Data

Every organisation has data in abundance, but not many companies have it organised and streamlined to drive meaningful outcomes.  It's a shame…

Data is powerful

Data that has been analysed with other variables is powerful. 

Data can tell you the Why

Data can tell you why or get you to understand the trend.

Data can drive the predictive analytics

Data can give you the 'so what' or now that we know 'what can we do with this information' .

Data should drive:

• Strategy decisions 

• Operational decisions 

• Pivot on strategy 

• Operational improvement 

• Good commercial decisions 

At Whiteark we are big on data. We use data and data tools to analyse a problem / or root cause and we use data to drive value creation and measure success. 

We have a number of case studies at Whiteark that demonstrate the power of data and what we have achieved with our clients.

Data is powerful. If you need help to generate the power, reach out to Whiteark.

Browse more articles about the power of data: 

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Need support in your organisation? Reach out.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark

Digital Transformation: Part 2

Article written by Pete Crawford

Executing Digital Transformation

This is the second of two articles on digital transformation. The first piece illustrated several components – relating to employee experience, customer experience, operations and business models – that offer transformational opportunities. Here, we will describe a framework to orchestrate and execute these opportunities.

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

Digital Transformation Execution Depends on Cultural Change

Just as the approach to digital transformation requires a strategic, cross-functional and customer-focused mindset – rather than a focus on technological outputs – the success of execution depends on embracing new orientations:

i)      Transformational change is ongoing and cultural, not finite or punctuated like a project.[i]

ii)     Delivery is a series of agile enterprise-wide micro-transformations, not one ‘big bang’.

iii)   Achievement is the creation of a modern enterprise that is inclusive; genuinely committed to sustainability; and able to handle data at scale – not just a digital platform connected to a new business model.

The big question, of course, is why not just follow traditional change management principles and best practices as a digital transformation execution strategy? However, while there are many overlaps, traditional change methodologies typically follow a beginning-end pattern. The nature of digital transformation is also dynamic, interdependent and contingent on network interactions both inside and outside of the organisation. Not accommodating these factors has contributed to a 70% failure rate of transformation initiatives and sustained success in a only 16% of cases[ii]. What emerges is an approach to orchestrating successful transformation based on five main themes.

Digital Transformation Execution Framework

Theme	What Needs to be Answered?	Components
1. Strategic Foundation	Why is change necessary? What is the end goal? How are we going to get there?	• Vision and communications • Investment and commitment • Targets and tracking
2. Operating Model Choices	How are we going to organise and coordinate the transformation?	• Traditional PMO? • Transformational office? • Product-led transformation?
3. Data and Technology Ecosystem Needs	Does the technology stack help transform the customer experience and does the data ecosystem transform the employee experience?	• Data strategy • Data infrastructure • Data literacy and privacy
4. Workforce Needs	Do we have the tools and the talent at all levels of the organisation to fully leverage new opportunities?	• Digital tools • Data skills • Coaching, learning and hiring
5. Ways of Working	Is the entire organisation aligned and equipped to accelerate and sustain transformational capabilities?	• Cross-functional • Customer networked • Experiment and urgency

The Themes of Transformational Execution

1. Strategic Foundation

Not unlike any major initiative or program, orchestrating a digital transformation starts with a series of strategic choices. These choices either affect how ideas are embraced within an organisation – in which case they establish a new set of cultural norms – or they are resisted. Gaining acceptance means:

• Having a clear business strategy. The transformation can only be validated if it structurally aligned and measured in accordance with the wider business strategy.

• Link investment to clear, ambitious targets. Conveying external benchmarks, establishing exponential change targets and issuing timelines are crucial signals of strategic importance.

• Communicating strategic context to reinforce the urgency, commitment and significance of the transformation targets. Employees and business partners need to be fully immersed and committed to a clear narrative which articulates why change is necessary and what the end state will look like. Inevitably, this produces tension between challenging targets, autonomous teams who are accountable for results and the development of workforce capabilities. Communications needs to acknowledge these tensions and resolve them by being:

  • Audience specific (investors; government regulators; customer/user education; talent/recruitment; internal employees).

  • Customer-centric with an emphasis on customer needs and jobs to be done.

  • Customised to employee roles to help them adapt their own jobs and beliefs and, in particular, addressing transformation as a threat by discussing training paths to upgrade expertise.

  • Augmented by access to authoritative documentation (reasoning; goals; expected timeline with constraints; resources and points of contact).

• Setting cross-organisational metrics and markers of digital progress. The most relevant measures typically address aspects such as digital ROI; time to market of digital apps; and track whether key talent has been attracted, promoted and retained.

• Presenting a simple outcome-oriented transformation roadmap. The role of the roadmap is to prioritise and promote three to five initiatives that can be scaled to change customer behaviour.

2. Operating Model Choices

In simple terms, an operating model is the conduit between strategy, technology stack, development environment, and the organisation of talent to achieve business outcomes. At the centre of the operating model the question of how best to organise and coordinate targets, performance metrics, leadership, and scope across workstreams. Four main approaches emerge to closing the gap between strategy and execution. These approaches are summarised below.

• A dedicated transformation hub. This is a good option when transformation is enterprise wide and no single business function has the experience to coordinate the scope or speed of parallel workstreams. Advantages include:

  • Direct translation of corporate strategy into digital priorities.

  • Centralised strategic planning, cost control and procurement over innovative technologies.

  • Governance and communications ‘nerve centre’.

  • Leverages specialisation and expertise over multiple use cases.

  • Integrates with other centre of excellence models (i.e. AI, RPA).

• Product-led transformation. This option can be considered if the organisation has already established an effective information product management function built around strong data and analytics capabilities. Advantages include:

  • Pre-existing cross-functional navigation.

  • Geared to identify and understand customers (internal and external).

  • Experiment and prototype mindset to assist with speed-to-market.

  • Can be cross-pollinated with domain experts to build a lean, learning culture.

  • Funding a team rather than a project aids sequencing of initiatives.

• A standard project management office. This option is constrained by primarily working within the context of a business function or silo. This approach only warrants consideration if investment is significant but not strategic. Not recommended.

• The digital innovation lab. This is an option taken when organisations seek to experiment, learn and place multiple bets without large up-front investments. It is also synonymous with internal entrepreneurial divisions. While this approach may be valuable for ‘incubating’ transformational strategies such as new business models it is not recommended as a way of orchestrating transformational delivery. These types of units often have weak connections to core IT or lines of business.

3. Data and Technology Ecosystem Needs

The adoption of cloud-native data management platforms aimed at consolidating transactional, interactive and social data are central to the promise of digital transformation. Data platforms, supporting analytics capabilities embedded at a business domain level, are a transformational source of customer intelligence and innovation. Data architecture and infrastructure requirements can be as modest as business intelligence systems or as ambitious as the convergence of analytical and operational ecosystems that feed machine learning frameworks. In either case, choosing the right data analytics capability is paramount. In this sense, execution relies on:

• Understanding the context and demands on the data ecosystem.

  This requires discovering:

  • How the organisation decides when to collect data or purchase external data?

  • What types of data are collected and what is the primary source for each type?

  • Which stakeholders are the nominal ‘owners’ of each data source?

  • How granular is each data source? How has it been used in the past? Are usage events tracked?

  • Is there a unifying element (i.e. customer_id) that joins different data sources for data modelling purposes?

  • What tools and processes are available to move data between systems and formats?

  • How are the data sources accessed by different groups of users?

  • What data access tools are available? How many people use each of these tools, and what are their positions?

  • How are users informed of new and changed data elements?

  • How are decisions made regarding data access restrictions? By whom? Based on what criteria? How is this tracked?

  • What analytic tools have been tried?

  • How have the results of this analysis been judged? What were the metrics and benchmarks?

Ensuring that data strategy and data privacy management is supported by infrastructure best practice.

Weak Infrastructure	Strong Infrastructure	Comments
Siloed	Interoperable	Systems can be easily integrated
Proprietary	Open Source	Systems can be easily replaced and are not vendor dependent
Bespoke	Off-the-Shelf	No vendor lock-in or inflated pricing
Hosted In-house	Cloud	Reduced cost and secure, remote access
Hyper-specialised analytics units	Self-Service Insights	Analyst tools are becoming available to non-technical users
Irregular Data Formats	Standardised APIs	Data can be easily shared
Ad-hoc Security	Privacy-by-Design and Differential Privacy	Data platforms are protected from abuse of personal data with built-in governance mechanisms

4. Workforce Needs

Much of the strategic foundations, operational planning and technology ecosystem of digital transformation will go to waste unless there is universal user readiness, tool adoption and a collective commitment to sharing relevant information. To this end, organisations must activate a culture of continuous learning in the areas of:

• The identification and acquisition of data skills. To unlock the full value of data there needs to be a fundamental skills framework featuring:

  • Defining data.

  • Classifying data.

  • Improving data usability.

  • Understanding data visualisations.

  • Communicating evidence to decision makers.

  • Why data privacy matters and how privacy practices affect employees, customers and partners.

• The availability and implementation of digital tools. Digital self-service coupled with self-sufficiency in using tools make the power of transformation innovations accessible. The adoption of particular tools depends on business context but can include:

  • Messaging and virtual design or content collaboration.

  • Real-time data workflow and tracking management.

  • Self-service data analytics.

  • Dashboards connected to centralised data platforms.

  • Learning management systems to create training courses. 

• Coaching and talent identification to encourage the growth of new behaviours. Data skills and digital tools alone are not going to achieve cultural change or the creation of a continuous learning culture. Empowered employees, collaboration and urgency depends on distributed leadership and effective responsibility existing at all levels of the organisation. This requires:

  • Leadership development programs to challenge old ways of working.

  • Prioritising coaching to help team members grow through structured one-on-one sessions.

  • Having leaders dedicate time on hiring goals based on identified specific skill gaps.

  • Treat learning as a deliberate practice by providing immediate task feedback to individuals as in the form of small lessons taught by the most talented colleagues. Repeatedly reinforce positive behaviour.

  • Set OKRs for cultural change and track them relentlessly. Measures include the percentage of workforce actively involved in cross-functional teams; recognition of people who collaborate; and cultural gap identification with the use of assessment instruments.

5. Ways of Working

Ways of working is the articulation of culture across an organisation. A sustainable environment for digital transformation execution is cross-functional; experimental (and, equally importantly, tolerates data-informed failure); and operates with a sense of urgency. A number of traits contribute to embedding this culture:

• Leveraging internal knowledge networks.

• Eliciting and sharing in-depth input from customers.

• Sequencing transformation workstreams to focus on one business domain at a time (maximising ROI).

• Utilising similar datasets, technology solutions and team members for multiple use cases to reduce expense.

• Applying agility by investing in high-fidelity prototypes anchored in data to validate risk as early as possible.

In conclusion, we can consolidate many of the themes and components necessary to orchestrate a successful digital transformation using a simple roadmap example.

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FOOTNOTES

[i] A notable 63% of respondents (from 690 organisations) ranked cultural challenges as the biggest impediment to transformational efforts, Harvard Business Review, Rethinking Digital Transformation, November 2019.

[ii] ‘Unlocking success in digital transformations’, McKinsey survey, 29 October 2018.

LOOKING TO Leverage and utilise your data? REACH OUT.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you.

Article by Pete Crawford

The challenge has been laid to develop a Supply Chain Strategy that supports Australia’s renewed obsession with lifestyle

Article written by Matthew Webber

The way that we buy, move and sell Is shifting in seismic proportions. We have had all the indicators within our radar for some  – the uptake of ecommerce as a legitimate and safe platform for retail shopping, geo political trade wars playing out between large, industrialised nations and emerging nations along with increase consumer insistence on visibility and ethical sourcing practices. In amongst that we have had significant environmental impacts such as fires that have wiped out communities along with floods that have isolated regions.

