THE

HYPERCONNECTIVITY

PLAYBOOK

6 Tips for CEOs

on Transforming their Business to Thrive in the Age of Experience

Always and everywhere connectivity is reinventing the

business world.

This new hyperconnected reality allows companies to

imagine, map, model and engineer new environments

via the virtual world.

Harnessing the power of hyperconnectivity can bring

together minds, ideas, solutions and information to

unleash possibilities that did not previously exist.

If a company isn’t as far along in its

hyperconnected transition as it should be, how

can its CEO accelerate change?

Dassault Systèmes’ Compass magazine editors

interviewed experts who recommended a

series of 6 actions.

1. Think strategically, not project by project.

If every project or exercise requires its own large investment of resources, people

will be less likely to explore changes, according to a study published by MIT Sloan

Management Review. Invest in data, systems and governance that promote

community building at every turn and encourage experimentation to garner

experience and insights quickly.

In its paper “The Digital Imperative,” Boston Consulting Group (BCG) advises: “Take

advantage of digital capabilities to transform the current business. Best-in-class

companies think ‘end to end’ about where digital efforts can produce a step

change in performance and value for their customers – not only in marketing, but

also in operations and the back office.”

2. Be willing to alter or replace your current systems

and processes.

MIT Sloan found that most large corporations are saddled with fragmented

analytical processes, limiting their ability to operate with agility and insight.

Companies need better ways to use internal and external data. BCG research

shows that “leaders in the use of big data generate 12% higher revenues than

companies that don’t experiment with big data.” BCG goes on to say that “digital

transformation offers companies new opportunities to gain sustainable

competitive advantage from data and to generate entirely new revenue streams,

business units and standalone businesses by capitalizing on the data they hold.”

3. To envision the future, disregard the present.

Robert C. Wolcott, executive director and co-founder of the Kellogg School of

Management’s Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) at Northwestern University

(Evanston, Illinois) and author of the forthcoming book The NOW! Economy, urges

CEOs not to define their company’s prospects based on what it does today, but on

what customers might demand in the future. BCG makes similar recommendations.

“Incumbents should be more disruptive in their approach,” BCG advises. “They often

do not fundamentally rethink their business model. Only rarely do they launch

anything that might attack the current business.”

4. Build a portfolio of options.

Many companies think they have a three-year strategic plan, but it’s really just a

one-year operating plan extrapolated over three years. That’s budgeting, not

strategy, Wolcott said. In a volatile world, leaders need mechanisms to generate

foresight about the longer term, to translate insights into action, and have flexibility

to pivot rapidly as the future unfolds. BCG therefore recommends that businesses

“prototype” their strategies. With rapidly evolving competitive landscapes,

businesses must conduct rapid cycles of test-learn-refine and continually revise

their strategies based on what they learn.

5. Position your business in the broader landscape.

Like the musicians in a symphony orchestra, companies (instrumentalists) must

understand and secure their own place in a broader community – what BCG calls

“the network of companies, individual contributors, institutions, and customers that

interact to create mutual value. Ecosystem players join forces with external

companies working toward a common goal to achieve complete alignment of the

value chain. Collaboration across a broader ecosystem creates new opportunities

to address consumer needs.”

6. Support digital transformation with structures,

governance and incentives that promote speed, risk

taking and experimentation.

Hyperconnectivity success depends on technology, people and process. BCG

advises that businesses adopt an organization and culture that “promotes speed,

risk taking and experimentation.” To support these efforts, look for a platform that

helps establish and customize the layered processes of creating, managing and

supporting hyperconnected communities; facilitates dynamic and fast-changing

interactions among staff members; and helps management track results in real

time, enabling organizations to do more of what works and re-invent what doesn’t.

To learn more about

Hyperconnected Business, check

out the latest issue of Compass

magazine

http://compassmag.3ds.com/9