We conducted a Q&A interview with Trevor Sumner, CEO at Perch Interactive, regarding how digital transformation affects the future of retail.
1. Could you introduce yourself and what you do?
During a recent conversation with a family member about the data-age, she shared with me that she never thought there would be so much data at her fingertips -- anything and everything you could ever think of. We both agreed that no matter what “data” was available through online resources, friends, for example, nothing would take the place of experiencing first-hand what you just Googled.
But just how good are we at adapting to change, modifying our habits, or expanding our minds, especially as we get older? The answer is that we’re pretty good at it if we choose to be.
Not long ago the prevailing scientific powers believed that we are born with a brain that undergoes great change in infancy and early childhood, but then prunes down to the executive organ we have throughout our lives.
Anyone with a little bit of experience in business has heard of the Pareto (or 80/20) “rule.” And this principle drives how organizations are targeting their efforts towards areas that would maximize results. With limited (finite) resources, it is logical to focus them on activities that have the highest impact/value.
Procurement is no stranger to this approach. Focusing on the 20% of the supply-base that makes 80% of an organization’s spend is a strategy and method that is very common, and that also makes sense from a pure “economical” standpoint.
It is being challenged by emerging new regulations such as GDPR, which are impacting all industry sectors, and the arrival on the scene of the new role of the DPOin many firms.
Much has been written about current middle management roles becoming increasingly irrelevant,ANZ's Digital Chief Maile Carnegie a few months ago famously referring to the 'frozen middle' who "have graduated from doing to managing and basically bossing other people around and shuffling Powerpoints", who also "resist change like death." Carnegie highlighting the importance of distributed leadership and del
Digital is all the buzz today. You need to have a mobile app, be agile, invest in startups, move to Office360 & Yammer, do sprints, have scrum masters, use AI, build IoT, add BlockChain, ... BUT the dirty little secret of the innovators is that you will not be one. You might actually be putting lipstick on a pig!
Data and culture have a significant part to play in the successful transformation of businesses. Tim looks at how data can be used to affect change and drive value within a business, whilst being cognizant of the culture of the business.
Tim discusses the importance of a roadmap and planning during transformation, emphasising the role of communication. He considers the most important part of communication to obtain buy-in for a transformation.
At a function level, what Procurement does (buying goods or services from external sources) hasn’t changed much and will not. What does change is the world that Procurement operates in? Procurement does not operate in a vacuum so how it does the job has to reflect his times (and continuously do so). Also, it has to take into account with/for whom it does it. It is about addressing expectations, serving stakeholders, attracting talent, and much more.
The first challenges are cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of the matter. The IT sector pretend transformation is all to do with technology (usually the box of tricks they’re selling). They frequently publish blogs and articles to convince you to “transform your business by moving to the cloud”. Most mainstream IT advice will create operational efficiencies at best, but not transform the organisation.