How Thinking Dimensions Amplified Client Impact with their Digital Partner Strategy Tools
The Challenge
Scott B. Newton is the managing partner at Thinking Dimensions, a management consultancy with offices in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.
Over the past year, he has been leading a digital transformation project with a listed multinational company which is a global leader in their business sectors across multiple markets including Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific regions.
The Client had been working on their digital transformation efforts for the past few years, and while they have achieved some milestones and had some really great ideas floating around, the program wasn’t moving as fast as the board and management had hoped.
Thinking Dimensions was brought in to work on accelerating the company’s digital transformation effort, which involved employees spanning multiple locations across the globe at a time when Covid-19 had shut down the world.
They could not work in the traditional way they were used to and had to get creative.
The Solution
“Working with the executive committee and management teams, we assisted the organization to accelerate their digital transformation starting with a map of Industry Shifts and their current Strategic Initiatives. Once we did that, we could clearly see that there were large discrepancies in some markets, business units and capabilities. After engaging in a strategy session with the executive committee and the Board of Directors, we started to get an idea of where the industry was moving towards, where they want to be, and how they would compete in this new area.” revealed Scott.
The management team together with Thinking Dimensions identified 50 of the company’s top managers including both senior managers and people on the ground making the transformation happen. All 50 of these key transformation drivers were enrolled into a customized Building the Transformational Company digital program on the Strategy Tools platform.
“We customized the case studies and learning specific to the client’s activities and challenges. They all went through this program, and as a capstone, instead of having an individual project to complete, they took actual projects that the company had identified as priorities in the strategy and are working on those,” he added.
The combination of the in-person consulting work that Thinking Dimensions, along with the customized program co-created by Scott and Strategy Tools, led to a measurable acceleration of the company performance in digital transformation.
Impact
Cross-Border Learning (and Doing)
“The Strategy Tools platform has been a key piece to this project. The old way we would’ve delivered a project like this is to have a small team fly around the world and work with the company. There are several problems with that,” said Scott.
“It becomes really expensive because there is so much travel time involved with a team of people tied up. You also miss all the cross-learning because all the teams will be in a room in Mumbai, in Guangzhou, or London, but it’s not the same having the whole team together. And lastly, even if we wanted to travel, we couldn’t with the Covid situation right now.” he explained.
By co-developing a tailored version of the Building the Transformational Company program on the Strategy Tools digital learning platform, Scott and his client were able to get everyone in the same “room”, going through the program at the same speed, working through the same case studies.
“We also ran live work sessions using digital whiteboards, MIRO, and Zoom, multiple times per-day by timezone, and in doing so, we were able to get these teams really cross-pollinating and talking about new ideas.”
Combining the Building the Transformational Company program with live priority projects from the company made it even more practical for the key people going through the program.
They were learning a ton, and able to immediately apply it to their current work Strategic objectives.
Measurable Client Outcomes
“At the end of the day, what made the executive committee and the board happy was seeing their digital transformation efforts speed up,” said Scott.
Pairing the Building the Transformational Company program with the consulting work done by Thinking Dimensions made for a major value add to the company in terms of enterprise value and people development.
“After attempting the digital transformation efforts with several different consulting agencies, including some big brand names, they are finally getting the results they expected.” he added.
Getting Everyone On Board with the Same Vision
Throughout the project, Scott and his team ensured that they stayed on track with the original objectives planned out during the strategy session.
He also checks in frequently in live sessions with the participants running through the Building the Transformational Company program to ensure they were able to translate their learning into their actual day-to-day work.
“Someone told me, ‘I finally understand why we’re doing what we’re doing,’ and another person said ‘after years of this strategy being unclear to me, it’s now really clear what we’re doing and what I need to do personally, and what my employees need to do if we’re going to meet our objectives’,” revealed Scott.
“The internal stakeholders were also really happy with the program as they see a change of behavior and outcomes that they need in order to win in the new market.” he added.
Giving Thinking Dimensions An Edge Against Other Consulting Companies
“When I understood what the client was facing and I could map those challenges out, it became clear that we needed something different and innovative to solve the issues. There were many other consulting companies competing for this project, and what was really interesting to the buyer (client CEO) was how we were going to incorporate these innovative electronic pieces together with more traditional advisory and consulting,” said Scott.
The client needed a solution that could create a large impact, yet in a cost and time-effective way considering all the constraints today. They saw value in having a clear roadmap for the team to follow (in the Building the Transformational Company program), as well as the case studies specially designed for the company scenario.
“We can add a lot of value at a cost-effective price. Proven Results and ROIC: Those two together makes it a winner.” said Scott.
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