Digital As Usual Themes

Looking into the current marketplace, there are three dominant trends in current digital exploitation:

• Exploiting Cloud Platforms

• Business Agility

• Value Based Management

Most commentators focus on either cost or scalability issues when discussing cloud platform exploitation, citing this as an uninspired approach to mechanisation of what is already there, which has been described as making caterpillars faster (as opposed to transforming them into butterflies). However, cloud platforms and SaaS applications are great for businesses wanting to standardise and simplify their businesses, either as a basis for performance improvement and automation or as a means of making integration of acquisitions (under M&A) easier. The latter often being a tool used to bring new products and know how into a business for further innovation.

Business agility is an evolutionary extension of not just Agile Development and Design thinking, but a full blooded extension of Lean approaches across Integrated Product Teams and DevOps styles of delivery to continuously experiment with opportunities and deliver new value at pace. If a business is not a start up and has not simplified its processes and applications, this can be difficult to achieve. In the end, though it is all about focusing on customer value.

Value based management has two strands of thinking; firstly it connects the dots between market insight, customer experience and business agility to focus on value; secondly it recognises that a digital business will spend proportionally more on digital and information technology than a traditional one, so it needs to understand how and why it spends the money (and other valuable resources) and then to make sure that it balances spend appropriately between maintenance, protection, enhancement and revenue or value streams, as well as innovation.

Current state of UK digital

So it's 2020 and everyone is panicking about the C virus and little else. 

What else is going on? Well it seems that the UK is still leading the way in Europe for digital investment.

M&A activity, whilst slightly down from the heights of 2018 is still robust with the 2 way traffic of deals between US and UK companies dominating the pack. This is largely focusing on mid-range deals (in terms of size) and includes a lot of technology driven businesses.

The UK still leads the pack for digital investment in Europe and the FT's ranking of the fastest growing companies in Europe is topped by UK technology company.

Value First,Timeliness Second and Cost Third - V1T2C3

We regularly see news items and posts on big government projects which have failed and Public Accounts Committee declarations which castigate Ministry of Defence for project cost overruns and late deliveries. We also have seen too many instances of banking system meltdowns in recent years, coupled with major failings in BA (British Airways) systems.

What do all these things have in common?

Broadly speeking it could be said that they all occur in environments where "Efficiency" or "Value for Money" is held at a premium over everything else. In these circumstances, Efficiency is actually another way of saying Cost Cutting and Investment Containment. In such environments, Quality, Value and Customer or User Experience are traded for keeping to budget. Timeframes get squeezed to meet the allowed spend profile and risk management is subordinated to keeping spend in check.

Over time, this results in a house of cards syndrome where multiple sub optimal solutions get patched together in ever more fragile comninations and governance is subordinated to budget conformance. The room for experimentation and evolution of the right solution is lost and cautious groupthink starts to destroy innovation and build catastrophy into strategy, planning and control of the business. Innevitably this leads to failure, finger pointing and further failure to rectify problems. So repeat failures start to happen.

What is the remedy?

Sack the CEO and The Finance Director! Appoint an empowered CIO. Pursue a culture change programme. Start Focussing on quality and value, which means reconnecting with both customers and the people who deliver the business. Adopt a philosophy where it is better to deliver a small amount of value incrementally and on time than to pursue an everything at once approach. Use design thinking. Understand your business architecture. Align your risk appetite to value (not budget). Experiment with Lean Delivery. But most of all remember that efficiency is not calculated as:

Efficiency = Q/t

(where Q = quantity produced, t = time period of production)

Instead, use the equation:

Efficiency = (Q-D(1+n))/t

(where D = the number of defects and n = the number of things produced needed to pay for the defects) 

So for example if profit margins are 10%, then 10 satisfactory units are needed to pay for the cost of the defective one and n = 10. If 100 units are produced per day, 1 unit is defective and n = 10, then Efficiency is (100 - (1 + 1 x 10))/1 = 89. If 99 units had been produced with no defects, then efficiency would have been 99. It is better to focus on quality and value, than time or cost. Time and cost have their place, but should be subordinated to outcomes.

