0:02

One of the major mistakes is picking

0:05

tools because they're popular or other companies

0:08

are using them as opposed to

0:10

looking at the outcomes first. People

0:13

have to do the work on the ground to

0:15

actually say this dot and that dot connect with

0:17

each other. And if you can't connect the dots,

0:19

then what are you doing in the space? Hello

0:25

and welcome to Insight Story, tech trends

0:27

unpacked for business leaders. The podcast that

0:29

gives you the insight you need to

0:31

make the right decisions about how to

0:33

use tech to benefit your organisation. I'm

0:36

Susie O'Neill and this is brought to

0:38

you by Kaspersky, the cybersecurity specialists. This

0:41

time we're asking, how

0:45

do you get the best return on your tech

0:47

investment? Now

0:51

CEOs and their management teams have always been

0:54

responsible for setting the vision and strategy of

0:56

their organisations to stay ahead of the competition.

0:59

But now they must also navigate

1:01

a complex landscape of brand new

1:03

digital tools like AI, cybersecurity concerns

1:05

and the need to upskill their

1:07

workforce. Investment in technology

1:10

is essential to streamline operations, enhance customer

1:12

experience and drive innovation. But how do

1:14

you make sure you're buying the right

1:16

tech? And when you've got it, how

1:19

do you use it to your optimum

1:21

advantage? In a minute I'll be joined by

1:23

two people who spend their lives trying to answer

1:25

these questions. Olivier Blanchard is

1:27

a consultant who uses his commercial background

1:29

to help companies make the right tech

1:31

decisions. Plus Arun Narayanan

1:34

has led digital transformation for some

1:36

of the world's biggest industrial names,

1:38

including Anglo American and Schlumberger. But

1:41

first, what sort of impacts do tech decisions

1:43

have on business? I need

1:45

some stats. Hello, I am

1:48

Dolly, your insight assistant. Dolly,

1:50

perfect timing. I want

1:52

to get an idea of the impact making the

1:54

right decisions about tech might have on a business.

1:57

What about introducing new tech successfully? According

1:59

to Harvard Business Review, while 89%

2:02

of large companies globally have a digital

2:04

transformation underway, they have only captured 31% of

2:07

the expected revenue list and 25% of expected

2:12

cost. But what about the costs

2:14

involved? A recent study

2:16

from the International Data Corporation found

2:18

that large enterprises spend an average

2:20

of $27.5 million on digital transformation

2:22

projects. Wow,

2:26

that's a lot. And what about the people

2:28

who have to use the technology? I mean, what happens if

2:30

they're not up for it? A 2020

2:33

report by Harvard Business Review said

2:35

the failure rate for digital transformation

2:37

projects was 70%. A

2:40

study by ProSci found that nearly on in

2:42

two digital transformation failures were attributed

2:45

to employee resistance and a

2:47

lack of change management. All

2:49

right, thank you. There's clearly a lot at

2:52

stake. So, let's get

2:54

some expert insights into how to make

2:56

the right tech decisions and then make

2:58

those decisions work. To give me

3:00

that, I'm joined by first, Olivier Blanchard,

3:03

Research Director for the Futurum Group,

3:05

a US-based consultancy that specializes in helping

3:07

business leaders anticipate and understand shifts in

3:09

their industries and build strategies that make

3:12

the most of innovation, including

3:14

tech. And Arun Narayanan,

3:16

currently Chief Digital Officer for

3:18

Renewable Energy Systems, or RES,

3:20

the world's largest independent renewable

3:22

energy company. And before

3:24

that, his roles have included Chief

3:27

Data Officer and Mining Group, Anglo-American

3:29

and VP Data Analytics at Schlumberger

3:31

Software. Let's start with you,

3:33

Olivier. What would you say is the biggest mistake

3:35

that companies make when it comes to choosing and

3:37

implementing new technology? I think one

3:40

of the major mistakes is picking tools

3:42

because they're popular or other companies are

3:44

using them or they're in vogue, as

3:47

opposed to looking at the outcomes

3:49

first and then reverse engineering to

3:51

the solution. And the reason why

3:53

is a solution might be

3:55

good to solve the problem that you're trying

3:57

to solve or to optimize your system. or

3:59

to get to the next level, but it

4:02

might not be well adapted to your particular

4:04

company in terms of

4:06

technical capabilities and your technical ecosystem,

4:08

but also culture-wise. If your processes

4:10

are in place, if your corporate

4:12

structure is not in line with

4:14

how that product will be used, it might

4:16

not be a good fit for the company

4:18

even though it might be the best solutions

4:21

on the market. So, it's kind of like

4:23

a solution first and then looking

4:25

for a problem they can solve as opposed

4:27

to understanding the problems that you have and

4:29

looking for the best solution to help solve

4:31

those problems for you specifically. So, it's

4:33

something to you, Aaron, you've been responsible for

4:35

digital transformation and strategy and really some of

4:37

those biggest companies in the world in mining

4:40

and the oil and gas industry. What

4:42

do you think about this scenario? I think the state

4:44

of union of technologies that are out

4:46

there afford a

4:48

completely new way of doing your

4:51

business. So, before you go

4:53

rush around trying to figure out what that

4:55

technology can do for you, just imagine that

4:57

you had all the technology that you wanted

4:59

just readily available and think

5:01

about what are the differences that will happen

5:03

to your business. How are you going to

5:06

make your customers much more happier and

5:08

delight them in new ways that you could

5:10

not do previously? What are you

5:12

going to do to keep your employees safe and make

5:14

them as productive as possible? How are you going to

5:16

try to return better economic

5:18

returns to your investors and

5:21

shareholders? And with that transformation

5:23

in mind, try to imagine

5:25

what the steps in your business process

5:27

would look like first and

5:29

then map on the technology

5:31

work to make that business

5:34

process work. Just easy examples in all of

5:36

the industries that are worked in oil and

5:38

gas and mining and now in the renewable

5:40

energy space. The key commonality

5:42

between all of these is work is

5:45

remote. It's not in the city center.

5:47

It's not close to where most of

5:49

this population is. So, in

5:51

successful scenarios what they have done is they've

5:53

said we're going to have a remote operation

5:56

center. We're going to dedicate a floor in

5:58

the building and we're going people

6:00

who are capable of doing the work but

6:02

cannot travel these long distances and cannot spend

6:04

three or four days or five or six

6:06

days or even 14 days away from their

6:08

families and they're going to

6:10

give them these information pieces on

6:13

screens. But when

6:15

they make a decision to do

6:17

something, how are we going to

6:19

actually enact that decision in real

6:21

life all the way up to the asset?

6:24

And that's an imagination of the business

6:26

process first. And if that imagination is

6:29

successful, then yes, you can make the

6:31

technology pathway forward. There's a balance

6:33

between what is operationally correct at

6:35

the site level and

6:37

what a remote center like a headquarters

6:40

or a business center in a downtown

6:42

can know and understand. And

6:45

there's always a challenge in striking

6:47

that right balance and

6:49

the ability to do that

6:51

is what differentiates successful digital

6:53

transformation