Digital @ Scale

9HOW? SCALING FORCEFULLY

LAST, BUT NOT least, we look at rolling digitization out to the organization as a whole—Digital@Scale.

When Max Viessmann took up his position as chief digital officer (CDO) at heating systems manufacturer Viessmann in the summer of 2016, the digitization of the family-run firm moved into its second phase. “The first thing I did was to freeze 80 percent of initiatives,” says Viessmann. “Once we had thoroughly analyzed and understood all aspects of digitization in the first phase, it was about concentrating all our resources into growth drivers.” So what became of this theoretically brilliant plan that Viessmann followed to launch its digital transformation? “Every day, we learn something new because things change so quickly, including the target scenario,” says Viessmann. “It puts the organization under huge pressure to derive new targets from the findings—but it also does it good.”

The Viessmann experience is nothing new for companies that are going digital. They create a transformation plan, adapt their organization and processes, and get going. When they come to ramp up the digitization process and roll it out across the organization, they find that events in the real world cause them to change their plans. For example, new digital products and processes are needed following customer feedback. Companies hoping to install a digital mind-set and working methods throughout their organizations can’t simply follow the plan laid out in Chapter 7 deterministically. ...