Author: Anderson MacGyver

Excessive attention to modern digital technology distracts from the real basic challenges of CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and other tech leaders. Adoption of solutions is pointless without the right organizational structure. Only when everything and everyone is positioned in the optimal role and function, the right technology choices will be made effective.

Many organizations still operate in two completely different worlds: on the one hand, the opportunities of the new digital business models – often driven by technology-capable employees and leaders. On the other hand, there are the traditional activities: the command and control mechanisms, linked to inherited structures, workforce and skills.

The difficulty for many companies is not primarily embracing technologies and capabilities. Thanks to the progressive part of the employees, this is already widely happening. The main challenge is landing the proliferation of these often scattered initiatives in a structured organization-wide manner. A multimodal-based approach is the key to the right organizational design and an optimal mix of competencies.

A common starting point

A common starting point is crucial. This is achieved by capturing the corporate strategy in one widely supported visualization, based on a well-thought-out canvas process. Everyone first agrees on the product to be delivered to the customer and the market. Then, there must be consensus on the required business activities, including the responsible organizational units.

Here, it helps to capture activities in four modalities:

Common

Represents business activities characterized by a relatively stable environment and that are similar to comparable activities in other organizations, like supportive activities such as financial administration, human resources and facility management.

Adaptive

Represents business activities that are highly responsive, but that do not differ in specific features from comparable activities, products, or services of other organizations. Examples are competitive financial services offered by banks, ticket services for travelling and hotel rooms.

Specialized

Represents activities that take place in a relatively stable environment. They are specific because they require special knowledge, resources, or methods, like technical maintenance of equipment or specific infrastructure (for example time critical), specific IT, data expertise, process engineering, or activities integrating different business activities.

Distinct

Represent business activities that are specific and responsive. These business activities play a vital role in the development of new and innovative products and services in response to changing customer demands, to developments in society, technology, or the actions of competitors.

Transparency is key

When the fundamental distinction between all activities is clear, it becomes easier to structure and staff them effectively. In this way, both digital geniuses and the more traditional employees will be more likely to excel. The same goes for their leaders. Also, the relationship between activities is made transparent. This leads to the roll-out of more appropriate technological solutions and possibilities.

Read more about our approach

CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other IT leaders who want to carefully consider digitalization and adoption of technology can greatly benefit from the approach outlined by Anderson MacGyver in the newly released white paper Organizing Data and Technology. A method characterized by pragmatism, speed, an open eye for new opportunities and respect for the existing organization. The right way to real digital success.

“A multimodal-based approach is the key to the right organizational design and an optimal mix of competencies.”

Realization of a digital strategy requires flexibility from the business to market new services efficiently. However, application landscapes have often become too complex to fulfil the needs from the business.

The application landscape can be regarded as historic timeline of the organization that provides a nice picture of its evolution throughout the years: purchased software packages, custom development, or acquired through a merger. Diversity and the lack of homogeneity in the application landscape are important bottlenecks in digital transformations; such old wounds must first be stitched.

Rationalization plan

A rationalization plan can be developed to make the application landscape ‘fit for purpose’: simplifying, harmonizing, or modernizing. All used IT services and their most important characteristics are plotted on the Operation Model Canvas. Followed by analysis to determine the existence of similar services, redundancy in functionality, or use of ancient technology. Are there mismatches between the characteristics of the IT service and the business activity it supports? Potential improvements can be identified and the desired application landscape, which ís flexible and manageable, can be designed.

Prioritization

Now that the future application landscape has become clear, a plan for the application rationalisation can be developed, based on current architecture principles. Stakeholders from business and IT create a roadmap based on the prioritization and start with elimination, continuation, modification, and innovation of the applications – complemented by the selection of potential partners and solutions.

In a short period of time the applications transform from your ball and chain to the wind beneath your wings, which helps to accelerate the digital transformation of your business to a maximum degree. There is nothing weighing us down anymore!