“Insights from Matthew Webber | Matthew Webber is a specialist in strategy, program delivery and training, focused on driving business performance by developing commercial, operational and innovation capability. With over twenty years international experience, Matthew has worked across the globe with organisations undergoing immense change and comprehensive transformations. Inspired to create a world championed by kindness, where equitable opportunity is available for all - Matthew shares his vision through best-selling books and his sought-after keynotes. ”

Australian Supply Chains continue to be impacted by global events – necessitating a rethink of the sovereignty of our Supply Chains

Only in the last week have we seen how truly volatile our global supply chain networks are with the blocking of the Suez Canal by the Evergreen Cargo Ship ‘MV Ever Given’ in an unfortunate accident as the result of a sandstorm -  potentially blocking up to 15% of global trade as goods need to pass between Asia and Europe. The question my Australian reading audience may ask, what would the Asia- Europe trade lane between have to do with Australian trade – and the answer is a lot. For a start, ports will become congested – the same ports that need to unload Australian export cargo, capacity will be stripped from the shipping market driving prices up, supply will be interrupted for manufacturing and oil prices will be driven up. That is just the start. This is one ship that has interrupted a global economy and it impacts your business, your people and your customers

Then of course we have had COVID-19. I reluctantly bring up the pandemic – because it is not the only issue of our times – yet it is so big – we cannot ignore to comment and acknowledge the shift that it will have in our psychology as a nation. Not to dissimilar to a war period – we are seeing fundamental shifts in our attitudes and behaviours – not just as a market, but as a people.  The pandemic has been an ongoing issue for the global economy for well over a year now. The reactions, repositioning and rethinking of supply chains has been considerable

These are obvious impacts that have been impacting and shaping our supply chain strategies. For some organisations this has provided significant opportunity as they have created new business models or adapted exiting ones to suit. For other businesses, they have been slow to respond, and as a result have been lagging behind – and sadly for some the slow response has resulted in their demise. For those that have been fast to react – there is a chance that the successes may be short lived unless we start unpacking what is actually happening to the psychology, behaviour and ambitions of our nation.  

“What does a Post Pandemic Australia look like?

On Wednesday 24th March 2021, I had the wonderful fortune of attending a Whiteark event where Bernard Salt, leading Demographer and commentator, presented a fascinating and insightful talk on the ‘Post Pandemic Australia: What we can expect’ .”

Bernard’s discussion of course was validating many of the impacts that global disruption has had on supply chains, and Bernard himself has publicly spoken about the opportunity to rethink our global supply chains and consider carefully the need to make our Supply Chains more sovereign. Put simply – the global environment is too volatile not to protect the key manufacturing capability and product availability of key necessities for the welfare of our nation –from a healthcare, security or economic perspective. This philosophy cascades to an organisational level where our organisations need to rethink the sovereignty of their supply chain and have key and strategic lines available and protected from global disruption – like we have seen in the pandemic, the Suez canal incident or more broadly many of the global economic disruptions from moving from an industrialised era to a digitised one.

Of course, though, Bernard Salt challenged my thinking further on the topic of Supply Chain strategy – beyond the obvious. Bernard’s discussion was focussed deeply on the psychology and aspirations of everyday Australian’s. And the theme, and label, that kept recurring was that of Lifestyle. As Australian’s we are obsessed with lifestyle – and the centre of gravity for our lifestyle rests in our home. This obsession has only renewed.

Supply chains need to be geared towards a lifestyle obsessed Australia

What all of these disruptions have done, particularly the major disruption of the pandemic, has reinforced how important lifestyle is to everyday Australians. The pandemic – for all of its pain – has brought with it an opportunity for us to reconnect with our neighbours friends and families. It has allowed us to spend more time in our homes. It has for many cut the daily commute by hours – time that can be spent connecting and enjoying the lifestyle and balance we so desire. Our attitudes to the way that we work have fundamentally been tipped upside down, as we revert to our natural desire of seeking a better lifestyle for our families.

What does this mean – what does it mean for our cities, for our suburbs, for our regional centres. Simply – our suburbs and our regional centres will be activated. The way that we work, the way that we engage, the way that we shop – will fundamentally shift. Not only do we now have some ‘more mature’ age consumers adopting ecommerce, but we also have whole generations behind us (such as the ‘Millenials’ that will up the imperative on placing value on experience and lifestyle even further. Our homes have, and will continue to become, bigger – and who would have thought that now a home office – or ‘zoom’ room would be a required feature of any home.

You may be rightfully asking, what does this have to do with my Supply Chain? The answer is a great deal. If we understand the psychology, behaviours and what ordinary Australian’s value, we can design and build our supply chains to support.

The way that we buy, move and sell will fundamentally shift as Australians adopt to their reinvigorated obsession with lifestyle. Our supply chains will need to be established to support the reactivation of suburbia and provincial Australia. If your supply chain does not directly serve these Australians – it will most certainly need to be supporting the businesses that do.

Our commuting, social, work and leisure activities have fundamentally returned us to be being closer to home – in close proximity to the things that matter to us most – our families, friend and our homes.

You supply chain needs to adapt to the reinvigorated obsession of Australians to their love of lifestyle. Your supply chain will need to be fast, accessible, sovereign and support the new behaviours and attitudes of everyday Australians – the everyday Australians that will be spending their leisure and work time at home or very near to home – and not at shopping centres, high streets, city offices or stuck in traffic on the daily commute.

How is your Supply Chain supporting Australia’s renewed obsession with lifestyle and connection?

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LOOKING TO rethink your Supply Chain? REACH OUT.

Our leadership team at Whiteark  have decades of experience in leading Supply Chain Transformations from Factory through to Customer, developing Market and Customer strategies that ensure relevance and desirability . We design the business model to deliver commercial feasibility and  to ensure that your business is ready to not only deal with disruption, but to thrive in it. From strategy to design and execution. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au or explore our supply chain transformation services here.

Article written by Matthew Webber

Digital Transformation: Part 1

Article written by Pete Crawford

Transforming Key Strategic Capabilities

This is the first of two articles on digital transformation. Here, we will look at how the digital economy has reconfigured the business value chain and its effect on four key strategic capabilities – employees, customers, operations, and business models. Understanding the transformational components of these capabilities offers revenue maximisation and cost optimisation opportunities. In the second article we will examine execution and orchestration in order to take advantage of these opportunities.

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

Digital Transformation is Strategic, Cross-Functional and Customer Focused

The term ‘transformation’ is not incidental. It is far more powerful than ‘change’. It implies creating something entirely new. The recent wave of innovative technologies – such as managed cloud services; data platforms, natural language understanding; computer vision; robotics; machine learning; and blockchain – have been accelerated by forced experiments owing to the COVID pandemic. However, technology adoption is the wrong way to frame opportunities. Instead, digital transformation can be distinguished from earlier eras of business transition in that:

i) Strategy, not technology, is the driver.

ii) Cross-functional business processes, not only IT infrastructure, are the enablers.

iii) Competing for attention to create direct customer relationships, not competing to create exclusive supplier relations, is the focus.

Data is the Strategic Asset Shaping the Scope of Transformation

A second factor distinguishing digital transformation is the emergence of the ‘digital economy’ and the notion of data as a strategic asset. To be clear, data is not analogous to models of ownership or the utilisation of physical commodities[1]. Succeeding with any digital transformation program will ultimately demand managing, governing, using and sharing data to create value. It helps to start from an understanding of the unique characteristics of information:

• Data is non-depletable.

• Data is non-rivalrous (millions can use it simultaneously and a single piece of data can be used by multiple algorithms, analytics or applications at once).

• Data can become less relevant, and less valuable, over time.

• Value can multiply when aggregated and analysed with other relevant data.

• The price of data is often indeterminate of supply and demand.

• Data is not only personal to us but is also created through interactions with other people or services; therefore, data has both a private and a social value (i.e. COVID tracking apps).

• Data can influence our own behaviour through feedback mechanisms (i.e. wearable tech and fitness trackers).

The notion of data as an asset, and an adjunct to innovative technologies, is illuminated by the real-time monitoring of environmental variables derived from Internet of Things (IoT) applications. For example, the insurance and energy sectors have embraced embedded sensors. Innovative automotive insurers have been able to improve forecasting and claim reviews by monitoring driving habits accumulated over millions of kilometres of driving data. The collection of attributes, such as speed, acceleration, braking and turning motions, has also ensured that they are able to base premiums on personalised behaviours rather than general inferences. Ironically, however, sensors are expensive to fix when cars do crash – contributing to raising insurance rates.

The Business Value Chain Has Been Reconfigured

The confluence of digitalisation and technological innovation has not only disrupted consumer habits but has reconfigured the business value chain. For many organisations, the point of integration in the value chain on which their sustainable differentiation is built has changed. Consequently, digital transformation has become inescapable when reckoning with a new set of competitive forces that affect how goods or services are supplied, distributed and consumed.

Reconfiguration of supply

Suppliers and content creators, especially those with differentiated product, niche focus and high quality, can attempt to attract consumers directly to avoid the risk of becoming commodified or abandoned. For example, musicians are using StageIt to distribute their performance to reach widely distributed audiences. Or The New York Times, which remains profitable (with a wider reach) by adopting a paywall and subscription model to counter decimated advertising revenues in traditional media.

Reconfiguration of distribution

Distributors of digital goods are no longer constrained by geography; by transaction costs; or by the need to seek exclusive integration with suppliers. Businesses that aggregate demand (i.e. Google, Facebook, Spotify, Trip Advisor) act as intermediaries that control the relationship between third-party suppliers/content creators by integrating forward in the value chain. They aim to attract end users through network effects so that the value of the service increases as the number of users increases. This often leaves suppliers and creators dependent on algorithm-led discovery such as search and recommendation systems in order to reach end users.

Reconfiguration of consumption

What determines the creation of value has shifted away from controlling the supply of a good, or the distribution of scarce resources, to controlling demand for abundant resources – users. Companies such as Apple and Disney have been successful by a strategy placing user experience and creativity at the centre of a differentiated and fully integrated value chain.

The Transformational Components of Strategic Capabilities

In response to reconfigurations in industry value chains, the transformation of key strategic business capabilities depends on developing or re-evaluating a series of components. This section will focus on these components with specific use cases.

1.     Transformation of employee experience

Start with employees and cultural norms. Employees can be either the greatest impediment to change or leading advocates. Organisations which focus on the employee experience can establish a culture conducive to successful digital transformation. Employee experience encompasses daily activities in the workplace, a sense of purpose and value and, crucially, aligning expectations with the organisation’s goals and vision. Key to this vision is an investment in principles, processes and training which entrench:

• Self-sufficient access to domain-specific information. Particularly around real-time customer intelligence and the reduction of time-intensive insight discovery. More specifically, the advent of self-service analytics still leaves gaps with introducing bias with data selection or problems with consistent insight interpretation. What is really required is self-sufficiency with access, management and maintenance of information systems.

• A common knowledge base. Tools which consolidate and share knowledge help break organisational silos and enable groups to communicate and collaborate in real time. An example is Xero’s service design initiative to document, communicate and visualise customer and staff journeys across time zones and remote workplaces.

• Distributed responsibility. The ability to rapidly restructure operating models to better coordinate cross-functional teams, external partnerships or co-designed customer solutions. This is best exemplified by the GoodSAM app. Here, emergency calls for cardiac arrest simultaneously alert Ambulance Victoria as well as qualified first aiders in the immediate vicinity who are directed to the incident. Widening the scope of responsibility has saved lives.

• A continuous learning culture. Learning within an organisation needs to be viewed as a deliberate, formal practice. This practice can entail customised and highly targeted online courses alongside having highly proficient employees teach key skills to colleagues in small groups. Canva, which aims to democratise design, is one company to take this approach by establishing cultural norms which foster feedback and radical candor.

2.     Transformation of customer experience

A focus on building meaningful customer relationships is not new. However, the foundation of digital transformation is to gain a clearer understanding of what customers experience.

The application of digital tools, cross-disciplinary design methods and engagement strategies has accentuated customer experience with: 

• Feedback loops. Feedback between content creation and content consumption drive a great sense of intimacy between users and creators. This is evidenced by innovation in the media and content creation space with the emergence of models (many of which are direct payment) like Clubhouse, Onlyfans, Substack and Twitter’s recent announcement of Super Follow.

• Customer intelligence. A greater awareness of individual preferences or behaviours by integrating customer data across multitudes sources and silos into a data platform to provide a ‘360-degree view of the customer’. For instance, the food retail chain Chipotle created a unified view of over 2,400 restaurant operations to increase customer loyalty by 30%.

• User participation and co-creation. Human-centred design tools can be used to enable customers to participate in an organisation’s value chain. This spans collaborative content co-creation (i.e. platforms which source early-stage concepts from consumers to create prototypes such as the clothing company Betabrand); to near real-time insights about new products or services (i.e. Remesh engages with customers via live video diaries and then uses AI to organise responses); or direct advocacy where consumers become the brand media.

• Transparent data and AI ethics. Personal privacy and information transparency can become a business feature through an ethical consideration of data collection and algorithmic decision making. In terms of transparency (or simply getting in front of AI regulation), companies need to consider launching AI registers that explain how they use algorithms as part of their product services. The City of Amsterdam’s automated parking control register is an excellent reference point with concise details about the information used by the system, the operating logic, and its governance.

Of course, when it comes to understanding the customer experience, don’t become too data and algorithm dependent – get out and talk to real people.

