Businesses nowadays are utilizing every opportunity to adapt to the continuous changes in the operations landscape. A good transformation process in operations management can make or break a business. This article will explore transformation processes, why they are essential, and their most critical elements.
Transformation processes are important because they help companies adapt to changes and continually improve how they conduct operations. Digital transformations are the most commonly applied transformation processes. They enable businesses to adopt technology and improve efficiency.
With the advent of new technologies and management styles, companies must have policies and processes to aid these changes. A transformation process is nothing but a way of making things better than what they are now. This includes tweaking certain aspects of the business simultaneously for better alignment.
Why is a Transformation Process Important?
The need for transformation can stem from many reasons, but the biggest reason is that it’s vital for a business’s survival in today’s world.
The right implementation of the transformation process can prove immensely valuable for your business’s ROI, overall productivity, and efficiency.
It can revolutionize how you do business and interact with your customers.
Let’s look at some apparent benefits of an organization undergoing the transformation process:
Improved Customer Experience
Customers like to be engaged through multiple touchpoints, including websites, social media, email, and other applications.
A transformation process geared towards adapting to the latest technologies can aid this communication as the driving force behind an improved customer experience.
Encourages Innovation and Creativity
Your competitors are always looking to adopt new technology. Staying ahead in the game means being flexible to the changes that the transformation process brings.
Digital transformation encourages you and your teams to use new tools and techniques. This introduces creativity in processes and problem-solving.
Increases Productivity and Efficiency
Transformation processes can help you save time and money and introduce efficiency in your day-to-day operations by streamlining things.
For example, you may spend hours and days training new employees; however, if all these pieces of training are curated online as part of your new onboarding process, employees can undergo training on their own.
Steps for a Successful Business Transformation
To ensure your business transformation process stays on track and has clear and achievable goals, you need to follow a set of steps. Let’s look at these in detail.
1. Define Goals and Objectives
Before undergoing a transformation process, you need to assess why you need one in the first place.
What workflows or operations aspects are you trying to improve or change?
What does a successful transformation look like, and what will be the key milestones to achieve along the way?
This is your planning stage. It needs to be done right to kick off the transformation on the right note.
2. Define KPIs and Benchmarks
You want to know how the transformation is going during the transformation journey. Developing key metrics, which may include both postivie and negative KPIs, and benchmarks in the initial stages will help you measure your progress for the goals you want to achieve.
You must keep a healthy balance between efficiency and productivity metrics. The most common metrics you can look at are:
- Capacity
- Effectiveness
- Value
- Quality
- Profitability
You must measure the way your current processes perform against these metrics, so you can make a comparison later on.
3. Brainstorm with Stakeholders
Transformations aren’t done in silos. As a business owner or leader, it can be very tempting to change an entire process from scratch rather than identify the existing methods’ blockers and bottlenecks.
It’s the employees and the technical experts that have to execute these changes. So, everyone affected by a change must get a say when it’s being made.
It will also give you a much clearer perspective of what changes need to be made when you talk to the people doing the work and facing the challenges.
Apart from talking to internal stakeholders, external stakeholders like vendors and customers can also help you get a broader perspective of where and what changes need to be made.
4. Use Process Modelling
Mapping out the new process can give you more clarity on the workflows and the roles involved. Process modelling can help you foresee any problems that may arise during the implementation of the process.
There are several process modelling software out there that you can use to visualise existing and future process workflows.
5. Automate and Digitize
Why do businesses transform their processes? One of the biggest reasons to do so is to reduce inefficiencies and increase productivity in your operations.
This is where digitization and automation come in. These are two of the most effective processes to help you introduce more efficiency in your processes. They can help remove manual work from your workflows and free your employees to focus more on important aspects like revenue generation.
78% of business leaders believe that task automation can increase productivity in the overall business.
There are numerous options when it comes to automation software that you can utilize for different aspects of the business, but here are some departments where task automation can save time and money:
- Accounting
- Marketing
- HR
- Product Development
- Customer Services
6. Do a Test Run
You’ve made a change, and now you’re ready to roll it out to the entire organization. We’d advise you to wait and test it out in a smaller setting first.
This small scale trial will help you to spot any problems, or gaps in the planning/execution phase before they are implemented in the broader business.
This testing period will also help you determine whether any tasks in the process can be automated to save time and effort.
7. Put SOPs in Place
If the test run goes smoothly, it’s time to scale the process and implement it across the business. You will need to create a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) document and roll it out to the relevant staff.
This SOP document will also help in the creation of training materials for new and existing employees.
8. Measure Performance
Now that the process is in place, it is time you see how the changes have improved your business. Remember setting KPIs and metrics in the start? Those will help you measure performance.
Make sure you constantly monitor the changes and alter any unproductive ones before they create problems for the wider organization.
If running multiple projects you’d do the above for each of them. Sound like a lot of work? It is, and that’s why it’s important to understand programme management.
5 Types of Transformation Processes
Each transformation process has a specific goal and targets a particular aspect of your organization. The necessary change will determine the nature of the transformation process required to achieve it.
Most organizational transformations are geared towards disrupting cultural norms, changing operative methods, adopting new technologies, and improving existing processes.
Let’s take a detailed look at the kinds of transformation processes that an organization can utilize to bring about change.
Organizational
Organizational transformation is at the heart of the organization and its employees and it is achieved via setting internal business goals.