Last year I went to New York city for a family visit. On the night of arrival my family took us out to dinner. Still slightly shaking from the flight, I told my English-speaking aunt that I did not have a major appetite. “Don’t worry”, she said, “feel free to just take an entrée”. Assuming she meant a small, starter-dish, the word ‘entrée’ seemed to be derived from the word ‘entrance’, I happily accepted this plan. You can imagine my surprise when a little later my gigantic dish was served. Upon asking my aunt how large her dish, a main course, would be if this was only the entrée, a big smile appeared on her face explaining to me that in the USA the word ‘entrée’ is used to indicate the main course.

Common language

Although we were both speaking the English language, my aunt and I had misunderstood each other due to our own frames of reference. Such miscommunication occurs often within organisations as well. Despite speaking the same language, it appears to be a challenge for business units with a different focus, for example Business and IT, to correctly understand each other. A true common language can offer salvation. To achieve such a language, Anderson MacGyver uses the Operating Model Canvas (OMC).

Operating Model Canvas

The OMC (see the image below for an example) is a model for the analysis of business activities and connects the business model and the processes, data, and IT-systems of an organization. We invariably print the OMC on a A0-format poster, which shows the interplay among activities, customers and business partners and the relevant information and IT-aspects in a glance. Seeing all these elements on one poster is often new for our clients. The strength of the OMC lies in connecting business- and IT-aspects and the visualisation of their relationships. The OMC has an important side effect: it stimulates the usage of one language for all business units involved, a true common language for business and IT.

Unique

Each OMC is different. Organizations operating in identical fields can execute similar business activities, but each organization is unique due to its specific vision on services, its choices to realize ambitions, or its relationships with customers. Therefore, while developing an OMC, we actively involve our clients in three workshops during which we collectively map the organization and find out what it is that makes the organization special. In these moments, whilst standing in front of the OMC, interesting conversations regarding the core business of the organization and its purpose arise, during which workshop participants develop a true common language by aligning their frames of reference. All facilitated by a model that is understandable for and often supported by the entire organization

For those still wondering, I overcame my personal language shock. Once the astonishment had faded, I happily consumed my starter main course. Regardless, in the future I will check if we are truly speaking a common language.

Example OMC

Lisa Bruijnincx

The worlds of business and sports are more alike than you might think. Both are characterized by that continual search for improvement, innovation and excellency. Anderson MacGyver believes that the future is digital. Professional athletes inspire us to always be ready for that next step and create a digital transformation for our clients. 

That is why Anderson MacGyver is teaming up with Dutch row star Lisa Bruijnincx. We support Lisa in her journey towards the international top. Follow our updates on here to stay informed about this exciting collaboration, as Lisa rows towards her ultimate goal: the Olympic Games in Paris. 

Update

Markus Smed, Anderson MacGyver advisor in the Nordics, and international athlete Lisa Bruijnincx have a digital meet-up and discuss the international journey they share.

Watch video:

These are unprecedented times. As the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte mentioned during his weekly press conference: “Corona is the biggest crisis since WWII”. Poverty levels in developing countries could be set back by up to 30 years[1]. Large stock markets show drop rates of 20 percent[2]. The United States of America is facing high numbers of unemployment; in mid-April 6.6 million Americans alone filed for unemployment[3]. No wonder many people experience increased anxiety, stress, and depression.

There are numerous examples from organisations how to cope with these difficult times. Basically, organisations can experience any of these scenarios: they either (1) continue business as usual with relatively minimal adaptations, (2) profit from changes in consumer behaviour as a result of toilet paper-hoarders, panic-buyers, and increased online sales, or (3) prepare for full-blown survival mode. The latter shows diverse decisions in all markets: some organisations try to generate new revenue streams, some go into hibernation to limit their losses, and others accept their loss and aim to support society whilst living off their reserves.