3.     Transformation of operations

Advances in robotics, sensors, IoT and AI are now offering to transform operations outside of supply chains or back office processes. The key components to turning efficiency gains into profit drivers and cost optimisation are:

• Linking and combining cross-functional data. Is the first step to transforming supply chain management through the integration of data streams from internal sources with external supply networks in a data hub. The power of data is compounded when new data, such as streamed operational data from sensor devices, is attached to data which has already been modelled – typically from finance or sales – to better understand, for instance, the real-time cost of downtime for a given manufacturing process.

• Demand forecasting with machine learning. Estimating demand serves as the starting point for warehousing, shipping, price forecasting, supply planning and the anticipated needs of customers. Machine learning improves on traditional forecasting methods where there are volatile demand patterns, rapidly changing environments or new product launches. Adding complex variables to financial or sales reports such as social media signals; click streams; geo-location devices; IoT; natural language transcriptions etc is an additional benefit.

• Decision intelligence and modelling alternative scenario simulations. The ability to model ‘what if’ scenarios can be addressed with ‘digital twins’ – digital replicas that help test, model and predict the impact of various choices on our future. Singapore has embraced digital twins for urban planning and identifying the impact of environmental change.

• Providing secure and governed access to a shared information ecosystem. Blockchain technology offers a new architecture of trust based on decentralised control; a shared view of the truth; and the direct exchange of value through tokens. The FMCG industry, specifically major grocery distributors, have trialled blockchain to track food throughout the supply chain, gathering real-time data to spot inefficiencies and create trustworthy audit trails. Unilever are testing blockchain for media buying and the reconciliation of data among advertisers, agencies and publishers.

4.     Transformation of business models

Business models are essentially stories that explain how organisations work and provide insight into how to deliver value to customers at a particular cost. Digital transformation clears the stage for new stories and their relationship with strategy. It also encourages companies to experiment, learn, and place multiple bets on new models by setting up internal innovation (intrapreneurial) units. However, to be effective, these units must have influence and input with product development and sales functions.

Business model transformation greatly depends on the initial success of transforming the capabilities previously discussed. It helps to sense and respond to market, competitive and regulatory disruptions. And no new business model or technology innovation will ever transform an industry unless it can be connected to emerging or scalable market needs. Prevailing models in the digital economy include:

• Subscription services. Subscription models such as Netflix or the New York Times, as well as on-demand loaning of goods or services (SaaS providers such as AWS), can succeed through capturing significant consumer attention or being recognised for high-quality niche focus. The fact remains, of course, that content creation with differentiated value is hard.

• Digital platforms. Platforms such as Coursera and Shopify facilitate a relationship between third-party suppliers/content creators and end user. These platforms succeed by commoditising trust and increasing the economic value of everybody that uses the platform. As discussed earlier, demand aggregators fit into this pattern, but use network effects to capture the total economic value – hence the stoush between Australian media publishers and Facebook.

• Integrators. Businesses which integrate across the whole business value chain provide sustainable competitive benefits including differentiation based on design (in the case of Apple, their operating system); an easier adoption path for new products (annual generations of iPhones); and profit maximisation owing to the ability to apply premium pricing for a superior user experience.

• Data products. This entails the aggregation, augmentation and transformation of diverse data sets into information-based services. This approach typically takes two forms. Data as a service which offers direct revenue potential such as credit card transaction data used for customer behaviour and retail spend analysis. Or companies such as CoreLogic which provide subscription-based products that access rich property data. And secondly, data-enhanced products which maximise revenue by improving price or sales quantity such as cycling apps that measure movement in real-time and positioning in 3D space so as to simulate and gamify racing.
  

[1] Such as the trite and lazy analogy that ‘data is the new oil’.

LOOKING TO Leverage and utilise your data? REACH OUT.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you.

Article by Pete Crawford

M&A Trends and Insights

The economic impact of COVID-19 has led to a material decline in M&A activity globally including Australia. As a result, we have seen fewer transactions and according to Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters), worldwide M&A activity totaled US$1.2 trillion during H1 of 2020, a drop of 41% compared to a year ago and the slowest opening six-month period since 2013. M&A activity abroad appears to have rebounded to some degree since the end of June 2020, presumably as economies have started to reopen. The Financial Times reported that since the end of June, 8 deals each worth more than US$10 billion have been announced.

Australian Private Equity History

Compared to the US and UK private equity (PE) markets, the Australian PE market is relatively immature.  The first venture capital fund was established in the mid-1980s by Bill Ferris, and the fund performed well but it was not until the Australian Government set up an Innovation Fund in the mid-1990s offering A$2 funding for every A$1 raised that the venture capital industry accelerated.

Between 2000 and 2010, deal sizes and fund sizes grew exponentially in Australia and many global private equity players such as KKR, Carlyle, TPG and Blackstone opened offices in Australia with a view to acquiring large businesses beyond the reach of the smaller newly formed local funds.

Australian Private Equity Landscape

Fundraising in Australia has become global with Australian institutions seeking global exposure and Australian PE managers having to raise funds abroad in competition with fund managers across the globe. Consequently, only the best performing funds have raised new and larger funds in Australia, while only a small number of Australian fund managers from the early 2000s are still active.

A decade ago, the vast majority of PE deals in Australia were by Australian managers investing Australian institutional money.  By 2019,  between 60-70 % of PE investment in Australia came from offshore funds with many adopting the “fly in fly out” model investing from their home base or from regional APAC offices in Hong Kong or Singapore. This trend for increased investment by offshore PE in Australia is set to continue for a number of reasons including:

• Higher levels of local competition and high prices in their home markets of US and Europe, some growth capital funds, and buyout funds, have abroad for investments;

• Australia has a stable political environment, first rate governance and rule of law, a strong economy and a reputation for technology and innovation;

• Australia has reduced competition from local funds due to consolidation and the relative weakness of the Australian dollar to the US dollar, it is easy to see why Australian deal values have been attractive to US investors.

Australian M&A Market

In Australia, M&A activity for the first half was subdued. Announced deals in Australia and New Zealand dropped 51% in value terms with the largest public company transactions being:

• Iberdrola’s bid for Infigen at $1.5 billion (topping an earlier bid by UAC Energy, a joint venture between AC Energy and UPC Renewables);

• Uniti Group’s proposed merger with OptiComm, valued at $540m;

• Shandong Gold Mining’s bid for Cardinal Resources, valued at $335m.

All other deals announced in that period had a lower value, though this excludes a number of significant transactions including:

• Bain Capital’s acquisition of Virgin Australia (in administration), agreed in June, but not strictly a public company transaction, given the nature of the transaction;

• TPG’s $15 billion merger with Vodafone which completed in July, as that was announced in 2018;

• BGH’s $542m recommended bid for Village Roadshow as it was agreed in August.

… download the full guide to read more.

“CONTENTS

> Introduction
> Australian PE History
> Australian Private Equity Landscape
> Australian M&A Market
> Recent Market Developments- Revised Foreign Investment Rules
> Impact of COVID on Asset Valuations- Digital and Technology assets
> Variable Consideration as part of Asset Valuation
> Renegotiation and Reneging on Agreed Transactions
Key insights from the 2H of 2020
> Deal makers widen assessment of value creation to non-traditional sources
> The impact of a hot IPO market on M&A
> Looking ahead: Resilience and innovation”

Need support with your M&A? Reach out to the Whiteark team.

We’re a team of doers led by Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli. We don’t believe in unnecessary layers; and between us we have over 50 years of collective experience, expertise and global connections. Delicately weaving these together, we engage with you directly, with a single-minded focus on the task at hand. Collaborating at a senior level to propel organisations forward, we intricately map out and execute your next move, ensuring you’re prepared, protected and prosperous.

Fuelled by passion, we revel in working with Private Equity; the pace, targeted focus on business optimisation and limited timeframes spark unforeseen transformation opportunities, which we’re excited to deliver on. Our approach is rooted in data, ensuring the right decisions are made – based on accurate information. Hands-on, we get into the trenches with you, working directly with the management team to realise outcomes expected by shareholders. We offer a range of transformation services which can be tailored to suit standard private equity options; always accompanied by a laser focus on profit optimisation of the business.

Put your hat on and get ready to problem solve with your team?

The Six Thinking Hat technique is used in companies around the world to facilitate decision making and getting people to have good brainstorming conversations.

Before you start you need to educate your team on the 6 hats and background. You can do this by:

• Reading our hats articles

• Watching our Hats video

• Download our free Powerpoint template

Group Exercise

Pick a problem to solve with the team/ group. 

Allocate a hat to each person; the point isn’t to put people to the natural hat but make people outside of their comfort zone and ensure it creates good conversation.

Teams can use these hats in any order during a discussion, but typically progress from blue, to white, to green, to yellow, to red, and finally to black.

This order organizes the discussion:

• Blue: Start with the approach and process

• White: Review the facts

• Green: Generate new ideas without judgement

• Yellow: Focus on the benefits

• Red: Consider emotional responses to any ideas

• Black: Apply critical thinking after the benefits have been explored to test the viability of the new ideas

Any hat could make a reappearance in the discussion. For example, after facts (white) are laid out, more process (blue) may be applied, or after pros (yellow) and cons (black) are discussed, new ideas (green) may surface.

Using these hats takes some practice. Remember that this approach is not intended to "feel natural" at first. It is intended to help individuals focus on problem solving. Practice, however, can help the team flow through the hats more easily, and gives everyone in the organization a shorthand to focus on the analysis rather than their complicated thoughts and responses to the process.

 

Tips

Here are a few tips for running a “Six Hats” meeting:

• Empower a moderator (a designated blue hat) who has read de Bono’s book beforehand to set an agenda and facilitate the meeting.

• Use six physical hats of different colours (or labelled with the different roles) to remind participants of the different thinking categories and signal what category is the current focus.

• Ensure that participants all have a way to record ideas, either for brainstorming, or to save for when the conversation moves to the appropriate hat.

For more practical examples of how this works please follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube for some Whiteark bites that provide some practical examples.

Need more information on the hats?

Watch the videos below where Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli unpack each of DeBono’s hats in less than 5 minutes…

Whiteark is aligned with the White Hat.
Let us explain more….

We’re a team of doers led by Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli. We don’t believe in unnecessary layers; and between us we have over 50 years of collective experience, expertise and global connections. Delicately weaving these together, we engage with you directly, with a single-minded focus on the task at hand. Collaborating at a senior level to propel organisations forward, we intricately map out and execute your next move, ensuring you’re prepared, protected and prosperous.

We’re nimble; we will assemble the best team for your problem, guaranteeing you have the skillset and people you need - no more, no less. Using data (de Bono’s White Hat) we load up your arsenal with the information needed to define and craft your next move; your strategy. Then together we’ll use this knowledge to carve out a unique set of priorities and objectives, bringing the entire team into the fold so they’re aligned towards the same targets and goal.

Digital Transformation Playbook

Technology is changing at a rapid pace and while technology is changing, companies will continue to be forced to change. New technologies can disrupt established businesses, but more importantly they stimulate opportunities for innovation. In today’s environment, business owners are more concerned about missing opportunities to grow, than become obsolete.

Technology prompts companies to rethink how they do business.

Technologies including big data, the cloud, the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence are helping entrepreneurs to develop new business models and disrupt the established way of running operations.

Digital technologies are:

• Enabling businesses to operate in new ways to deliver more value to customers and generate more productivity and cost efficiencies

• Altering competitive landscapes

• Changing the economics of markets

“CONTENTS

> Technology
> What is digital transformation?
> Guiding your digital transformation strategy
> A digital transformation approach
> Tips for successful digital transformation
> Benefits of digital transformation”

Guiding your digital transformation strategy

Digital Strategy

A clear strategy determines your organisation's ability to reimagine and transform your business for the digital world. A multi-year digital strategy focused on driving customer experience, operational efficiency, and new revenue.

The digital strategy is the foundation for operating the business and delivering on business targets. New revenue streams, customer experience, and operational efficiency will all be viewed from a digital lens.

Technology modernisation is critical to your ability to meet changing market demands.

12 benefits of digital transformation

Need support with your digital transformation? Reach out to the Whiteark team.

We’re a team of doers led by Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli. We don’t believe in unnecessary layers; and between us we have over 50 years of collective experience, expertise and global connections. Delicately weaving these together, we engage with you directly, with a single-minded focus on the task at hand. Collaborating at a senior level to propel organisations forward, we intricately map out and execute your next move, ensuring you’re prepared, protected and prosperous. Contact us to book in an obligation free conversation today.

Supply Chain Transformation Leadership in Action

Article written by Matthew Webber

One of the key attributes for any prosperous supply chain of the modern era is to have the ability to adapt and respond. We can design our supply chains structurally, and technically, to deliver on this outcome, however we do have to move our supply chains from where they are today, to where they need to be in the future.  We need to do that through leading our people, our partners and our communities in which we operate.

