Many organizations struggle to strike a balance between enhancing agility on one hand and maintaining the continuity of services on the other. Simply put: how do you innovate enough to stay relevant for the world of tomorrow while ensuring the systems of yesterday and today continue to function? Using the dimensions of Strategy, Governance and organizational models, Leadership, and Decision-making, we provide a number of recommendations for structuring a successful organization. To understand the “why,” we first explore the experiences of a wide range of organizations and examine lessons learned from successful innovators, such as ING. In April 2024, the bank was named a leader in digital transformation for the second time.
From the World of Today to the World of Tomorrow
IT never stands still, and no organization can function effectively without it. IT permeates every aspect of an organization and is constantly subjected to new demands from markets, governments, customers, and technological advances. These demands bring a steady stream of new requirements, laws, regulations, and technologies that must be integrated.
Predicting the future is difficult. We live in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. An agile organization must respond to these changes while maintaining the continuity and predictability of current services. For most organizations, standing still is not an option. Shops cannot temporarily close for renovations; think of services like benefits distribution, payments, medical care, or online shopping. The IT systems supporting these services must always work.
This poses a dilemma: how do you renovate the shop while keeping it open? Drawing on QA Consulting’s experience and lessons learned from digital-age leaders, several choices can be made to address this challenge.