Inoculate Innovation From Corporate Anti-Bodies

Originally published as part of, “The Day Before Digital Transformation” by Phil Perkins and Cheryl Smith

Taking time to build traction is what defines an exponential growth approach, and it requires a level of patience not traditionally experienced at most of today’s organizations. It is the perfect environment for ‘organization anti-bodies’ to thrive. Organization anti-bodies are the people and processes within an organization that push for the safety of business as usual.  As history has taught us, we can predict that in most cases and in most industries the organizations that refuse to incorporate the new technologies of the age into their products and services before the end of the age will be put out of business by those organizations, existing and new, who do. The question many organizations are facing today (whether or not they are aware of it) is whether assuming the risk of unpredictable growth is worse than measured predictable decline?

There will be individuals in every organization who will throw up roadblocks during your digital transformation efforts. Their goal will be to kill the transformation efforts and ensure that business as usual wins. As the Amazon timeline has taught us, an exponential approach to growth takes more time to pick up steam.  It requires a focus on carefully building traction and perfecting the business model before investing significantly in scale. During this time, your digital opportunity is sitting inside the organization where individuals, supported by current processes and procedures, will do everything in their power to never let it see the light of day.  We refer to these individuals and processes as organization anti-bodies fighting against your digital efforts. (Figure 35)

In the early days of your digital effort, the organization’s anti-bodies will manifest themselves in phrases like “This doesn’t have an immediate ROI” and “Our customers didn’t ask for this,” and “Fast follower is the best strategy.”  As your digital efforts begin to demonstrate that the assumptions of the strategy are proving to be solid and the product or service is gaining traction, they will start to sound like “This is a security risk,” and “We need more research.”  As the digital effort progresses successfully to the point where requests for major funding are being prepared, it starts to sound like “This is going to cannibalize sales.”

It is often said that the most important trait of an entrepreneur is perseverance. An exponential approach to growth requires more patience and perseverance than traditional organizations have been required to demonstrate in the recent past. Many of today’s leaders may see an opportunity to transform their business over a 5- to 7-year time horizon, but they are measured quarterly, their incentivizes are short-term, and they don’t know if they’ll even be in their current role long enough to claim success. Who is going to take responsibility for making the right choices when the choices get difficult and have personal ramifications? It should not surprise you that as your digital journey progresses the line of seasoned executives who have signed up for it gets shorter. 

There are actions that have proven effective in combating organization antibodies. For example:

• Address fiscal incentive issues early in the process.  Business as usual is the lowest risk option, and from the time a digital vision and strategy are established, those involved in business as usual activities should receive the lowest rewards.  Success in the current world, even major success, is easy relative to taking on the unknown and new.  Awarding incentive bonuses to those most heavily and directly involved with the digital efforts incrementally, as progress is made, has worked well, even when the bonuses are small.  Just be sure to make them visible.
• Remind everyone on a regular basis what the impact and ramifications are of doing nothing.  We have mentioned irreversible trends, for example.  Chapter 6 discusses how to gather information on the realities facing your organization and your industry.  Share those findings, keep them updated, and continually communicate them.
• Celebrate digital learnings and successes.  Keep everyone informed about what the organization is finding and learning.  Share the failures as well, showing that failing fast and moving on is the new way of doing business.
• If the organization antibodies are major, vocal, and disruptive, take the tough stance and remove them from the organization.  Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when negativity is removed from a culture.
• Take the time and effort to identify unintended roadblocks, usually from long-time processes and procedures.  This can be done by implementing an enterprise resource planning system (ERP), one of the early digital technologies.  If you have not yet implemented one, this should be a priority.  If you have implemented one, find out how much of it has been customized.  If more than 10% of the total code base in the system has been changed, reinstall it without any changes.  The standards in these systems represent best practices.  There are few, if any, changes that can be rationalized or should be made. New standard processes and standard procedures can eliminate massive numbers of roadblocks.  A side bonus is that it gives many groups within the organization something new and different to do.
• Ensure that there is a digital champion among the senior leaders.  The CEO is the best choice, the CFO is another good choice.  Whenever anyone looks ‘up’ the chain of command they will see a strong supporter of the digital efforts at the very top. 

These are just a few examples. Experience has shown that organization anti-bodies can be dealt with directly, quickly, and wisely.  Successful digital leaders have learned that one of their most challenging issues is to be open to listening and taking definitive and highly visible action when organization antibodies are identified.