Air Traffic Control, Lighthouses and Digital Transformation
Execs need to know that money spent on the cross-functional internal value chain results in incremental value being recognised and bought by the customer. But so often governance and controls get in the way. You will need a light-touch delivery assurance approach to give that confidence.
We wouldn’t dream of managing our airspace without air traffic control; the teams, processes, procedures and technology.
No-one in their right mind would buy a ticket if they thought that the survival of their flight was down to chance and individual effort. In fact, no airline would buy aeroplanes if they thought that there was a remote chance that model could endanger their crew or passengers at any time. The controls and infrastructure built into the aeroplanes and worldwide air-traffic control towers are there for a reason, and their level of engineering is in direct proportion to the impact of failure.
Back in the day, lighthouses were the only means for ships to reorient themselves to avoid disaster. Rock solid, unwavering and simple in their effectiveness.
They were literally a beacon to avoid danger and to help a vessel steer towards safety and the next destination. The humble lighthouse is at the other end of the complexity spectrum to modern air traffic control, even though the impact of a ship wreck is arguably just as high as an aeroplane disaster.
Both are perfect analogies to a demanding digital transformation.
There is a need to respond to rapidly changing economic conditions, shifting customer behaviours, increased regulation, accelerating changes in innovation (Blockchain, AI, IoT, Robotics to name a few) and most importantly, the expectations of executives and shareholders to deliver against the promises that they’ve made, and the investment they’ve approved.
It’s a ‘given’ that we need to deliver against our objectives, but how can we control the delivery that is pivotal to success without the controls getting in the way? It’s clear that a sophisticated ‘air traffic control’ to manage the minutia of every iteration of engineering is likely to be too burdensome. A basic, but immovable ‘lighthouse’ is too rigid and only minimises failure, it does not encourage success.
We need a balance. We need to deliver at pace, we need to be flexible enough to keep our eyes on the strategy but change our course as and when needed AND we need appropriate controls.
Appropriate controls are those that facilitate successful delivery and provide certainty to C-Suite. One of those controls is light-touch delivery assurance. This model is traditional to fit with your remaining standard projects, flexible to fit with agile methods and scalable to work with investment portfolios.
In reality transformation never really finishes, so this approach is adaptable to provide the light-touch delivery assurance you need, without ever getting in the way of progress.