“Insights from Matthew Webber | Matthew Webber is a specialist in strategy, program delivery and training, focused on driving business performance by developing commercial, operational and innovation capability. With over twenty years international experience, Matthew has worked across the globe with organisations undergoing immense change and comprehensive transformations. Inspired to create a world championed by kindness, where equitable opportunity is available for all - Matthew shares his vision through best-selling books and his sought-after keynotes. ”

We are in effect leading our supply chains to be change ready. Being change ready is a question of culture, and culture needs to be led.

Change is difficult at the best of times, but when you are trying to change a global supply chain with multiple interested parties, suppliers and communities the need to  be omnipresent and lead through action is telling.

The key actions required by a supply chain leader when navigating transformative challenges are to:

• Lead the vision

• Build confidence

• Empower people

• Communicate effectively

• Build the right team

Now let’s take a closer look at how to go about this.

Lead the vision

Leaders will be very good at finding the common thread that connects people to a mission or a cause.

Great supply chain leaders will be able to share a vision across the entire supply chain. They will also respect different cultures (geographical, industry, organisational) and needs within their supply chain community and embrace the differences as an advantage.

Given that the vision will cross so many organisation and cultural boundaries, it needs to be stated in a way that provides both brevity and clarity, and something that is able to be understood at all levels, in all organisations, in all geographies.

The vision must state where it is that you are going, why you are going there and importantly what are the key steps that need to be undertaken in getting there.

The collective vision will be a powerful foundation for all parties in your supply chain to engage with and provide as a beacon when making difficult decisions or provide guidance when confronted with difficult challenges.

If your vision is not a collective vision and does not value the contribution that all your stakeholders make to your supply chain, it will be very difficult to harmonise towards a common goal.

Build confidence

We can almost become fatigued by the disruption that impacts our supply chains – bushfires, pandemics, new systems, new ways of working, change in governments and policy – the list, as you are aware, goes on. We need to build confidence, and resilience,  for our people to be able to face into each challenge as they arise. Being challenge ready and having the tools and support available to address the challenges is part of the solution.

People need to believe that the change is realistic and will create value. How many times has something been promised but not delivered? Where is the plan? How is it going to be resourced? Where does it start? How long will it take? What does it mean for me? Have they considered my situation? These are just some of the conscious and subconscious thoughts that could be going through people’s (as well as suppliers, service providers and communities) minds.

People gain confidence from wins, but those wins must not be rhetoric – they must be real wins that can be measured and are meaningful. Supply Chains can be big moving beasts, so being able to break it down into meaningful parts to create many small wins that support a broader, strategic intent is important.

And of course, believing that change and value creation can be sustained will provide confidence. You need to demonstrate that a new process, business model, distribution or manufacturing technique can survive past the initial implementation phase. You must measure, and be able to communicate, your ability to sustain an initiative.

Empower your people

Empowerment in your supply chain is about making sure the people, the communities, your partners are equipped and enabled to deliver their part of the value. We need to show support, provide the tools and training and create the space for this empowerment to occur. They need the capacity, competence and confidence in what they are being asked to deliver.

We also have to think about how teams in different environments and cultures learn and operate. For instance, a development program in one organisation, in one country may not be the most appropriate as in another organisation or another country.

It is important that everybody in the supply chain is empowered and equipped with the right tools, methods and mindsets to be able to cope with the change that is upon us. We not only need this capability, but we also need resilience so that when times are tough or we are under pressure, we actually have the capacity and capability to deal with the challenge without sacrificing our commitment to value creation.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

There is a lot of communication noise out there. Think of all the news services, all the work emails, all the social media – we are completely saturated by information and it is very difficult just to absorb everything, let alone understand it. So now let’s think about that in a Global Supply Chain context – with all the various parties and stakeholders, and all the moving parts, it can be overwhelming to say the least, and communications are in danger of becoming just a lot of meaningless noise.

You have to be able to cut through that noise so that your messages can be received and understood. This is why it is absolutely critical to have a consistent, systematic and deliberate routine for communicating valuable and meaningful information.

The words used, how they are said, and the tone used are very important in a global setting. You really need to ensure that you adjust your communications to suit the local situation – and you should do this with the support of the local teams. You also need to have systems in place that ensure that communications are received and understood and are in fact interpreted correctly.

Build the right team

For any business, the only real competitive advantage is people. While process, the way a business is organised, how resources are used, or how goods and services are marketed are all contributors to competitive advantage, they actually arise because of the people.

We can see that if we have people that are not culturally, or perhaps philosophically, aligned that it will slow down the transformation effort. 

This must be a collective effort, and you must take necessary efforts and steps to ensure that the people operating in this setting are safe and have the right support and structure around them to help them be a success. 

Your team extends beyond just your organisation – it reaches into the collective team of your partners and the communities you operate in.

We need to be able to link the supply chain through people and engagement – after all it is the people that will make our supply chains operate effectively and deliver value.

A common mistake that is made in the transformative efforts of supply chains is that they focus solely on the structural, or technical, elements of the supply chain. The biggest transformative failure comes when we do not consider the change readiness or capability of our people, partners and communities. Transformation in our supply chains must be led, and it must be led through action.

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LOOKING TO rethink your Supply Chain? REACH OUT.

Our leadership team at Whiteark  have decades of experience in leading Supply Chain Transformations from Factory through to Customer, developing Market and Customer strategies that ensure relevance and desirability . We design the business model to deliver commercial feasibility and  to ensure that your business is ready to not only deal with disruption, but to thrive in it. From strategy to design and execution. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au or explore our supply chain transformation services here.

Article written by Matthew Webber

What hat are you naturally and what hat is outside your comfort zone?

Following on from our thought leadership article on “What hat you wear can change the game - are you ready to play?”  here we unpack the six different hats in more detail, and explain the pros and cons in a little more detail.

As you are reading through these descriptions you should consider:

• In a meeting what hat is my default?

• What default hats do I have on my leadership team?

• What hats are missing from my leadership team?

The White Thinking Hat 

The white hat is like a detective who gathers, organizes, analyzes, and presents current information. As detectives gather clues and facts, they remain neutral and unbiased to avoid jumping to conclusions based on single bits of information. Instead, all clues, facts, and evidence must be analyzed and weighed to see what they have and what is missing. 

In the same fashion, while “wearing” a white thinking hat, you should collect known information and analyse it to reach fact-based solutions. Analysis of the gathered data will help you find gaps so you can look for ways to fill them or at least take note of them so you have a better idea of how to direct your conversations. 

Start gathering facts and data based on these problem-solving questions:

• What do we know about this issue?

• What don’t we know about this issue?

• What can we learn from this situation?

• What information do we need to solve this problem?

• Are there potential existing solutions that we can use to solve this problem?

Work through these questions as a team to gather more information as each person shares their unique knowledge of a particular issue or problem.  

The Yellow Thinking Hat

This hat represents enthusiasm and optimism. Like a bright, sunny day, the yellow hat is used to bring positive energy and life to every idea.

With the yellow thinking hat, you seek to find the benefits and value of ideas. You should not be hampered by limitations or boundaries, but rather believe that when there’s a will, there’s a way. 

Yellow hat questions could include:

• What is the best way to approach the problem?

• What can we do to make this work?

• What are the long-term benefits of this action?

These questions are only a starting point. As you work through your Six Thinking Hats exercises, you may want to come up with more questions that take into account the optimistic role of the yellow hat.

The Black Thinking Hat

The black hat is the opposite of the yellow hat and represents judgment. Wearers of this hat look for ways that the situation can go wrong.

The black hat is used to expose flaws, weaknesses, and possible dangers of proposed ideas. On the surface, the ideas you got from the yellow hat session may seem perfect. The black hat dives below the surface to find any potential problems. The black hat is essential to keep you from jumping headfirst into a potentially disastrous situation. However, the black hat’s role is not just to sit around and be all judgy. In addition, this role looks for and identifies resources that may be needed to accomplish your goals.

Questions to help you think from the black hat perspective can include:

• How will this idea likely fail?

• What is this idea’s fatal flaw?

• What are the potential risks and consequences?

• Do we have the resources, skills, and ability to make this work?

The Red Thinking Hat

While you have the red thinking hat on, your primary goal is to intuitively suggest proposals and plans of action based on feelings and hunches. This hat is open-minded and non-judgmental. Using the information gathered from feelings and emotions, you should be able to intuitively relate these feelings to the problem you are trying to solve.

A red hat thinker’s objectives include:

• Make intuitive insights known.

• Seek out your team’s hunches and feelings.

• Reveal an idea’s hidden strengths.

• Use instinct to identify potential weaknesses.

• Find internal conflicts.

For example, some ideas and plans may seem weak or impractical but if someone wearing the red hat can identify a new idea or plan that “feels” right, this idea should open up discussion and exploration of additional opportunities you may never have considered.

Red thinking hat questions may include:

• What is my gut feeling about this solution?

• Based on feelings, is there another way to fix this problem?

• What are our feelings about the choice we are making?

• Does our intuition tell us this is the right solution?

The Green Thinking Hat

Green hats are used for creative thinking. Wearing this hat lets you think outside the box to explore more possibilities and bend the rules of problem-solving. This creative thinking should be free from judgment and criticism. 

Because the green hat is not bound by rules or limitations, this is where you can think beyond the norms of reality. The green hat lets you conduct a brainstorming session where no idea is too wild or crazy to be noted or immediately shot down. The green hat must refrain from criticizing or judging any ideas or suggestions that come up. The idea is to expand your thinking as you explore possible solutions.

The green hat may ask questions such as:

• Do alternative possibilities exist?

• Can we do this another way?

• How can we look at this problem from other perspectives?

• How do we think outside the box?

Keep in mind that as you work with the green thinking hat, you are free to express any idea that comes to mind. Even ideas that may sound crazy can have a kernel of feasibility that can put you on the right path to solving your problem. 

The Blue Thinking Hat

This hat provides a management role and will help you analyse the situation. When wearing the blue hat, your job is to manage the thinking of the other hats to ensure that the team stays focused and works more efficiently toward a workable solution. The role makes sure the other hats are being used correctly. 

Specifically, the blue hat seeks to:

• Efficiently and effectively improve the thinking process.

• Ask the right questions that help you direct and focus your thinking.

• Maintain and manage agendas, rules, goals, and tasks.

• Organise ideas and proposals, and draw up action plans.

Questions that will help you in the blue hat role may include:

• What is the problem?

• How do we define the problem?

• What is our goal and desired outcome?

• What will we achieve by solving the problem?

• What is the best method for going forward?

It's something new. You might have heard about it but haven't applied it in your workplace. It's a challenge for the year ahead to use this to better engage with your team and get different perspectives for effective brainstorming.

If you are interested in a powerpoint template that can use used to educate your team on the 6 hats please sign up here.

If you’re looking for some help to navigate workshops using DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats, then reach out to the Whiteark team.

How we use the hats with our clients

We’re a team of doers led by Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli. We don’t believe in unnecessary layers; and between us we have over 50 years of collective experience, expertise and global connections. Delicately weaving these together, we engage with you directly, with a single-minded focus on the task at hand. Collaborating at a senior level to propel organisations forward, we intricately map out and execute your next move, ensuring you’re prepared, protected and prosperous.

We’re nimble; we will assemble the best team for your problem, guaranteeing you have the skillset and people you need - no more, no less. Using data (de Bono’s White Hat) we load up your arsenal with the information needed to define and craft your next move; your strategy. Then together we’ll use this knowledge to carve out a unique set of priorities and objectives, bringing the entire team into the fold so they’re aligned towards the same targets and goal.

Competitive advantage is now shifting to the Supply Chain

Article written by Matthew Webber

We are living in very uncertain times, driven by the various disruptions that are playing out in front of our very eyes. The level of disruption is often overwhelming, and the certainty, safety and security of our supply chains are under threat. It will be those organisations that can bring a level of consistency and reliability in their supply chains that will most certainly be well positioned for competitive advantage.

“Insights from Matthew Webber | Matthew Webber is a specialist in strategy, program delivery and training, focused on driving business performance by developing commercial, operational and innovation capability. With over twenty years international experience, Matthew has worked across the globe with organisations undergoing immense change and comprehensive transformations. Inspired to create a world championed by kindness, where equitable opportunity is available for all - Matthew shares his vision through best-selling books and his sought-after keynotes. ”

Disruption has also created a level of complexity in our Supply Chains that is confusing our decision making, impacting our opportunity to service or even to manage costs in an orderly and sensible manner. The complexities often have impacts that reach far greater than the organisation itself, and often are impacting communities and environments that are not in close proximity at all. Organisations that develop Supply Chains that can address this complexity, and make it on surface seem simple, are placing themselves in a strong competitive position.

