Business Transformation: The Pitfalls, Benefits, & Why It’s so Important to Stay on the Cutting Edge

Change is inevitable. Whether you’re working for a small business, or a company of forty thousand people, at some point you’re going to go through some sort of major organizational change.

On this episode of B2B Revenue Executive Experience, we were fortunate enough to sit down with Matt Lockhart, Executive Vice President at Magenic and chat about business transformation. It’s pitfalls, it’s benefits, and why it’s so important for companies to stay on the cutting edge.

Business transformation has shown up a lot in the press lately. You’ve likely seen in the media a number of different companies recently undergoing some serious transformation.

Transformation isn’t easy, especially when change & transformation needs to be instilled into the very DNA of your company in order to be successful.

Transformation is Perpetual

“Everything is all about transformation.'”

MATT LOCKHART,
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AT MAGENIC

A lot of people like to talk about transformation as if it’s a new topic, but change is perpetual, and has been a part of every company that’s ever existed.

The pace of change and transformation is faster than ever, and it’s being driven by the digital culture, as well as customer demand for an advancement in services.

You need to have the next greatest experience or customers will change who they work with.

Organizations that are improving their capabilities around transformation and change are the ones that are winning.

Change and transformation used to be a predominantly inside-out mentality. Someone inside the organization sees a change that needs to be made, and it’s implemented.

Now it’s a far more outside-in experience. Change is being driven by the consumer who wants what they want, and they want it now.

Know Your Motivators

Change is driven by all sorts of things. Sometimes it’s a negative driver, like fear. A thought of “Wow, we are in trouble. We’re losing market share, a customer base, etc.”

But sometimes, the motivators for change are far more positive. As companies get closer to the customer, they better understand the customer experience.

Early Key Indicators

Enabling organic transformation has to mean that you are not always going to be sure of the path that you’re going down. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, and it’s going to be a big investment in both resources and time.

Let your employees fail fast, and fail forward. Failure is a part of business, and when you start to be paralyzed by fear of failure, you become stagnant and you start to fall behind.

Once you see the grass-roots type of change that is crucial to effective organizational transformation, it’s a positive indication that you’re headed in the right direction as an organization.

Inspire Curiosity

Think of when you’re driving down the freeway, and there’s an accident on the other side. What happens to your lane? You slow down. Why?

Curiosity is infectious. If your leaders in your organization can demonstrate the type of intellectual curiosity needed to effectively institute change, it will inevitably leak down to the rest of the team.

The people who are the closest to the customers are the best opportunities for innovation.

Sales & Marketing Transformation

Are the hurdles for sales and marketing transformation different than the global organizational hurdles?

The biggest difference lies in aligning with a greater group of stakeholders. With sales and marketing, you’ve got to align your change and transformation to a bigger group of stakeholders with their own ideas.

There’s a greater degree of adaptability. You’ve got to know your customers better than ever before. It’s so much more than just “pitch and pray”.

This post is based on an interview with Matt Lockhart from Magenic. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.

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