In today's data-driven world, businesses are generating and collecting customer data more than ever before.

The question “what is innovation” is raised at every expensive Innovation conference and in every Innovation book – but frankly, to most people and organisations that is completely irrelevant. What really matters is what it can mean for you…

Battle-tested and running on fumes, many organisations today…

In this article, Joe Taylor takes us through why effective decision making is key to a successful transformation and shares 5 top tips to help organisations and individuals by facilitating the path to an effective decision-making…

When designing Op Models, there is a high risk that the scientific approach used will lead to the assumption that well-defined processes, structures and strategic objectives will be followed as planned.

To say this year has been interesting is an understatement, but even prior to the pandemic, questions were being asked by senior partners, general councils, COOs and lawyers in general. ‘Why do we spend so much on new IT systems, tools and applications, yet the benefits are so minimal?’

Digital Transformation is all the rage these days – as businesses try and deliver customer centric value to the market quicker than their competitors. However, it is often done without consideration for the cultural impact of these changes to your business.

Many law firms have wisely, and with some success, deployed Legal Project Management (LPM) but, more often than not, as a stand-alone function. This limits its value to the firm and the opportunity to deliver what clients are demanding – consistently better, simpler and cheaper cases/matters.

The biggest mistake many organisation make when seeking efficiency savings is to implement process and governance improvements that deliver efficiencies in one area which creating greater inefficiencies across the whole. This is called sub-optimising. For example, you could streamline the processes for one area by removing certain quality checks. This then leads to additional costs further down the food chain when another department has to deal with the knock-on effect of low quality.

Designing a new operating model should be an opportunity to realise step changes in performance. It should be about reducing unnecessary waste that has built up over time, finding ways to help people be more effective, and to get that extra edge over the competition. However, this goal seems to get lost in the inevitable Op Model process, resulting in poor Op Model design, excessive costs to produce and, even worse, op models that are not fit for purpose.

This is something that has been playing on my mind since I started looking at innovation and was asked to define what innovation means. Fundamentally is there a difference between innovation and strategy?

Innovation by its very nature is dealing with new untested ideas. Due to the unruly and unpredictable nature of innovation it would be wrong to set ground rules, however there are three core ingredients your organisation needs to tap into when innovating:.

Putting a man on the moon looked impossible, certainly when you consider that the US wanted to do it first and they wanted to return the man to earth safely. The feat is even more impressive when you realise that for nearly 50 years we haven’t managed to do it again. It was the power of the goal that made it possible. It was insane and, most importantly, awe-inspiring.

Blockchain is a technology. It is not a solution on its own, in the same way as electronics, coding languages and the world wide web on their own are not solutions. The solutions come from how the technology is applied. There has been confusion on this point. Too much has been written about how blockchain is the answer, rather than a technology which could be utilised to come up with a potential answer.

Sans Forgetica is probably not a typeface you have heard of before, but it is certainly one you are less likely to forget now you have.

Some people claim Blockchain is all hype. Some people claim that Blockchain will change the world. As a CIO you don’t have the luxury of waiting around to find out who is right. You have to do something now. Experiment, review the options, do some sort of pilot so that you are ready. If you don’t, you’re not doing your job.

If the UK government really wants to be digital, it needs to transform how it taxes businesses today. Without this many long-standing businesses selling viable products will be forced out of business leaving foreign based digital companies to thrive, with jobs and tax receipts dwindling.

Here are some watch points for spotting that a transformation programme is doomed. If you spot any of these, beware!

When I talk to clients about what ‘digital’ means to them and their business one of the most common responses I hear is “we are not silicon valley”. When I probe into what they mean by that I typically get something like “we are not like Amazon. We are not a start-up. We are not a tech company. We have legacy system. Our business doesn’t work like that.” So here’s my rant in response.

Recently I’ve been in the situation at a couple of clients where an IT Strategy was needed, yet there was distinct lack of an agreed Business Strategy. Either the business strategy was too vague, or it did exist but work was under way to radically change in over the next 6-12 months. In these situations when I tried to facilitate the creation of the IT strategy I hit the obstacle of IT managers not feeling they could define the IT Strategy without a clearer Business Strategy, even though the CIO was asking for them to do so.