Strategy: Business Strategy

We are living in the age of digital technology—the so-called the fourth revolution of human beings on this planet. Digital technology is now at the core of solving individual, organizational, and governmental problems.

However, we might be unaware of the myth that we are entirely reliant on technology today. Technologies and innovations are now everywhere—from ordering food from our favorite restaurants to booking cabs to pick us up and drop us off at our destination; from getting up in the morning to the sound of an alarm on our phone to going to bed and surfing the Internet.

Nevertheless, technology’s essential use is in developing and growing businesses—critically, businesses in the retail sector and small-scale enterprises. Running such a business becomes more satisfying, rewarding, and worthwhile through the appropriate use of business-intelligence (BI) software. Thus, around 54% of business enterprises have confirmed that technologies such as Power BI are the most critical, essential tools to inform the strategy for their current and future projects. Read More

These days, it seems that everyone is all about design thinking—scrambling to jump on this runaway train and ride it for what it’s worth before the next big thing hits. There are design-thinking classes and certifications from premier management and technology consulting firms. However, UX professionals who focus on delivering amazing user experiences to people have always been design thinkers—for very good reason. After all, everything we do and experience in life is designed. From the applications we use, to the way we purchase a cup of coffee, design is everywhere. These things don’t just happen. Product teams don’t just write and execute requirements. Business analysts don’t just dream up these experiences. We design them by following design principles and business strategies. So, by employing the same design strategies to real business problems, we are bound to be able to come up with better solutions.

Digital transformation is another popular term that describes the journey companies are undertaking today as they look to integrate digital technologies into every aspect of their business. These transformations consider people, process, organizational culture, the how, what, and why around the ways customers engage with their business. While every major company is engaging in digital transformation, their progress and maturity in this endeavor varies greatly. Throughout what are often multiyear transformation programs, they’re grappling with legacy processes, technology, and culture. As a result, many are still struggling to deliver tangible business outcomes. In fact, it is hard to find any company that will stand up and say, “Yes! We have reached the end of our digital-transformation journey, and we succeeded!” Why is that? Read More

This column is the first in a series that will offer insights on how to help companies progress from delivering mediocre user experiences, as is all too common, to producing truly great experiences that differentiate their products and services in the marketplace. Doing so requires a radical transformation in the way business executives and UX teams engage in creating user experiences.

This series is not about making incremental improvements to the way UX teams work. It is about taking a different approach and driving radical transformation within organizations. No major changes in history have ever come about by playing it safe. Having said this, all of the ideas that we’ll share in this series have proven effective in one business context or another. Read More