Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Tom Butler and Leona O’Brien provide a timely perspective on AI in the financial industry. Their article provides a pragmatic perspective on the capabilities of AI and pours cold water on some of the hyperbolic claims made about AI and ML in the fintech and regtech space. The authors suggest a direction and guidelines for future research for AI to realize its potential in the financial services sector.

Ciara Heavin and Daniel Power provide an overview of the design and development of modern BI and data-driven DSSs. They identify challenges and opportunities for managers and provide a sociotechnical view of DSSs by demonstrating practical guidelines for the people, process, and technology components of modern BI and data-driven DSSs.

The CTOs of global industrial and manufacturing groups with technology-intensive products and services will tell you that despite the undeniable importance of startups and other external innovation ecosystem partners, internal R&D still needs to be at the core of the innovation effort. External parties are usually unable to make the necessary resource investments for long-term, core R&D. Moreover, maintain­ing leading competencies in core technology areas is usually vital to sustaining competitive advantage. However, there are multiple challenges in the traditional way of aligning R&D strategy and program activities.

The existing body of knowledge on ambidextrous principles provides a compelling academic framework but falls short of making it actionable within a real-life corporate context. To overcome this, we have developed the Ambidextrous Organization Development Canvas. In this Advisor, we share how applying our model to a broad range of organizations across multiple contexts has enabled us to decode and understand the underlying DNA of ambidextrous organizations.

Radical shifts in performance are the consequence of embedding proven technologies in the value stream to overcome factors that have traditionally limited performance. It is often unclear where to start the digital Lean journey and how to prioritize a company’s efforts and resources to drive tangible results. Indeed, choosing from among the plethora of new options provided by digital technologies is a real challenge.

Innovation ranges from new, radical business models (e.g., Uber) to low-technology marketing changes (e.g., Absolut honey-flavored vodka). This Advisor examines four main challenges within the ideation and idea management that is required before commercialization within technology-intensive industries.

The success metrics for the knowledge economy are less about output and more about outcome and impact. To measure such intangible qualities and how they are produced requires distinguishing efficiency from effectiveness. A team’s climate reflects the organizational culture, and it is an indi­cator of that culture’s levels of efficiency and effectiveness. From an Agile perspective, the combination of efficiency and effectiveness speaks to a team’s confidence that it is free to experiment, take risks, and learn from failure. In this Advisor, we assert two fundamental value-creation metrics for Agile organizations.

Pursuing a digital transformation strategy to position an organization as a market leader can be challenging, as both internal and external factors can significantly complicate and hinder progress and delay achieving aspirations. These challenges may include resistance to change, lack of a clear vision, data overload and utility, inflexible development processes, and business models that are constantly being reevaluated. Design thinking has emerged as a key forward-thinking tool and mindset to help overcome these challenges and accelerate the timeline for transformational work. Design thinking is a human-centric, collaborative, action-oriented process with a set of techniques and tools that help an organization drive change. In this Advisor, we take a closer look at four organizations that have successfully applied the design process as a core business strategy.