Above Image Courtesy – Image by John Hain from Pixabay
How BRMs Pave the way for Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is more than a buzzword for modern businesses – Its understood that more than two-thirds of businesses recognise their company must digitize by 2020 in order to stay competitive.
But despite its critical importance 70% of the digital transformation efforts are failing. The research tells that the reason for failure is not about technology failure. The biggest reason for failure is to effectively communicate their goals, strategy, purpose and outlook with their employees. It’s about failure in relationship, Organisational culture and communication breakdown.
How do we solve the puzzle and add value to the Digital Transformation Journey? How do we change the culture by breaking silos and build converged relationships? and How do we clearly communicate Goals and WIIFMs to all stakeholders.
BRM – Business Relationship Management paves the way for all the above questions. Business Relationship Management embodies a set of competencies (knowledge, skills, and behaviours) that foster a productive, value-producing relationship and effectively shaping and channelling demand to the highest value opportunities
BRM in Digital Age – Helps build Relationship
Traditionally IT has always been an inside-out function involved deeply in detailed nature of the business operations and processes. But to succeed in this digital disruptive world senior leadership must move the organization from being “inside-out” to “outside-in approach”.
To design and execute a digital transformation initiative there must be exceptional understanding of the business (Strategy) and its customers, vendors, and all stakeholders in the entire ecosystem.
Business Relationship Manager play a key role in the current context and acts as orchestrator, Navigator and Connector and build the bridge between business strategy and outcomes. Through their exceptional discipline and skills, they play a key role in digital transformation.
Business Relationship institute has recently introduced Relationshipism as a term and as a theory to the single, global community. For this very reason, BRM Institute have adopted a Triple Bottom Line of People, Purpose, Planet in which Purpose encompasses profit.
“Without mastering collaborative relationships, both inside and outside the company, we won’t produce the outcomes needed to win our customers’ business.”
— Lori Beer, chief information officer, JPMorgan Chase
Through the practice of Relationshipism—which emphasizes building trust among teams through authentic relationships—people feel empowered to satisfy their own purpose and to work towards a common goal. Brands and businesses around the world are recognizing that shareholder value is no longer the sole measure of success.
The Importance of Culture in Digital Transformation(Removing siloed mentality)
Organizational Silos limits Business Value. Organizational silos are formed when people differ in their approach to deliver value.
According to Maureen Jesuthasan and Terry Krafthefer were they talk about Business Relationship Management: Reinventing Value Realization in Energy & Utilities organization must evolve their operational cultures by creating workplace transparency founded on shared ownership of business outcomes. Shared ownership is established by nurturing organizational change at the cultural layer where supporting disciplines, capabilities, and roles converge to produce measurable value.
A culture based on shared ownership requires dedication to standards where work is continuously delivered through a modelled approach executed by all members of the organization.
Communication
BRMs are master communicators. A key component of business relationship management relies on our ability to connect with people of different backgrounds, business functions, and communication styles. Communicate simply, early and often.
Knowledge must be shared and value must be achieved in every interaction to ensure the convergence of business value, priorities, timely escalations, and value realization.
When driving effective communication, consider the following:
In every communication message, think about the question, “WIIFM – What’s in it for me?” from the recipient’s perspective.
Keep it simple – Try to keep your communication simple with few highlighted bullet points
Early and often – Being Agile – Communicate with the team frequently and early. Not at the last minute
Also, Routine communication to your peers inside your function is important – Like
- Routine updates on strategy
- Notifications of wins and failures
- Routine updates of any knowledge that will help the overall function or disciplines within (PM, architects, etc.) experience greater success
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Suresh Seetharaman
Suresh is a BRM Practice Head and a seasoned Principal Consultant and has over 27 years of experience in different facets of Business Relation Management, IT Service Management, Project Management, Training and Development, Business Development & Application Development areas. He has earned wide range of certifications that include DevOps Foundation, BRMP, CBRM, and ITIL 4
