Business Transformation is a fundamental realignment of a business due to, solely or a combination of, fierce competition, business model shifts, and lack of profitability. It is customer-centric and combines functional (procedural, cross-functional), technological (digital, automation, infrastructural), cultural (customer focused, collaborative, risk taking), and intellectual (up-skilling, thought leadership, employee engagement) transformations. It is not defined narrowly by single process improvement or step function improvements, but aims at large-scale changes to business models and operations, and is championed by Executive Leadership.
Superior mission planning, talent, and time-bound execution are critical for a successful business transformation. Also critical, is the identification, tracking, and celebration of milestones. And as always, success begets success and when others succeed it lifts all boats. The end result is a happy customer, a successful company, and fulfilled employees.
Here is an example with the objective to provide our customers and service providers with a superior life-cycle experience when members enroll for healthcare coverage. This includes enrollment, correct id card issuance, and benefits use and service claims processing. This means we focus on the front-end, benefits set-up, and get it right the first time. The idea is that with an error-free set-up our customers experience superior service, and with no member access to care issues and timely service provider payments.
This required an on-going transformation of our processes, technology, support, employee skills and metrics. We thoroughly analyzed our processes for gaps and improvements, put in technology when needed, developed training tools and upskilled employees in root-cause analysis and process tracking, and provided them with challenging opportunities for growth. Equally importantly, this continues to be a cross-functional effort within and with our vendors.
So who succeeded? The process owners are now able to manage a better process with the right metrics; the employees were challenged and learned new principles, methods, and tools; internal process customers, e. g., Sales, are proactive and consultative with their customers because of improved reporting and issue management; vendors working with us have benefited from improved understanding of requirements, processes, and response times; the service providers are paid timely; and the ultimate customer – the card carrying member – receives the care they expect.
Thus, the transformative effects of Business Transformation are felt by all stakeholders of the process. It is, therefore, very important to start with a vision and mission, and build and execute towards that. Along the way, true stakeholder engagement, transparency through metrics, regular reviews and re-learning, and periodic evaluation against corporate strategy are also needed. Done well, Business Transformation helps others to succeed and perpetuates success with a cultural shift.