Regardless of the scenario, especially in times of crisis organisations have the power to improve the overall societal state and feeling or drive it further down the drain. Various examples for both exist. Despite facing the hardest hits, many organisations in the hospitality and leisure sector find new ways to earn money. Many divert to delivery services whilst others take a more creative approach; recently the first Dutch ice cream drive-through was founded in Tilburg. Organisations such as LinkedIn, HBO, and Sony (through PlayStation) are offering free content to help people get through the stay-at-home-period. Heineken even announced a remitto two-months’ worth of rent for all its 700 bar and restaurant tenants. Closed gyms are offering their classes online and hotel chains are offering free rooms for medical workers responding to the coronavirus crisis.

Unfortunately, ample negativity remains: many organisations are focussing on their losses, their ‘cannot-do’s’, or the lack of sufficient governmental support and some even demonstrate borderline criminal behaviour. Hunkemöller and De Bijenkorf, for example, stretched their 90-day payment periods to their suppliers by another 30 days. Adidas postponed its rent payments for their German HQ. Other large companies like EasyJet or Booking.com have requested financial support from their governments while being sufficiently resourceful to survive this crisis for a longer period of time. And that is even disregarding the potential dividend payments (171 million pound in case of EasyJet) or the top executive bonuses that in both cases are well within the millions.

It is obvious the Corona crisis puts a lot of pressure on organisations, albeit some will have to face greater challenges than others. Regardless, organisations can somewhat take matters into their own hands by utilizing this crisis as an enabler for positive change. Take another example from the fitness industry, while all gyms are closed, many now offer their equipment for lease, some even make it available for free to contribute to society. Imagine what can be achieved when everyone is working together towards an improved society for the post-Corona era.

So, tell us, what is your silver lining during this crisis? What are you and your organisation doing to survive and give this COVID-19 crisis a positive spin? Share your COVID-specific actions and initiatives by responding to this article. We are eager to hear your story!

You might be wondering how your organisation can or should respond to a crisis such as this one. In the next blog, we will further elaborate upon types of disorder and corresponding reactions.

[1] Sumner, A., Hoy, C., and Ortiz-Juarez, E, Estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty, 2020

[2] Bloomberg, April 2020

[3] U.S. Department of Labor, April 6^th, 2020

Lisa Bruijnincx

The worlds of business and sports are more alike than you might think. Both are characterized by that continual search for improvement, innovation and excellency. Anderson MacGyver believes that the future is digital. Professional athletes inspire us to always be ready for that next step and create a digital transformation for our clients. 

That is why Anderson MacGyver is teaming up with Dutch row star Lisa Bruijnincx. We support Lisa in her journey towards the international top. Follow our updates on here to stay informed about this exciting collaboration, as Lisa rows towards her ultimate goal: the Olympic Games in Paris. 

Update

Since we are all working from home, Anderson MacGyver colleagues organize a twice weekly digital Corona Workout. On April 23, Lisa Bruijnincx took over and showed us some of the top exercises rowers use to stay strong off the water.

Lisa Bruijnincx

The worlds of business and sports are more alike than you might think. Both are characterized by that continual search for improvement, innovation and excellency. Anderson MacGyver believes that the future is digital. Professional athletes inspire us to always be ready for that next step and create a digital transformation for our clients. 

That is why Anderson MacGyver is teaming up with Dutch row star Lisa Bruijnincx. We support Lisa in her journey towards the international top. Follow our updates on here to stay informed about this exciting collaboration, as Lisa rows towards her ultimate goal: the Olympic Games in Paris. 

Update

• Anderson MacGyver supports rowing talent Lisa Bruijnincx in her journey towards Olympics 2024 in Paris and her ambition to become an international top player
• This reflects the matching Anderson MacGyver ambition of spreading our wings and vision internationally
• Team Anderson MacGyver Nordics made a head start in 2019 and is now realizing results in cooperation with clients like LKAB, leveraging vision and IP of Anderson MacGyver Group
• Building new client relationships is a challenge these special days, along with Anderson MacGyver Netherlands this is going well!
• The twice weekly Digital Anderson MacGyver Corona Workout and Friday Afternoon Drink is strengthening the internal relationship and keeps all colleagues in shape
• “Best of luck to both Lisa with hopefully upcoming rowing races, best of luck to all colleagues in new digital way of working with our clients and assignments!”