Scam World

Today I received 2 email versions of the old fashioned scam where someone you don't know writes to you for help in moving money from one country to another, and then asks if you can make a small payment to help them facilitate things. Usually, because there are legal restrictions on moving money out of the country if you are resident there.  Obviously, this is just a way to fleece anyone who participates in it. This is also known as a "419" fraud, after the section of the penal code which it violated in Nigeria, where the practice originated. This just goes to prove that there are still people who are credulous and will fall for a well known ruse.

However things have moved on a bit in scam world. I have also found out that, if you post your CV on a middle eastern job board, you will attract the attention of a new type of scammer. They write to you in the name of a company or organisation and ask you to answer a few basic questions, identify what type of roles you would be interested in and to furnish a CV. A few days later you receive a wonderful email saying that after review the organisation wishes to offer you a job with great salary, terms and conditions etc. and that there is no need for an interview. You are asked however to pay a nominated agent to facilitate flights, visas etc., which will be re-imbursed on arrival. Unfortunately there is no job and the organisation does not exist. This is only one of the modern ways of ripping people off.

A new phenomena is a scam under which someone exploits the need to pay customs dues for parcels delivered from overseas before they are released for delivery. A common email seeking fraudulent payments comes from an organisation describing itself as "royalparceldelivery" asking for a payment fee before a parcel can be released. The email address however traces back to a Nigerian organisation.

Most people have been annoyed by scam telephone calls claiming to be from all sorts of organisations: BT, Inland Revenue, bank anti fraud departments etc. all trying to extract details from the recipient which could then be used in fraudulent activities such as false loan applications or money transfers. However the newest scam involves stealing the telephone number itself. In the EU, everyone has the right to transfer their number when they switch telephone company. In the UK this is regulated by Ofcom. The fraudster looks for number which have high value to a business becasue they are easily remembered or considered lucky. So a chinese business might favour a number which is composed of 8s such as 888 8888. The fraudster then pretends to be the owner of the number and asks a telco to switch the number for them. If the current owner is not notified, then the transfer goes ahead and the new owner puts it up for sale. When the real owner realises and protests, the fraudster claims that the number is in use and Ofcom will not force return of the number. This can seriously disrupt businesses which rely on telephone numbers as a means of delivering services, leading to lost revenue and additional costs as phone numbers will be on business stationary, signage etc. In this instance the regulator is toothless and actually facilitates the fraud. But it is also a sign that some Telcos have been infiltrated by the fraudsters too as someone is helping identify the target numbers, supress notification to the customer and mislead the regulator about the number being in use by the new fraudulent user.

So everyone, including businesses needs to be vigilant. Human nature does not change, but it does alter its behaviour to exploit technical change.

Dubai's Thought Leaders

I came across Middle East Entrepreneur recently and found some interesting things in its pages.

The March issue had some insightful articles by Mark Sethton on Keeping it Real or "being authentic" and Amol Kadam on Humanising Technology and the need for a Chief Human Officer, whose role would be to keep an organisation Human Enough.

Definitely this is one to look at, as it taps into the zeitgheist of Dubai's entrepreneurial culture and explores not just the opportunities but the cultural aspects of digital adoption.

CES 2019 Brings More Sleep Tech

In earlier posts, I have covered various sleep tech gadgets. This year's CES event brings another clutch of new entrants to the market. This includes the Urgo Headband intended tobe used to train your brain better for enhanced sleep. 

CES also featured the Somnox "Robot Sleep Pillow". This device is intended to be cuddled whilst it produces simulated breathing, a little like a purring cat. It also can play soothing sounds to help you get off to sleep.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Agile

This week I went to an event organised by La Fosse and Intertechnica. This was a networking and discussion event with 2 speakers from Intertechnica (Rod Armstrong & a colleague) presenting 7 "sins" and opposing "virtues" followed by break out sessions to discuss them.

It certainly was a lively event, with some of the sins reflecting what happens when people adopt and perhaps bend the principles underlying underlying the "Agile Manifesto". Itwas great to hear that for most of the seasoned Agile Practitioners there, that the Agile Maifesto is not regarded as some holy dictat but more as a historical "call to arms" which, whilst useful at the time, is now rather dated and too restrictive to be regarded as the definitive bible for practising Agile.

Probably the best couplet of sin and virtue was Chaos vs Discipline. As this sparked some interesting discussion about how Chaos is in some circumstances useful for innovation and discipline for systemising value delivery, amongst other things.

Heidi Anderson of La Fosse has posted a review of the night here.