Recently I attended a Gartner event, which discussed in essence, the trends and demands of a digitally enabled product and service offering, for the businesses of today.
Whilst easy to describe, many of us (as actors or audience members) are very much aware of the challenges of that particular play, ‘Digital Transformation’, and the historically consistent rate of failure. The journey is routinely misjudged.
Underestimated in terms of the task, overestimated in terms of the businesses ability to cope during transition. Against that backdrop, the mantra “there has to be a better way,” rings loud over the tombstones of many a graveyard, where such projects are buried.
Enter the ‘API Economy’, where you take a very familiar concept, such as Application Programming Interfaces (API’s), as the fastest way to satisfy a business requirement.
In one of the many ‘use cases’, a business is able to satisfy the customer demand, whilst also considering the customer experience, who are using the plethora of digitally enabled devices and portals now available to them.
In the API economy, long standing systems and applications can create extraordinary value to drive faster business responses, provided the business knows how to unlock them and connect them to the digital world.
In recent times I have been fortunate to be working with a company such as OpenLegacy, who’s very ethos is underpinned with the ability to do just that. Helping businesses unlock their potential, which is often trapped in legacy systems i.e. ‘systems of record’ several decades old. Dealing with this journey (amongst other API suppliers) is something they have become well positioned to do. However, what makes them unique is, the speed at which they are able to accomplish this task (of creating new business API’s from a legacy system), thus making a business impact of quite breath-taking proportions for their clients.
OpenLegacy have literally been able to provide a significant business benefit to their clients, within weeks of contract engagement. What has drawn me to this company is the fact, the senior management team have set themselves such an ambitious goal, they are quickly becoming leading innovators in this space. They were not content to simply move the needle, they have instead decided to use a new benchmark entirely for success, ‘weeks instead of months / months instead of years’, for the benefit case to be realised by their clients.
In a world where we are surrounded by those who overpromise and underdeliver, this breath of fresh air in leadership, cannot be ignored. This is a courageous team, united in their common goal, determined to make an impact for the clients they represent, regardless of the complexity of the situation they find.
The modern-day challenge for global businesses is without question difficult, based on digitally enabled consumer behaviour. Which means in response, the leadership required needs to be equally as robust in its strategic thinking and execution, to meet such demand. In the words of the late Stephen Covey:
“Every truly great break-through is a break-with a conventional way of thinking.”
What's your latest break-through and
how courageous is your thinking in meeting the challenge?