Watch video:

A title that makes me tickle in advance. But simply put, it means that transformation must address two aspects: inclusive and digital.

Inclusive

Inclusive means encompassing everything concerned, which means including as many perspectives as relevant or as thinking from the outside in. Thinking from the perspective of your main stakeholders:

• your customers,
• your suppliers,
• your employees.

These are the parties that you work with every day, interact with, and communicate with. Everything you can do to make the use of your services simpler, easier, cheaper with a better experience for them. You can use technology for this, but that is not enough. The intended change will also need propagation by every one of your organization. By anyone who is in contact with the outside world such as customer service employees, technical service employees, sales people. Make the experience true, influence the perception, make people excited. So, it’s also about purpose: why do we do it, what do we want to achieve and how do we do it.

This transformation, therefore, requires you to delve into the other. So not only in customers with customer journeys and customer contact moments and their experiences but also from other stakeholders. Partnership with suppliers means optimal logistics chains, joint service or product development, sharing of information and knowledge development. Transformation also affects the employee experience. It is not only about interesting work, personal development and good benefits, but also about the experience they have in working with colleagues, customers and making sure they are truly involved in the transformation of the company.  All this requires a good vision of the developments at play concerning the parties that we deal with daily, but also of social developments such as demographic and ecological changes. That means inclusiveness: not so much looking at what we can do better in terms of efficiency, restructuring or improvement of existing services, but looking at how we can solve problems of our stakeholders in the best possible way by developing services in collaboration with others which  are a better response to the needs of our stakeholders.

It requires leadership focused on creating an innovative culture focused on how we can improve or innovate our services or do things differently, better. To achieve this, it is necessary to focus on the outside world by connecting with executives from other business sectors, science education, and opinion leaders. It is a continuous search for diversification with the question: can it be done differently, better? Interestingly enough it is the ‘people’ thing that is becoming more and more central to the digital transformation: how do we give our customers the right experience, how do we cooperate with business partners, how do we develop new services, and how do we give our employees the right experience in transforming the company.

Digital

This business transformation that we are now experiencing has been given the adjective digitally because digital developments make it possible to do many things differently:

• by exchanging data,
• linking processes,
• standardization of data,
• digital links to cooperate with business partners,
• social media,
• development of new products and services,
• deployment of artificial intelligence.

Many things are possible through digital technology. Because these changes are taking place at a rapid pace, it is very important to have a good insight into what happens in other parts of the business chain: both downstream and upstream. How are we going to position our organization in the right way? And what does that mean for our employees, the parties we work with, the way we work (design thinking) and for the users of our products and services?

No matter how digital we make it: people are central to success. If mistakes are made in digital transformation, it is almost always where the human dimension is forgotten or has disappeared.

Lisa Bruijnincx is 19 years old Dutch athelete, and has been rowing at the highest national level for three years. Lisa started rowing at “Roei- en Zeilvereniging Gouda” and developed fast. Very fast. Last summer, Lisa and her crewmate Fine van Westreenen rowed in a double scull boat to win the World Title U19 at the world championships in Tokyo. A fantastic result, and it has whetted their appetite for more. And Lisa has that ambition outlined clearly: “In four years, I want to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris.” This coming year, Lisa wants to make the next big step in realising that ambition. Lisa is a national top talent, who has made her appearance at international level and wants to develop into an international influential player.