We are moving from a world of industrialisation to digitisation. The impacts of this is in itself uncertain and complex – but it will most certainly have an impact on the way we work, the way we manufacture, the labour we use, the skills we acquire, and most certainly the geographies we operate in.

How organisations design and execute their supply chains will be the fundamental source of competitive advantage going forward. Supply Chains that are value and demand driven will certainly place themselves at an advantage over slow and reactive supply chains.

Let’s look at some strategic levers you can consider as you lead your organisations supply chain transformation strategy for competitive advantage.

Make data and digital your friend

Big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (including tagging, sensors and geolocation technologies) and blockchain are all means by which organisations are transforming their supply chains. Of course, on their own, these means are worth little, the value comes in the way that the information can be captured, disseminated, visualised, shared and acted upon.

What needs to be appreciated is the amount of information that flows across the entire Supply Chain and the awareness of how the ability to access this data in a meaningful way can add to the value proposition.

The manual collation of data and information is an inefficient way of doing business which exacerbates risks in the supply chain by delaying information flow and visibility.

Organisations are innovating to be able to operate with decisive speed, ensure that they are meeting and exceeding standards and providing customers, partners and other important stakeholders on demand information that meets compliance standards or reinforces messages on promises made.

With the amount of data and information being used, shared, and published – security is also becoming of paramount importance. Not only is there an expectation that the information is trustworthy, and able to be relied up so there needs to be integrity in the information (which can be potentially met with block chain technology), organisations also need to guard themselves from misuse of the information, ensuring that the information is used in the right context for the right permissible purposes. They also need to guard against cyber-attacks.

There are a number of ways that you can start making data and digital your friend;

1. Build an information strategy that provides for the on demand access to information and insights across the entire Supply Chain - create opportunities to share and collaborate on data and information sources to aid the operational planning and execution, network configuration and control of the Supply Chain;

2. Develop data capturing methods, activities and devices to be able to capture useful data, automating the collation and production of key insights and reporting;

3. Identify the areas of key risk and opportunities in your Supply Chain – ethical, operational, commercial and develop predictive modelling to leverage insight capability and to sense supply chain disruptions ; and

4. Establish safeguards to ensure the security of data and information.

Start Automating

There are many reasons why Supply Chains are transforming towards Automated and Robotics solutions. Access to reliable labour sources are becoming a challenge particularly for countries where there is an aging population, competing demand on labour, the lack of skill generation (or potentially the reverse where labour resources are upskilling to less labour orientated vocations), there is safety reasons, and cost imperatives that are also driving the push towards automation. On top of this is the exponential growth in ecommerce and the need for fast, reliable, consistent and accurate operational performance.

It would be difficult to envisage operations that are completely automated. By definition to automate something, you need to be able to provide the instruction on what the activity is that needs to be completed, how to complete the activity, when to complete the activity and so on. This requires human intervention and input at some level. Toyota have a principle of ‘autonomation’ which is basically automation with some human touch. This would involve approximately 80 to 90 % automation of process with the allowance of human engagement for improvement to the system.

 Whilst there may be significant impacts to employees, and potentially economies relying in the use of manual labour to provide these services that can now be automated – the counter argument of improvements in productivity, reduction in safety issues, job creation in the innovation and delivery of automated solution, and the reinvestment of capital into more meaningful (and often more impactful) ways.

There are a number of ways that value can be created through Automation;

1. Building an automation strategy that provides for reduction in manual tasks that may create safety, reliability, accuracy, efficiency and service bottlenecks;

2. Redeploy resource into value adding activity which has customer focus;

3. Partner with automation design experts; and

4. If you want to be successful at automation, you must place people at the centre of automation – that may seem counter intuitive, however it is people that make automation successful, not robots

Design your Supply Chain with adaptability in mind

A one size fits all strategy for a modern Supply Chain will simply not work. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding upon what their requirements are, and how they want their expectations fulfilled.  

This resonates on so many fronts for the supply chain strategy. How products are made, where you source from (and from who you source from), what geographies you operate from, how you manufacture and how you manage logistics, the depth of your relationships and the integrations of your systems will all have a significant bearing on how you can customise your offer to your customer, and how you diversify your supply chain accordingly to meet this requirement.

Supply chains need to be configured around the channels, clusters and customer experience expectations. Essentially customers need a supply chain menu, where micro segments are offered to meet the customer experience requirements of the customer and the efficiency requirements of the organisation.  This could mean many things to many organisations – but as a start you could be thinking about different supply chains based on product characteristics, channel (such as physical or online) or even the velocity and predictability of the demand.

Technology in manufacturing and production needs to be leveraged to be able to deal with complex, unique and customised designs. Additive manufacturing (commonly referred to as 3D printing)  and rapid prototyping techniques are enabling a “fail fast” mentality, more complex design, smaller parts and less waste.  This will have significant bearing on size, scope and location of manufacturing facilities and where and how products are sourced, milled and configured.

With the vast amount of data available, and the ability to link this data, and collaborate with this data – the opportunity to build more demand driven supply chains is realistic. Whilst the concept of demand driven supply chains is not new, it has in many circumstances been unachievable because it has relied on historical data sets. With embedded sensor activity, remote engagement and instruction, predictive analytic models and the ability to scrape social media data and collect data from open sources the ability to predict demand, recognise patterns and anticipate changes is greater than ever before providing for the ability to customise solutions.

There are a number of ways that this value can be created through designing an adaptable Supply Chain;

1. Building a diversification strategy supply chain strategy that provides for the ability to respond, build, distribute and satisfy customisation needs;

2. Establish a multi geared, multi clustered supply chain that is linked to the customer experience anticipated;

3. Establish data collection capability from multiple sources that can be collected, curated and  managed; and

4. Realign manufacturing and production footprint, methods and location to create the ability to customise based on customer preference and volatility in demand requirements

Together is better than alone so collaborate

The benefits of collaboration have long been recorded in the world of global supply chains. Collaboration provides the opportunity to share the weight of common problems, develop more insightful solutions, leverage the various perspectives and intellect from across the supply chain, to share the investment and resource allocation and of course to build value and share in the spoils in very fair and reasonable manner.  

Collaboration is a hot topic for the current environments, and for reasons no more important than the fact collaboration is the core ingredient to innovation and developing solutions to fast, complex and spread problems that have infiltrated the supply chain. For many of the new and emerging technologies to function they need a higher degree of collaborative effort.

Like the Apple iPhone requires the collaboration with app builders to make the iPhone an attractive value proposition (without the apps they are just another phone), supply chains require the collaboration of key elements to make a fast, agile and responsive supply chain work. It is near on impossible to run every aspect of the supply chain on your own, the sheer scale makes this unachievable. You need systems, service providers, suppliers, finance and so much more to connect the supply chain and bring value to life in the global supply chain. 

Cost driven, transactional style relationships with partners and providers is a significantly outdated and inappropriate course for a supply chain strategy dealing with disruption and realignment. You need meaningful relationships, insights, technologies and operational capabilities to actually be able to create value. Toxic relationships, and ones with no trust, are not only exhausting, distracting, expensive and unreliable – they are a threat to your brand and ability to drive social impact and to do the right thing.

Digital and data capabilities will of course make the collaboration effort easier, and more powerful with the aggregation of information that on its own is nothing special but combined becomes a source of insight and considerable strategic advantage. The magic happens when there is alignment with supplier performance and consumer behaviour. 

There are a number of ways that this value can be created through collaboration;

1. Building a collaboration strategy that provides for the ability to innovate and create shared insight and value;

2. Consolidate your partner base to provide the opportunity for deep relationships that enable collaboration practices to evolve and thrive;

3. Develop data, insight and best practice sharing capability – including the opportunity for teams from both organisations to work in each others environments; and

4. Identify and prioritise problems that can be solved collaboratively

Don’t forget your values

There is no doubt that there is a greater emphasis of all organisation to provide a greater focus on ethical and sustainability issues. There are also greater opportunities for organisations to create competitive advantage specifically through what they value and how they go about doing business.

There are very pragmatic reasons why organisations focus on values and socially focussed initiatives. For a start putting aside competitive advantages that can be created through value alignment, organisations focus on these areas to mitigate reputational damage risks and also focus on these areas for regulatory compliance reasons.

Being Values driven and socially focussed is not an afterthought, it must be an application of intent and desire.

What it requires is an exerted effort, strong focus, consistency in behaviour and messaging and a very authentic will – otherwise it will be seen as a dressed up marketing ploy. Long consistent repetition of positive actions and behaviours are the order of the day.

There are a number of ways that this Value can be created through values;

1. Building a values and social impact strategy that provides the source and foundation to create value, and competitive advantage;

2. Create a business case that considers a holistic value concept view of value and moves beyond short-term financial effects;

3. Leadership support, communication and behaviour that is consistent with the values and social impact; and

4. A long term view of consistent, repetitive reinforcement of the values and commitment to social impact that earns the trust of the supply chain and customer community

One thing is for sure, our Supply Chains will look very different in terms of the way the operate, and how they are positioned.

The organisations that can transition effectively stand to gain significant advantage over the long term – in fact it is almost certainly becoming a race, and a race that we have no choice but to join.

The race of business will be won and lost by how organisations organise their Factory to Customer Supply chain and adapt to the new environments that are upon us and can satisfy the growing demands of the modern customer and the experience that they expect. 

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LOOKING TO rethink your Supply Chain? REACH OUT.

Our leadership team at Whiteark  have decades of experience in leading Supply Chain Transformations from Factory through to Customer, developing Market and Customer strategies that ensure relevance and desirability . We design the business model to deliver commercial feasibility and  to ensure that your business is ready to not only deal with disruption, but to thrive in it. From strategy to design and execution. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au or explore our supply chain transformation services here.

Article written by Matthew Webber

What hat you wear can change the game - are you ready to play?

We know that successful companies work to proactively listen to different perspectives from across their organisation. Finding ways to do this where people feel comfortable to share their views/ideas is critical; and now with the majority of corporate employees working remotely, this creates even more of a challenge when it comes to getting people to engage…

I have a technique, that I learnt, and I now use this approach with leadership teams which elicits some exceptional and interesting results.

To apply this technique and get the full benefit we need to take you on a journey. We will take you through the journey in the next few articles where you will learn:

1. About Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats

2. To understand the concept and theory behind each Hat through Whiteark articles and bites

3. How to use the technique of the Hats with your leadership team, wider team, workshops and the power of using it to facilitate brainstorming with a group. We will give practical real life examples of how to use it

““Creative thinking is not a talent; it is a skill that can be learned. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity, and where appropriate, profits.” ”

— Edward de Bono

In 1985, a man named Edward de Bono wrote a book called Six Thinking Hats. A physician, author, and consultant, de Bono is a proponent of teaching thinking as a subject in schools to help people be more successful in business and in life. He developed the Six Thinking Hats method as a way to run better meetings and make better decisions more quickly.

In the Six Hats methodology, de Bono identifies six different ways of thinking, each represented by six coloured “thinking hats.” As you wear each hat, you learn how to think in different ways to brainstorm and approach problems from various angles.

The de Bono’s thinking hats are defined in the following ways.

Whiteark is aligned with the White Hat.
Let us explain more….

We’re a team of doers led by Jo Hands and James Ciuffetelli. We don’t believe in unnecessary layers; and between us we have over 50 years of collective experience, expertise and global connections. Delicately weaving these together, we engage with you directly, with a single-minded focus on the task at hand. Collaborating at a senior level to propel organisations forward, we intricately map out and execute your next move, ensuring you’re prepared, protected and prosperous.

We’re nimble; we will assemble the best team for your problem, guaranteeing you have the skillset and people you need - no more, no less. Using data (de Bono’s White Hat) we load up your arsenal with the information needed to define and craft your next move; your strategy. Then together we’ll use this knowledge to carve out a unique set of priorities and objectives, bringing the entire team into the fold so they’re aligned towards the same targets and goal.

Governing Data

Article written by Pete Crawford

Moving from Principles to Practice.

Let’s face it, data governance has a reputation of being a worthy, essential, but staid topic – a necessary prop underpinning aggressive innovative strategies or new analytic frontiers such as automated decision platforms powered by Deep Learning models. Part of this perception stems from a traditional notion that the function of data governance is to maintain data quality and reduce risk by upholding data protection regulations. By adhering to this formulation, governance is primarily viewed as a set of ‘command-and-control’ rules with escalation points.

A more balanced view is to regard data governance within the wider perspective of value creation. With this lens, governance becomes an important extension of developing data literacy skills and task-based, ethical accountability throughout the organisation.

