traditional approaches to change and

innovation limit the number of ideas that can be converted in prototypes
as only a few executives or senior employees are involved and they bring
in only limited expertise. Implementing crowdsourced innovation
management principles makes this process a communal activity by
engaging the whole organization—its employees, partners, customers, and
all the other stakeholders. This improves the pace and scale of innovation
and disruption and their acceptance in the organization. Innovation
management provides the innovation process structure, repeatability, and
scale.

It goes beyond new product development: Since digital transformation

has many positive effects on a business, innovation management can drive
transformation in all the quadrants of the four perspectives on digital
technology (shown in Figure 1). The open approach of innovation
management opens the horizons of innovation beyond new product
development and includes other aspects of business under its umbrella,
such as building effective relationships with customers and other external
stakeholders.

It drives new approaches to change: Innovation management principles

and tools redefine the value of change in an organization, be it any change.
It encourages its leaders and employees to define possibilities and play an
active part in attaining those possibilities. Everyone’s inputs are
acknowledged, appreciated, and rewarded. Innovation management builds
a continuous innovation program that inspires new ideas, supports
collaboration, and enables change to be an ongoing part of an
organization’s culture.

Conclusion
Innovation management practices allow different groups of stakeholders
within and outside the organization to work together. They enable them to
collaborate to understand the consequences on business operations and
working practices.

Innovation management provides a structured and scalable platform to

convert ideas into prototypes. At the same time, it enables experimentation
in parallel by teams collaborating across the organization. The concept of
change becomes the force parallelly uniting employees, partners, and
customers to enhance the business and its growth while they collaborate.
The result of this collaborative, iterative change is an open and innovative
organizational culture that empowers smooth digital transformation.

The digital age has already started to change the way organizations work.
Innovations will continue to happen as digital transformation redefines
businesses and revolutionizes industries. When there’s a revolution, there
are winners and losers. Organizations that cannot keep pace with digital
transformation are at risk of losing out and becoming outdated.

Conclusion
Innovation in large corporation is a tricky business. And in most cases, it is a game of
chance. But the most successful companies are those that continue corporate innovation.
Never resist innovation as a business. Make sure to listen to your customer’s needs and
keep up with the trends. Not only that, make sure that your leadership and strategies are in
place because you should always be working on improving and trying out different types of
innovation strategy.