Anderson MacGyver

Anderson MacGyver is a strategic consultancy firm founded in 2013 by Gerard Wijers and Rik Bijmholt. It focuses on Digital Transformation with the goal to help organizations to be smarter in the use of technology and data to create more business value with IT. Over the years, Anderson MacGyver grew from 2 to 40 employees, working for clients like Eneco, PostNL, Univé, Royal FloraHolland and LeasePlan. Anderson MacGyver started in 2019 a second office in Sweden, on-boarding passionate Nordic colleagues and enthusiastic clients. Like Lisa, Anderson MacGyver has additional international ambitions, expanding to Germany for instance. Lisa and Anderson MacGyver will join forces in growing from national top talent to international influential player.

Collaboration

The beginning of January 2020 marked the kick-off in the collaboration of Anderson MacGyver and Lisa Bruijnincx (see picture). Lisa about the collaboration: “It is so exciting that a company like Anderson MacGyver is willing to commit to my ambition. Thanks to them I have the opportunity to organize my coaching team in a more professional way, for instance with mental coaching. I am very much looking forward to making this journey together.” Lisa is coached by another Lisa, namely Lisa Westerhof, herself a two-time Olympian (Athens 2004 and London 2012), and bronze medal winner in London. The organizations Talent Empowerment supports Lisa and Anderson MacGyver in this collaboration, amongst others by supplying speakers for Anderson MacGyver’s (sporting) events and podcasts..

We are living in exciting times. New technologies and smart use of data offer a wide variety of opportunities. To gain the most out of them, companies require a constant flux of new ideas. A recent World Economic Forum study among senior HR officers at leading companies confirms the need for employees with creative skills. Creativity is becoming increasingly more important each day.

Are managers fully dependent on the creative individuals within their teams? Or can new ideas also stem from employees who are not that inventive by nature? Would it be possible to stimulate those employees in such a way that you effectively increase the creative potential of your team? These topics were the focus of my research.

Quite challenging

Creativity is the act of coming up with new and useful ideas to solve (often complex) problems for which no solution is yet known. Seeing new possibilities can however be quite challenging for most people since we usually are limited by our mental set. The psychological phenomenon of a mental set causes us to be inclined to always approach a problem in the same way, even if that approach does not work. We get stuck in a specific structure of thinking and have difficulty seeing the problem from a different perspective.

Personalities

Some people are better in defeating their mental set than others. In my research, I looked at two personality types that differ from each other in creativity. On the one hand, there is this group of people with an open personality type. This personality is characterized by continually welcoming new experiences and always wanting to meet new people. The open personality has a flexible mind, can quickly switch between different approaches, and has less difficulty finding solutions to complex problems. There is a good chance that employees with this personality will often be asked to come up with new ideas.

On the other hand, there is a group that is characterized by a need for structure to understand the world and to function in it. My research shows that these people are indeed capable of coming up with creative ideas, but that they approach problems very differently. Instead of a flexible way of thinking, they work systematically. They analyze and frame the problem. Within this frame, they are very persistent in finding solutions. The first ideas may not be entirely original, but in the end, they still come up with new creative solutions.

Leadership

During my research on the role of leadership in stimulating creativity in the workplace, I made an interesting discovery. The structured and persistent employee benefits from leaders who consciously use empowering behaviors. These behaviors include putting faith in the employees, removing obstacles in terms of time and resources, promoting autonomy in decision-making, and emphasizing the importance of their input. Remarkably enough, this form of leadership seems to turn out negatively for open people. Empowerment is therefore only productive when people actually need it!

Adjusting your leadership behavior is key! Give individuals with open characters complex problems and let them find the solutions on their own. The persistent and structured group needs to be empowered. Express trust and give them sufficient time to frame the problem to come up with new ideas.Creativity and new ideas are vital in these times of digital transformation. By ensuring your leadership behavior is aligned with the needs of your problem-solving-crew, companies increase their creative potential. By tapping into creativity in all layers of the organization, unexpected and innovative ideas will emerge that enable companies to seize the opportunities that digital opportunities have to offer!