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

The journey from principles to practice starts by outlining why governance is central to any data strategy or business transformation endeavour. An assessment of what sort of governance model is most applicable to the power dynamics of the organisation follows. This leads to key milestones for establishing a governance program and the types of activities that support a well-informed and data privacy compliant playbook.

Why Data Governance Matters

Strategic drivers

• Changing regulatory requirements with data protection and privacy – which carries large financial penalties for compliance failure.

• Customer experience – the outcome from improved operational decision-making stemming from superior interpretation, sharing and evaluation of data.

• Accountability – linking the quality and trust of data with an assurance that employees responsible for business outcomes are part of its governance.

• Reputation management – by containing potential data breaches which invariably lead to costly PR fallout, weakened business valuation, customer churn and consumer abandonment.

Tactical drivers

• Data is available, discoverable, consistent and appropriate to different domains of users.

• Guidelines for the acquisition, sharing, processing, combining, retention and deletion of data.

• Capture of all consumer data event journeys coupled with consistency of interpretation across all data consumers.

• Prevention of bias and discrimination which may be inherent or inadvertently introduced through data, algorithms or practice.

Governance Structure Options

Item	Top-Down	Bottom-Up
Summary	~ Leads by authority ~ Hierarchical	~ Democratic control and management of conditions ~ Shared vision and principles based on network relationships
Principles	~ Standardised rules ~ Dedicated data stewards	~ Everyone has clearly defined accountabilities
Operating Model	~ Defensive - risk mitigation focused	~ Agile – policies and processes closer to the end user
Suitability	~ Rules are set by executive branch or dominant business unit who owns the business problem and proposed solution	~ Data is treated as a shared strategic asset across multiple business functions
Risk	~ Lack of context or sense of ownership over the application of rules	~ Coordination complexities across multiple business units

Setting Up a Data Governance Program

A governance program – like any change initiative – should begin by recognising the importance of storytelling. More specifically, there is a need to rethink and reframe narratives around enterprise use of data that look beyond ownership, protection or unquestionable economic value in order to bring into focus concepts that validate access, trust, agency and partnerships. Key considerations include:  

Awareness

• Ensuring executive sign-off and visible sponsorship of vision, principles, structure, funding and timeline.

• Understand, up-front, key messages from a strategic, tactical and operational perspective and how they should be differentiated according to role or domain.

• Be clear with stakeholders that there are time, resource and budget implications – too often governance is assumed to be a component of BAU, or worse, achievable by simply standing-up a committee.

Roles and responsibilities

• Establish and clearly communicate who is running the program. A common challenge is that people assume IT ‘owns’ the data.

• Identify data domains.

• Form a governance council from business leaders and partners.

• Identify operational data stewards. Stewardship is a trained and formalised accountability which describes a task-based relationship to data. It is not a hired position – anyone can be a data steward.

Standards, policies and processes

• Commence discovery to identify critical pain points for what business units cannot do because of a lack of availability, quality or knowledge about data.

• Review and consolidate existing policies and practices that define enterprise data engagement behaviours.

• Define missing policies e.g. how are algorithms being monitored for fairness?
  
  

Value creation

• Take a human design-centric approach by engaging with data consumers, both inside and outside the organisation, to recognise their aspirations and pain points when dealing with their ability to share, use or retrieve information.

• Educate stakeholders by translating governance principles into business context.

• Formalise data literacy programs by focusing on improving how employees:

  • Use numbers, statistics and infographics to convey important messages;

  • Evaluate data collection or automated decisions for bias and discrimination;

  • Use data analytics, find insights, identify trends and make decisions;

  • Use data platforms in a self-service capacity;

  • Link and share data without compromising privacy or proprietary.

• Clear associations are established between data quality, data usage and customer experience. Measurable incentives should form part of a group’s performance evaluation.

Barriers to success

• Lack of leadership – or, conversely, total reliance on top-down command. Leadership needs to visibly support the program and reward team accountability over data.

• Lack of investment – to counter, a simple cost-benefit exercise can help set a baseline against the costs of compliance if data governance is not implemented.

• Business units retain a proprietary sense of ownership of data – the breakdown of silos needs to be central to a coordinated data strategy and modernised data architecture plan.

Creating a Governance Playbook

A clearly defined playbook is required to put a data governance program into action. Each activity should be clearly documented, communicated, frequently updated and referenced to relevant regulatory or ethical standards. Some selective activities are listed below.

A playbook can be exhaustive, but if starting from scratch then concentrate on:

• Start small by focusing on a particular business unit or data domain.

• Define business ownership and identify roles and responsibilities.

• Map data flows across infrastructure and to operational tools.

• Place data education and task-based accountability at the centre of the program.

• Set measurable goals (especially around end user experience).

Strategic activities	Operational activities
~ Vendor risk assessments ~ Data sharing agreements ~ Data broker or marketplace evaluations ~ Establishing decision rights ~ Issue resolution and approval path ~ Acceptable use and consent standards ~ Technology platform options ~ Communications plan ~ Measuring and reporting value ~ Data collection bias ~ Algorithmic fairness	~ Data taxonomy and classification ~ Data collection standards ~ Data quality specifications ~ Data lineage and data flow maps ~ Data masking standards ~ Data privacy impact assessments ~ Issues register and matrix ~ Privacy-by-design ~ Differential privacy ~ Model registry and feature stores ~ Automated decision observability

Evaluating Governance for Short-Term Effectiveness and Long-Term Value

Business Impact Metrics Examples	Operational Metrics Examples
~ Compliance cost ~ Application development cost ~ Customer satisfaction ~ Data quality	~ Data governance maturity level ~ Data management efficiencies ~ Data literacy ~ Data governance issues register

LOOKING TO Leverage and utilise your data? REACH OUT.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you.

Article by Pete Crawford

Structuring Data Teams

Article written by Pete Crawford

Understanding Roles, Responsibilities and Operating Models.

How data teams organise themselves and evolve their operating model directly dictates the speed and success in delivering clearly defined value. There is often ambiguity associated over team roles – especially as tasks change in response to technology services that accelerate the ability to automate, collaborate and experiment. In these circumstances, how data teams are structured effects knowledge sharing, ownership over data initiative outcomes and alignment with business objectives.     

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

The organising principles, or structure, of data teams can be reduced to four key elements.

1.     Leaders who can set context, navigate trade-offs and supply decision-ready data

Organisational data expectations can switch between defensive-oriented objectives (security, privacy, governance, regulation), platform-oriented objectives (infrastructure, data discovery, data quality) and offensive-oriented objectives (self-service insights activation, enterprise-wide data literacy, decision automation, partnerships, monetisation of data products). To accommodate this mix of expectations, data leaders must balance domain and technical expertise with an understanding of how to:

·      Advocate and embrace change both within the data team and at an executive level

·      Create a shared context and comfort with knowledge transition among the data team and their collaborators

·      Set an environment of ownership over decisions and accountability over outcomes 

·      Facilitate partnerships with knowledge hubs such as research institutes and open data organisations

·      Focus upfront on the challenges of operationalising data products by adopting a go-to-market mindset

2.     Assessing the state of the data team

Regardless of whether data and analytics is a new or a mature capability there are a clear set of questions that need to be regularly addressed:

People

·      What data and analytics skills are currently in the organisation?

·      How are skills and capabilities being identified?

·      How are people being recruited?

·      What career paths are available?

Processes

·      How is task prioritisation and job allocation handled?

·      Is the team assigned problems to solve or given a list of features to build?

·      How are objectives communicated and what results are measured?

·      Is there scope and incentives for training and skill development?

·      What workflow processes, collaboration tools and CI/CD practices are used?

·      How are ideas generated, assumptions validated and products tested with customers?

·      Who ensures data quality or ethical accountability over data or algorithms?

Relationships

·      What is the funding model?

·      What is the level of data expertise at the executive level (and greatly affects meaningful dialogue over the strategic engagement)?

·      What external relationships exist (SaaS vendors, post-graduate research programs, R&D audits)

·      What formal and informal mechanisms exist for empathising with customer or business problems?

3.     Role clarity

In broad terms, data team roles can be segmented into four groups:

Engineering: Data engineer; machine learning engineer; software/application developer;

Analytics: Data analyst, data scientist

Governance: Data steward (an accountability also commonly assigned to existing roles)

Complementary: Data lead/manager; data architect; product manager; project manager; business analyst; human-interactive designer (which greatly depends on the scope of ambition and funding)

Clarity over roles matters on three levels:

Firstly, the allocation of roles and relevant skillsets in relation to the sophistication, ambition and investment of analytical objectives demanded by the organisation.

Secondly, the alignment of responsibilities against key activities in the data value chain:

And thirdly, the emergence of new roles in response to rapid changes in data architecture, cloud infrastructure and tooling. This must also take into account that:

·      New titles and highly specialised skills will, over time, become more generalised.

·      Responsibilities are becoming less departmentalised and skills less mutually independent as DataOps practices mature, formalised learning grows, new data infrastructure ecosystems emerge. For instance, processes that use machine learning to automate the end-to-end development of machine learning pipelines (AutoML) are gaining greater adoption.

·      There are divergent approaches as to whether traditional data governance responsibilities or the emerging application and monitoring of ethical behaviours requires separate roles or simply describes a relationship to data and not a position.

4.     Making structural choices to optimise communication and complement capabilities  

Five models are presented which support the distribution of skills and responsibilities between data team members and across the rest of the organisation.

1.              Centrally pooled

Engineers and analytic specialists report to one data manager and consult to other business units. This model supports strong top-down governance, coordinated data management practices and inter-team knowledege sharing. It works best before operations scale.

2.              Distributed

Engineers are centralised under one reporting line while analysts report directly to business units. This model supports immersion in business operations and customised data transformations but places a heavier load on engineering capacity and consistent data interpretations. 

3.              Steamed

Engineers and analysts are managed as separate teams with separate data leaders. This model may suit organisations with large infrastructure initiatives and a set of clear strategic analytic priorities. It can also lead to weaker collaboration and knowledge sharing.

4.              Domains

Engineers and analysts are aligned to source-oriented domain data with data ownership placed into the hands of the business domains. This model is contingent on relinquishing centralised data ownership for distributed data architecture, global governance, open standards and domain-oriented data served as a product. This is similar to the Tribe model but with a formalised infrastructure layer to fully support domain ownership. It does, of course, require a very sophisticated engineering stack, API integration, deep domain knowledge and data-literate business units.   

KEY

LOOKING TO Leverage and utilise your data? REACH OUT.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you.

Article by Pete Crawford

Data Team Integration Models

Article written by Pete Crawford

Positioning data and analytics within the organisation.

Regardless of whether a data team is comprised of two, 20 or 100 people its ability to produce actionable insights and outcomes is heavily compromised if capabilities are not aligned to business needs. Furthermore, business needs are typically diverse, competitive and evolve as strategy unfolds and analytical use cases grow in complexity. To this end, it is worthwhile examining the differences between a handful of commonly used data capability models.

These models can also be viewed in the context of their suitability to divergent modes of business engagement, analytics maturity and resource coordination.

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

Considerations

The adoption of a particular data and analytics organisation-alignment model is contingent on a number of considerations:

• What data or analytics models can be shared?

• What is the overall data governance structure?

• What is the state of data infrastructure development?

• How is data currently accessed and distributed across the organisation?

• What is the analytics maturity or independence within other business functions?

• Is innovation or AI a central tenet of business strategy?

• Has there been consistent success with operationalising analytical models?

Common Options

The adoption of a particular data and analytics organisation-alignment model is contingent on a number of considerations:

• What data or analytics models can be shared?

• What is the overall data governance structure?

• What is the state of data infrastructure development?

• How is data currently accessed and distributed across the organisation?

• What is the analytics maturity or independence within other business functions?

• Is innovation or AI a central tenet of business strategy?

• Has there been consistent success with operationalising analytical models?

Centralised

A single data and analytics team serves the whole organisation. Data people (analysts, data engineers, data science) sit together and treat other teams as clients.

Pros:

Sustainable funding; career growth aids talent retention; data is recognised as a strategic asset

Cons:

Lack of shared motivation or cooperation between groups; prioritisation challenges

Centre of Excellence

Combines the coordination of a centralised model with independent innovation intent.

Pros:

Focus and coordination when introducing new capabilities benefitting the rest of the organisation; optimal model for developing new infrastructure tools

Cons:

Can become isolated from business concerns; expertise may skew toward deep specialisations but neglect operationalisation skills; high operating costs.

Decentralised

Resources are funded and appointed by individual business units.

Pros:

Appropriate when there is limited inter-divisional coordination requirements (or inherent, irreconcilable internal conflicts)

Cons:

Duplication of resources; lack of ownership over data quality; data silos inhibit efficient data strategy

Federated / Embedded

Attempts to balance enterprise aspirations of the CoE model with the capacity to contract-out expertise for functional customisations. Analytics personnel report to business leads. Data engineering remains with the core data group.

