The other night, we watched the documentary Side-by-Side,
produced and narrated by Keanu Reeves, about the transformation of the movie
industry from film to digital. What
fascinated me was that the key players in the industry are still debating the
merits of the two technologies 45 years after digital video recording was
invented at Bell Labs.
The obstacles to this strategic shift were not limited to
the maturation of the technology itself. There is a rhythm to the process of
making movies. Film is expensive so the
camera rarely runs for more than 13 minutes.
Those on the set – actors, directors, cinematographers and the support
team – are geared toward being “on” when it’s rolling and relaxing a bit when
it’s not. Next morning, the first thing
that happens is a review of the “rushes” (the film that was shot yesterday and
developed overnight) by the entire crew.
An out-of-focus shot or bad lighting won’t be discovered until that
morning review.
Digital solves those problems but creates a massive change
to the workflow of making a film.
Forty-five years in, many of the participants still aren’t ready to make
the shift.
In your business, a strategic shift may not be so dramatic
but it may be critical to your success. Technology is the key driver of the
need for transformation in many industries.
Getting information to the right people at the right time improves
quality and service as well as cost. Get
caught resting on your laurels while your competition is investing in the
future and you might see your business begin to evaporate.
So, what do you do if you’re at a point where you believe
that the survival of your business depends upon making a transformational
change?
Transformation is not just a new buzzword to replace the
overused “change management”.
Transformation means that there is a fundamental change in your beliefs
about how you achieve certain results. It
involves a massive investment of time and money; so, it’s critical that you get
it right the first time.
So, before you go through the intellectual exercise of
re-strategizing your business, you must go to the core of why it’s needed. There may be several reasons; but you must ask
yourself which is the most important.
For the movie industry, the quality of the visual experience
overrode all other factors, including cost and speed of production. It wasn’t until digital technology could
produce a better visual experience that it was embraced by some of the key
players in the industry.
One of my clients is CEO of a regional bank. He competes with the Too Big To Fail banks in
our local market by focusing on the customer experience when they visit a
branch. Many customers place a higher
value on that experience than on whether they have the best online banking website
or the coolest iPhone app.
That one priority is an expression of his personal values
and must be embedded in every process of the bank – from hiring and training to
the data that appears on the computer screen on the branch manager’s desk.
In the movie industry, the visual experience is the highest
priority. For my client, the highest
priority is a belief that customers deserved to be treated a certain way when
they do business with the bank.
So, the question you must ask yourself is not what will make
you faster, better or cheaper. It’s what
is the highest priority and how can we best deliver on its promise.
WHO WILL LEAD?
