ExecuSense, LLC

I support through ten distinct phases of digital transformation. Each phase is informed by other factors, and incorporates disciplines, processes and governance frameworks based on the unique needs of their business. The phases are:

1️⃣ Discovery 🔎
2️⃣ Current-state analysis
3️⃣ Future-state analysis
4️⃣ GAP analysis between 2️⃣ and 3️⃣ 🗻 -->🏔
5️⃣ Roadmap development 🛣
6️⃣ Proof of concepts (POCs) are built 💻
7️⃣ The pitch deck or strategy presentation is built 📖 📑
8️⃣ Budgets are established and the resource plan is developed 💰
9️⃣ Ex*****on & Delivery 📦
🔟 Digestion & Refinement 📈 📉 📊

Not every will cycle through the process in the same way. This is what makes the process so critical. It's what allows me to build a customized program and accelerate wherever we can. It also ensures your program portfolio is balanced and you are properly resourced for success.

If you're serious about leap-frogging your competition through the adoption of discipline, I've included a graph to help you quickly assess whether or not you're on the path to building a well-thought, holistic or if you are being distracted. Where is your focus? Are you in the bulls-eye or are you on the periphery?

I've said this before and I will continue to repeat it, "Digital transformation is not a linear process."

Most of the providers or partners I work with are more than capable of adding tremendous value to your organization, but they depend on YOU to have a fully-baked strategy in order to realize a ROI. They need your help to fully understand where they fit into big picture. Do this well, and they will exceed your expectations 99% of the time.

You can outsource technical skills, but don't make the mistake of outsourcing accountability for your initiative's success. Help your partners help you by making the investment in a quality digital strategy. It will save time and money, keep your stakeholders happy, improve morale, and you just may sleep better at night.

Take a look at this chart up close. Where do you see yourself? What's your biggest gap? What's holding you back?

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION vs. DIGITAL EVOLUTION

Ironically, to ensure a successful digital program, I believe we have to stop using the term to describe it. implies a single tool, technology, or product can morph your company into some version of a digital butterfly that can flap its wings and float away into a world of connectedness and growth. It also implies an end-state where an effort is complete.

For those of us who have lived through or are responsible for digital programs, we know the effort never really ends. We know this because we rely on user generated data to measure our progress. Users, and the data they generate are not static variables. We know as technology and user behavior evolves, so must we.

Traditional businesses manage their operation through internal operating and KPIs. Digital businesses manage their operation through internal and external data and KPIs. "Digital Transformation" attracts a lot of leaders who fail to understand they are stepping into a new normal; one that shifts the landscape more frequently but in more easily quantified ways. The result of this gap in understanding? Thousands of articles, blog posts and white papers on the “Top 10 reasons why digital transformations fail”.

Your evolution may fail to meet leadership's expectations without strategies for measuring progress and telling the story to the right stakeholders, at the right time, in the right way. It's for this reason, having a digital strategy is the key to success. Managing expectations and demystifying digital transformation is more effective with a tangible artifact - a .

This is how we attribute value to each phase of the journey. Transformation in and of itself is not the goal. Evolving with and for our customers, suppliers and employees is what it's all about.

If you're a , , or preparing your organization for a major cultural shift, you may be interested in my approach for developing and executing a here: https://wp.me/pdT1f6-52h
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Digital strategy formation is becoming more and more important ahead of major investment in IT Managed Services or Digital Marketing. Having a foundational strategy that can be shared with multiple suppliers, vendors, distribution partners and internal teams fosters better alignment and in the end - superior results. Learn how and why experience matters and why your business deserves to be treated as unique - because it is.

https://execusense.org/2023/02/22/what-does-a-digital-strategy-consultant-do/