Pros:

Encourages motivation and alignment of data-business objectives; retention of team identity; suitable for organisations with mature analytical competencies and systems

Cons:

Can lead to high costs; leadership conflicts between hub and spoke

Democratic / BI

Promotes self-service and domain-specific data ownership through development of data-as-a-service APIs and dashboards.

Pros:

Strong investment in data infrastructure; accessibility; rewards literacy with data visualisation

Cons:

High cost of infrastructure and training; systems need to be extremely robust as on-call engineering resources are scarce; limited role for data science and infusion of emerging data practices

Comparing Integration Models

Each model can be described and broadly evaluated against a set of coordination, management and capability factors.

A simple traffic light system denotes a generalised level of efficiency with deploying each model.

Mapping Integration Models

The five data and analytics integration models discussed can be loosely positioned in relation to both the complexity of an organisation’s analytical use cases and their capacity to control and coordinate data or personnel.

LOOKING TO Leverage and utilise your data? REACH OUT.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you.

Article by Pete Crawford

Retail Transformation in Disruptive Times

Article written by Matthew Webber

It is both confronting and somewhat depressing to turn the pages (physically or digitally) of a newspaper to see yet another retailer fall victim to the economic climate. There is nothing nice about an empty shop front, the loss of jobs or the withdrawal of an important community institution.

“Insights from Matthew Webber | Matthew Webber is a specialist in strategy, program delivery and training, focused on driving business performance by developing commercial, operational and innovation capability. With over twenty years international experience, Matthew has worked across the globe with organisations undergoing immense change and comprehensive transformations. Inspired to create a world championed by kindness, where equitable opportunity is available for all - Matthew shares his vision through best-selling books and his sought-after keynotes. ”

It is though happening at such a rate that we are almost becoming immune to the headline story and this creates an additional challenge for us all.

These fallen retailers are often iconic brands that people have relationships with,  sometimes these brands have become national treasures, and they are employers of thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) people.   

They are in fact serving an all important role in society whether that be supplying little Mary’s bike for Christmas, putting food on the tables for everyday people, or providing clothes for everyday wear or of course for a memorable event.

Retail is indeed an institution, it is iconic, it is for many an emotional experience. It is little wonder we don’t want to see it change. The problem is though it is changing, and the ball of momentum is rolling down the hill and picking up pace.

Like any change process – whether that be for the retailers themselves, or for the customers that hold them dear we need to understand Why it needs to change in order for us to change. It is then important for us to look forward and see what the future holds, and then importantly how do we get from here to there.

Why Change?

Survival

Sometimes in life we have to make the message simple so not to dilute or cloud the message. In this instance there is no greater reason to change than for survival. It is that simple and clear.

This is, for all purposes a likened to being in a paddock being chased by a ferocious Lion – with the good fortune that you can find safety (and opportunity) though only available if you run towards it. If you stand still, your future is bleak, if you run in a direction other than the one that presents the opportunity you will also meet the same fate – albeit a little more puffed out!

Survival can mean so many things and have different meaning to different people – whether that be the ability to remain in business to fulfil a dream, having the opportunity to provide jobs, or even the in the pursuit of retail excellence to provide a great service to your customer.

What though is clear, is you must be first  concerned with basic needs, in this case survival to then meet our psychological and self-fulfilment needs as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would suggest.

There can be no greater reason for change than survival.

What does the future look like?

The good news is that the future is up to you. You can create the future in any way that you like, and one in which fulfils your objectives. There are some guiding principles that you will need to consider though as you create the future. 

1.     Customer centricity

Having a healthy obsession with your customer is key. This is about understanding their needs, being empathetic to their problems and having the ability to design solutions that will create an experience that they can emotionally connect with.

2.     Option creator

Customers need choice to meet their changing needs. They need options that they can have their needs met.  Creating a rigid business model will almost certainly fail in a world where the consumer is craving personalised attention in a very busy world

3.     Fast (and furious)

With the onset of technological advancement, and an economic environment where the power balance has well and truly shifted to the customer – there is a need for speed. This relates to the entire experience – how they interact with you (in person or digitally), the fulfilment of orders or the creation of solutions. Your supply chain (physical, information and financial supply chains) will need to support this. Your customer needs what they want yesterday – it is the world we live in.

4.     Digital

Digital must dominate your business model – whether that be providing your customer with the ability to buy online, the way you structure your supply chain or the way that you collect insights and learnings about your customer, industry, market and opportunities. Your customer is digital, so must you.

5.     Trusted

Your customer needs to Trust that you will deliver in your promise, trust that you have their interests at heart, trust that you understand their problems and how to solve them and have trust in the information, data, and emotional insights that they share with you. The move to a faster, more digital world comes with a greater onus on the Retailer to deliver on Trust. Remember people are at the centre of Trust.

Steps you can take

Now we have a flavour for the reasons why Retailers must change and a view into the attributes that are required to establish the future vision, it is important we consider how to get from the current environment to the new world.

1.     Listen to your customer

As simple as this sounds, it is the most important thing that you can do. The trick is to listen in a way that seeks to understand (just as Stephen R Covey would suggest in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). It is easy to listen in a way that just validates your views, but if you listen in a way that can identify their real problems and how they would like you to solve for them – value will be created.

You will need to immerse yourself in their world, understand the data (including from social media) and look to their behaviours and actions. Customers, particularly retail customers,  speak with their feet (or fingers in a digital world) so listening to your customers behaviours is one of the most powerful tools you can use.  

2.     Define the problems and Create the opportunities

Work with your customer on solutions, and trial and test concepts as quickly as you can. Set up an innovation hub, a centre of learning so that you can collaborate, learn and develop.

Scan the globe for clues in how other retailers have solved for the same problem, or in fact how other industries have solved for like type products. By all means be original but do not invent the wheel. A great deal of energy can be expended trying to be too clever. Keep it simple and relevant.

It all starts with identifying and defining the problem well. This will help you move with speed when you test and trial solutions with your customers. Having your customer provide the insight and engagement in the problem definition will almost certainly ensure that they are engaged with you on the solution

3.     Design an adaptable, and commercial,  Business Model

Design a business model that supports the future and delivers on the value proposition and build in a way that allows the business model to adapt to changes in the environment. It is also critical that you create a business model that is commercial.

Many great retailers have fallen foul of moving their business into the digital world only to realise that the cost to service and fulfil orders in e-commerce can be expensive and slow. It is important to design your business model that  is customer centric and which can actually fulfil the promises you make to your customers and people.

4.     Effect the change

You need to be able to effect the change. To effect change you need to be able to lead the vision, build confidence, empower your people, communicate effectively and build really solid teams.

This will be your internal ability to adapt, transform and execute to deliver sustained business performance. Ideas are only ideas until they are executed. Even the best laid plans amount to nothing unless they are done. For ideas to be done you need people to engage with and embrace change as opposed to fighting it. You will need to be change ready.

Being change ready will enable your organisation  to act with speed and agility. It means you can do more with less and importantly ensure that you are not only a retail leader, but a profitable one

5.     Do the right thing

We highlighted that Trust is an important attribute for the design of future retail models, and with good reason. As you transform you need to ensure that you transform in a way that makes customer and commercial sense, but also in a way that ensures you do the right thing by the people and communities that you operate in from Source to Customer. 

This could be how you (or your manufacturers)  treat the workers in a factory in Bangladesh, through to creating safe work environments for the people fulfilling your orders or transitioning your labour force from bricks and mortar retail to a digital one. It may even be how you use and safely store data.

There are short cuts that can be taken in any transformation, quite often at the expense of people that are most vulnerable. 

Your customers in the new world expect you to do the right thing from source to customer. You as a retail leader should expect nothing less. 

There are significant opportunities for Retailers to reinvent themselves, build relevance and create significant advantage by following some very basic principles. The future is able to be created and reimagined.

The cost of inaction is just too high.

It just requires a rethink.

LOOKING TO rethink retail? Adjust your approach and G2M strategy? REACH OUT.

Our leadership team at Whiteark  have decades of experience in leading Retail Transformations from Factory through to Customer, developing Market and Customer strategies that ensure relevance and desirability . We design the business model to deliver commercial feasibility and  to ensure that your Retail business is ready to not only deal with disruption, but to thrive in it. From strategy to design and execution. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au or explore our retail transformation services here.

Article written by Matthew Webber

Treating Data as a Product

Article written by Pete Crawford

Approaching analytics with a product orientation.

Even prior to COVID, the development of mature data and analytics capabilities was regarded by over 75% of organisations as a ‘mission-critical function’ as central as IT, HR and finance units.[i] Now, there is even greater urgency to formalise data as a cornerstone of digital transformation. However, it is estimated that between 60-85% of analytical initiatives fail to be operationalised in support of wider business goals.[ii] In part, this can be attributed to conventional issues such as lack of executive commitment, talent, investment or adherence to the principles of a clear data strategy. But a major obstacle is simply that building or growing a data function is reduced to delivering a set of applications, features and capabilities – regardless of common agreement over data accessibility and actionable analytical insights.

“Insights from Pete Crawford | Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Pete Crawford spends his day-to-day leading strategy, governance and execution over enterprise data platforms, data science and AI capabilities. Speaking at leading industry AI and data events, Pete is experienced in forming and directing multi-disciplined teams to manage enterprise information assets and deliver business outcomes through advanced analytics.”

The value of data is too important to be managed as a project and organised along the lines of an IT program. Data is a strategic asset better served by adopting a product-team model.

Problems with Data Projects

• Investment is attached to a pre-defined scope of work instead of funding a team

• Work is focused on data acquisition and infrastructure development leaving teams removed from owning solutions to actual customer problem – unfortunately, this exemplifies the classic ‘mercenary’ versus ‘missionary’ debate that typically leads to an inability to retain talent

• Data governance is assumed to be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model more obsessed with reporting structures than responding to nuances such as the diversity of data-sharing interests across an organisation or competing stakeholder incentives

• Teams of specialised data engineers and data scientists operate without appropriate understanding or application of a suitable product prioritisation framework – compromising effective analytical use case development

• The operating model with which the data team engages with ‘the business’ fails to change in response to the dynamics of data requirements or data consumption

• There are dependencies associated with maintenance – such as analytical models which dynamically influence customer behaviour – which contribute to future arguments over funding and resources after handover

In contrast, a product-oriented approach recognises that the outcome of data and analytics activities must produce a product which solves a customer or business problem and will evolve once the product interacts with users. Success or failure starts with whether or not it is adopted by users.

Organisations growing their data function should be encouraged to borrow processes from product, people and financial management disciplines and incorporate them into formalised data management best practice.

Recommendations

1.     Focus on context

A discovery period comprising interviews and audits to understand the context of the organisation from the perspective of the analytics value chain. This is the bridge between data and strategic corporate direction.

2.     Understand alignment challenges by assessing data maturity

This exercise uses the discovery phase to map the current state of capabilities (i.e. data architecture; data security etc.) against target state. To be effective, the target state must align with strategic OKRs and feed into an outcome-oriented data roadmap. Most importantly, the selection of metrics must reflect how the maturity of these capabilities inform the digital transformation of the business toward customer-centric innovation.

3.     Communicate a clear change narrative

A fundamental principle of a data strategy involves integrating data and eliminating silos. This course of action is typically disruptive to existing operational patterns and team structures. Productivity, collaboration and morale suffers without a change narrative and segmented communications plan crafted to the dispirit issues and ambitions of the organisation. Defining and mapping stakeholder interests along with a commitment chart are valuable tools in monitoring the effectiveness of these changes.

4.     Determine the most suitable operating model

Balancing the assorted skills sets of a growing data team against the complexity of data requirements of the rest of the organisation requires flexibility and continuous optimisation. Baseline data maturity and relationships with other business functions will dictate the initial operating structure – typically a ‘Centralised’ model – and how it evolves over time.

5.     Have a rigorous prioritisation process

Inevitably, data teams need to make considered choices as to which experiments to run and how to juggle competing data product options with ad hoc internal requests or unexpected challenges. An understanding of prioritisation frameworks is an essential product management capability. It stands outside Agile and DataOps methodologies and must be sensitive to time, visibility, type of quantitative or qualitative inputs and a culture of data-based decisions. Having dedicated product managers (ideally with a background in engineering work) is highly preferable for building bridges with business units and tracking execution. This is even more critical with AI/ML focused use cases.

6.     Own the customer problem

To be clear, an effective data product roadmap is not a series of features or applications with projected timelines meaningful only within the data team. High performing data teams are trusted to own a set of customer problems. The success of candidate initiatives across discovery, validation and delivery cycles is measured against end states (the problem to be solved from the customer perspective) and metrics (OKRs) alignment to top-down business strategy.