These goals result in projects that targeted the improvement of operations, processes, and best practices for introducing efficiency and increasing productivity.
An organization’s workforce is the driving force behind this kind of transformation, and they must show commitment to change since it’s a continuous process.
Management
Senior management styles aren’t what they used to be. The traditional benchmarks like discipline, control, and prompt responsiveness are on the edge of being obsolete. Newer generations and technology have redefined the rules of management.
Managers nowadays are moving from being one-sided and rigid individuals to more fluid and communicative.
Today’s managers not only have to facilitate change and communication but also hunt, onboard, train, and retain workforces.
All this means going through a transformation process that redefines what it is to be in a management role.
Culture
Company culture encompasses everything that goes on in an organization and cultural transformation involves changing how people think, organize, and behave within an organization.
In today’s world, changing an organization’s culture means changing the mindset of individual at all levels of the business.
This kind of transformation needs the most work and is gradual. That’s why cultural shifts can take up to 5 years and often involves the use of external consultants to provide an independent view of the status quo and how to implement the shift.
Cultural transformations begin after there has been a transformation in the management style. This means managers are driving a change that introduces more accountability, innovation, adaptability, and efficiency in the workforce through communication and involvement rather than a strict list of tasks.
Cultural transformations are often necessary when a merger occurs between two companies or when a significant change of management happens.
Note that this change can be a negative one and can take place naturally, rather than being driven by a specific project. For example, if a new senior manager is appointed who has a style that doesn’t work with staff the overall employee experience will turn negative.
Information Systems
This one is identical to digital transformation. This involves adapting to new technologies as far as data and data management are concerned. Information systems and control are at the core of every organization. These include processes, technologies, and people.
The key here is to ensure a balance between the rate at which this adaptation occurs and the organization’s needs at the moment.
This kind of transformation can change the way you do business. These changes are best communicated to the employees before they are implemented to ensure training and complete buy-in.
Here are the key pillars of digital or information systems transformation:
| IT Upgrade | Operations | Marketing | Innovation | |
| What it covers | Uplifting and modernizing existing IT systems and infrastructure | Optimizing and upgrading existing operations and processes | Digital tools and techniques for e-commerce, customer engagement, communication and marketing efforts | New products and business models |
| Benefits | Secure and flexible platforms Developed ecosystem of tools and resources | Cost cutting Efficiency Increased productivity | Increased brand value Improved customer engagement Market competitiveness | Growth and expansion opportunities |
| Skill set required | Change management abilities IT teams DevOps teams | Business process knowledge Change management skills | Digital Marketing skills Data analysis skills | Innovation leadership Business creation and development skills |
| KPIs | Employee satisfaction Reduced costs New tools Improved skill sets | Improved customer satisfaction Savings in time, people and money | Client acquisition Curation of marketing leads | New products Access to newer markets |
Business Processes
Business process transformation is geared towards changing old processes or creating new ones to increase efficiency and cut costs.
This involves identifying low-level and grueling tasks that can be automated using different techniques or software.
What To Avoid for a Successful Business Transformation?
A successful transformation process depends on several factors. However, there are certain things that you should not do to ensure a smooth transformation. Let’s look at these aspects in detail:
KPIs
Too many businesses fail at transformations because they have no clear objectives set as end goals. They initiate the process due to following a trend and fail to understand the unique needs of their organization.
You cannot measure the success of a transformation on already established KPIs. Transformation means you are changing how you do business; your KPIs will change too.
Make sure you have success defined for your organization, department, or team.
Culture
Culture and people are the number one make-or-break factor for any organizational transformation phase. It’s the people and your workforce that have to drive the change and take it to completion.
If you don’t focus on the organization’s culture and people when planning for the transformation, your initiative is likely to fail.
Invest time and effort in your people and the organizational culture to ensure an optimal environment for the change.
Communication
Sending an email or making an announcement about a change isn’t the same as communicating it. More often than not, executives and stakeholders in an organization don’t properly involve the technical teams and employees in the conversation.
They forget that these are the people that will implement the actual process. You must emphasize proper communication and involve the people in your decision-making.
When people feel involved in important decisions, they are more likely to have a higher buy-in for the change you’re trying to bring to the organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a transformation process?
A transformation process is any process that takes an aspect of a business, changes or improves it, and implements it in the same business. These can be geared towards any discipline, including marketing, accounting, finance, HR, admin, or management.
What is an organizational transformation process?
Organizational transformation is a process intended to bring change within an organization to take it to a desired future state. This kind of transformation is most dependent on employees and their efforts.
Why is operational excellence important?
Operational excellence keeps all aspects of a business in check. Whether it is efficiency, profitability, decision making, resource capability, and ongoing investments, operations excellence keeps an eye on all key metrics and suggests how to improve them.
How Does Process Mapping in Six Sigma Tie into the Importance of the Transformation Process?
Process mapping in Six Sigma is essential to understanding the transformation process. By visually representing each step and identifying bottlenecks, waste, and opportunities for improvement, organizations can streamline operations and enhance efficiency. This analysis is crucial in ensuring that the transformation process aligns with strategic goals and customer needs.
Final Thoughts
Transformation processes are designed to aid change in an organization in a structured manner. These are ever-evolving based on the nature of transformation required within an organization. We hope the above steps can help you initiate and implement a sound change in your business.
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