7.     Take responsibility for improving enterprise data literacy

Solely focusing on the strength of data capabilities within a specialised group inside an organisation is no longer viable. In this case, knowledge will not scale and a data literacy gap widens.

Enterprise-wide literacy with data and analytics needs to recognised as an explicit driver of business value. It requires formal inclusion in a data strategy and change management program. A data team will be expected to play a significant role as translators and ambassadors leading education workshop programs to enable measurable improvements in how the rest of the organisation access, interpret and deploy relevant, task-specific analytical models.

8.     Obsess on tracking data events

Data events need to be tracked with the rigor of financial assets. Managing and communicating analytical decisions across the organisation can only occur by capturing events, properties, triggers, values and pathways as data is acquired, transformed, distributed and operationalised. This process must be simple and visual. It augments inputs to a prioritisation framework and OKRs. Moreover, a growing data function needs to look beyond reporting to analysing data patterns that help internal teams such as sales, finance, HR, marketing or product make actionable decisions.

Article by Pete Crawford

[i] Gartner, Fifth Annual CDO Survey, March 2020

[ii] TechRepublic, 85% of Big Data Projects Fail, 10 November 2017

Rethinking your Global Supply Chain

Article written by Matthew Webber

It is time to rethink our Global Supply Chains. The world as we know it has changed. The speed, the relationships, the priorities, the tastes. We can access information, goods and services quicker than ever – and our environments politically, environmentally and structurally seem more volatile than ever before. And this is before we even get to the great awakener in COVID -19.

“Insights from Matthew Webber | Matthew Webber is a specialist in strategy, program delivery and training, focused on driving business performance by developing commercial, operational and innovation capability. With over twenty years international experience, Matthew has worked across the globe with organisations undergoing immense change and comprehensive transformations. Inspired to create a world championed by kindness, where equitable opportunity is available for all - Matthew shares his vision through best-selling books and his sought-after keynotes. ”

The problem is of course, many of our global supply chains have been designed for an era that was perhaps more predictable, more stable and perhaps in an era where global supply chains were considered to be an enabler of business strategy as opposed to being at the very core of value creation, and business model design.

The focus of global supply chains has arguably been historically to leverage efficiency, optimisation and cost advantage to create value. The current economic, political, environmental and now global health climate  now not only requires but forces us to rethink our Global Supply Chains beyond efficiency and cost advantage.

This begs the question – what then a Global Supply Chain must look like in order to thrive in such uncertain times. They must be;  

1.    Adaptable

Adaptability is the ability to be flexible to new situations, handle change and be able to balance multiple demands and stimulants. It is about being ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable’ and if nothing else it is having the right cultural mindset.  

It is of course more than culture – although that is where it will start. This will be having your business model design curated in a way that every layer of your organisation, internal and external can operate in a manner that provides speed, certainty and agility in environments that are changing.

This may require a rethink, and acceleration of the technology you use, the processes you deploy and operating rhythms you maintain. This also requires a disciplined focus on what you are not going to do, as much as what it is you are going to do.

2.    Sovereign

A sovereign supply chain is one that can be self-governed and controlled, and that mitigates your exposure to external influences whether they be political, environmental or other.

When using the word sovereign, it does imply the concept is at a national level – and this is of course true – we must have a national supply chain that secures our food and medical supplies for instance.

However, the concept also applies to our organisations – there are some products and services that you simply cannot afford to have disrupted by external events, and at the very least if they were to be disrupted you will have sufficient cover to not interrupt your delivery of value.

It will of course be unreasonable to control every element of your global supply chain. It is reasonable though, and important, that  you can control the elements that are critical to the value proposition.

To place in practical terms, a supermarket for instance could ill afford to be out of bread, milk and toilet paper – and their supply chains will reflect this. On the other hand, they may be able to manage through a period of disruption to supply of Mexican taco sauce!

What is a certainty is that global supply chains will remain – Global. That much is certain. We will not shift all production back on shore, that would be unreasonable, and impractical.

What will become though is far more strategic on what needs to be off shore, near shore and on shore to maintain a sense of sovereignty over your supply chain.

3.    Connected

It is easy to conceptualise a global supply chain in a linear fashion of connecting link with link, to take a product or service from concept to consumption. This is true, however in today’s world the level of connection your global supply chain requires is so much more.

Your global supply chain an eco-system of people, partners, process and systems, and they all need to be connected in a way that allows value to flow – not just linearly but in any direction as your organisation adapts to changing environments and new opportunities.

Connection is more than system and process alignment. It is also a way of being for your organisation, it is the philosophies, culture and behaviours that are demonstrated in all points of your global supply chain whether that be the internal culture of the organisation, the alignment of values with your suppliers or integration with the communities that you operate in.

It is about all in the global supply chain being connected into the purpose, the strategic direction and the objectives you are collectively trying to achieve. Only when you have achieved this values connection can you really turn your hand to connection from a system, process and business model design perspective.

Together is always better than alone. To be together though requires you to be connected.

4.    Digital

Robust connectivity is needed to enable faster, more frequent interactions across globally distributed supply chain networks. The seamless flow of information is critical not just simply for the efficient operation of your global supply chain, but to gain valuable commercial insights that create value.

It is the ‘now’ economy and we are all dependent upon information and technology to function.

Digital and data allows for greater connectivity and the ability to manage enormous amounts of data. It enables more opportunities for collaboration with your global supply chain and reducing duplication of effort.

Organisations that can use digital and data to create meaningful insights can create closer relationships with their customers and understand their needs greater. It allows the ability to develop global supply chains that are adaptable and configurable to the changing needs of the market. It also allows for the ability to develop greater efficiencies in operations and drive better service and financial performance

The insights gleaned from digitisation of your supply chain can then inform the technology and innovation that you require to deliver value.

5.    Commercial

Your global supply chain needs to remain commercial. This needs to be reflected in the arrangements, operational and financial structures, performance measurements  governance, financial controls and strategies you deploy.

As we transition quickly to the new world order, nothing will support you more in that effort than having complete commercial control of your global supply chain. Think of it like a formula one car that is designed to go fast through the engineering of controls into the operation of the car.  

Whether it be your customer, your operators, service providers and suppliers or your stakeholders  - they need visibility and assurance of the performance of your global supply chain.

They also need you to succeed so that they can succeed. The way you rethink your global supply chain needs to create value, and if you are not creating and distributing that value you will have limited opportunity in a modern world.

Adaptable, sovereign, connected and digital supply chains does not mean that you compromise your commercial imperatives – they are in fact the drivers to enhance them. This is a common mistake many make – they redesign their global supply chains in commercially unsustainable ways that really deliver little end to end, holistic value. The other mistake is of course that organisations focus solely on the efficiency and cost control elements – which of course can become a value dilution exercise if not linked in with strategy and value creation.

What is evident is this rethink is not optional nor is it a ‘nice to have’  – this is an imperative to business survival and relevance.

The cost of not having this rethink may have disastrous, if not fatal, consequences to achieving your organisation’s objectives and perhaps purpose.

Ultimately this will come down to how an organisation sees itself and how aware they are of their risk environment and of their opportunity to create. It will be a function of how close they are to understanding what is truly of value to their customer and also the communities that they operate in. Value remember, is in the eyes of the customer, not the operator.

The good news is that this all spells opportunity for those organisations that can transform their global supply chains into ones that are adaptable, sovereign, connected, digital and commercial. It just requires a rethink.

LOOKING TO rethink your supply chain? REACH OUT.

Our team has extensive global experience leading large scale Supply Chain Transformations from Factory to Customer across multiple industries. We have in depth capabilities around designing and delivering value in the Physical, Financial and Information (Digital) Supply Chain and can help your organisation create competitive advantage and value centred on the global supply chain. From strategy to design and execution. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au or explore our Supply Chain services here.

Article written by Matthew Webber

The life of a CFO – how to thrive

The CFO role is not an easy one - there is a real struggle between short term financial objectives and long-term strategic outcomes. Both are very important but need to be balanced.

Getting your priorities right will ensure you thrive and not just survive which ultimately is the goal for every organisation. 

While there is a lot to do, I have narrowed down 5 key priorities that any CFO can apply to their role.

The key 5 priorities of a CFO

1.         Financial Governance

Focused on financial governance through month-end, balance sheet reviews and working capital management. This eliminates any surprises during an audit. Building a robust process for accurate and timely reporting and forecasting so that good decisions can be made in a timely manner. This creates confidence with regulators and auditors.

2.         Optimise the financial position

A CFO is expected to proactively manage and optimise the financial outcome. This requires good forecasting ability, business partnering and the ability to make good commercial decisions.

Work through strategic and operational strategies to optimise the financial position of the company by:

o   Actively focusing on working capital management

o   Actively managing investments including cashflow timing

o   Actively managing government rebates, tax benefits and obligations

o   Actively managing strategies to deliver financial outcomes both short term and long term

3.         Alignment to strategy

The CFO must work closely with the strategy department to ensure alignment between long term strategies, priorities and the 3-5 year business plan and associated financials. This clear linkage is critical to ensure it all hangs together and will give confidence to the board. The CFO must work through the linkage to ensure key metrics are measured and tracked to ensure lead indicators for managing the success/delivery of the strategy. 

4.         Holding the business to account

As the CFO it's your job to hold the leadership team and the organisation to account on expenditure, investment, key metrics and achievement of the plan. You must do regular call out of results and ensure you hold the business to account.

5.         Building an exceptional team

The quality of the finance team is paramount and ensures the business has the commercial support for decision making. The role of the team to provide insights and business partnering is critical to ensure the Executives and others in organisations have the support to make good commercial decisions.

The CFO role is not easy, but it is enjoyable and rewarding helping the organisation navigate through strategy and financials and measuring success while having the confidence of the regulators and auditors. There is always a lot to do - so focusing on your top 4-5 priorities.

“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”

— H. James Harrington

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At Whiteark we have hands on practical experience to help CFOs navigate and set their company up for success, whatever is the challenge. Please reach out for a no obligation conversation.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Return on investment

Return on investment is an overused phrase but an underused concept in business.

What return are you going to make for that investment? What is the payback period and how confident are you on the return?

Say a company can only afford to spend $20 million on investment each year how does it decide what to invest in?

Key criteria

•    Is the investment aligned to strategy?

•    What are the benefits of the investment?

•    What is the payback period for the investment?

•    What metrics will the investment improve?

•    Are there ongoing financial benefits of the investment?

I am a big believer in working out where your investment will give you the biggest return. If measured correctly, more money can be invested if there is a clear ratio of investment versus return on investment. 

Making good investment decisions will be critical to the success of any organisation especially during the current environment so take the time to consider:  

•    How much money you can invest?

•    What's your criteria for investment?

•    How are you going to track benefits?

•    How and who will you hold to account?

Somehow when people get project money, they forget it's cash out the door - it’s real money, it's costing the company. While there are financial reporting, tax and other benefits of consideration when investing, don't forget you are outlaying cash. Spend what you need to deliver the outcome / return on investment.

Post Covid-19, companies need to be very focused on where they spend their money and payback period. If the pay period is longer than 3 years, leaders will need to consider if it's a good investment.

How do you think about return on investment in your company? Does it need a review? Is your payback period more than 3 years? Maybe you need to reconsider.

“The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.”

— Helmut Schmidt

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Do you need to assess the ROI in your business and make some changes? Let us help.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.

We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Measure what matters

It seems simple and makes sense but many companies struggle to track and measure their financial and strategic performance.

At the beginning of the year, as you reset your priorities post covid-19, it is imperative that you understand the following:

•          Lead indicators of financial health

•          Key measures that are aligned to your strategic priorities

•          Targets for your key measures

•          Accountabilities for the key metrics

•          Investment required for each metric

•          How each metric feeds into the financials of the company

Having a weekly scorecard that measures your top 10-15 metrics is critical. When metrics are off target having clear accountability for someone to build a plan to address and reset expectations and understand impact on the financials.  

A very simple scorecard is a very useful tool to drive the right focus across the company. If you have too many metrics, you will lose your focus on the ones that are most critical.

Example metrics:

It is important to use a simple format that calls out variances to targets or prior comparative period. See below example.

A weekly / fortnight meeting to walk through metrics with actions and follow ups is critical to driving the right behaviour. Performance reviews and incentives should be aligned with these metrics to drive the desired strategic/financial results.

At the beginning of 2023 make sure you spend time getting this right. If you need help please reach out to us, we have a lot of experience with building metrics scorecards for companies and help drive accountability across the leadership team.

I believe driver trees are critical to determining your key metrics – please check out our recent article on driver trees here.