Markku Rehberger is a project manager for GDPR compliance who has experience in various industries including IT, manufacturing, energy, and construction. In his presentation, he discusses the need for companies to develop digital strategies that leverage new technologies in order to stay competitive. He notes that most companies currently lack clear strategies and the management capabilities needed to effectively utilize technology. Rehberger advocates that companies analyze strategic contexts, design new business capabilities directed by technology, and focus on automation and cognitive computing in order to prevail against competitors in the digital age.

1. Markku Rehberger
Project Manager, GDPR Compliance, Lemminkainen Oyj
Nordic Enterprise Mobility Forum Stockholm, Feb 9th 2017
Setting Technology Trends into
the Strategic Context

2. • Been exposed to IT since 1960’s; grown among computer manuals
• Cleanroom programming at 1978… (Paper, pen, and peer reviews!)
• …from Commodore 64 (1983) and assembly language programming to Master’s degree in IT
• Experience, training and certificates in Project/Portfolio Management, Enterprise Architecture,
Process/Quality Management, IT Service Management etc.
• Nokia Networks R&D, Capgemini, Accenture, government, manufacturing, energy, logistics,
construction
• Currently leading an international GDPR Program across eight countries
• Currently pursuing a degree in adult/professional education/pedagogy (free time hobby)
• Interested in individual and organisational learning and competence, how to build it
• ’How to create digital winners, services, companies and teams’
• During past year, spent 700 hours studying human history ( free time hobby)
– 100 ooo B.C. to present day
– Biology, sociology, economics, politics, science, technology
• Looking +30 years into future of society, business, science, technology
About Speaker – Short Bio

3. • In Olympics (Pierre De Coubertin):
– The important thing in life is not the triumph but the
struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to
have fought well.
• In Digital Age Business (M. Rehberger)
– Essential is not the triumph and fair fight, but the complete
and utter destruction of the competitors, by attracting and
stealing all their customers, and, as an inevitable
consequence, world dominance.
• Winner takes all
Wake Up Call

4. A 'Typical' Company, Strategy and
Technology?

5. • 83% of companies do not have a bare minimum of ’strategy’ (differentiation defined)
• Personnel do not know/remember company strategy: Top management 87%, middle
management 92%, workers 98%
• 70% of business/IT-projects fail, half of them ’catastrophically’
• 70% of business transformations fail
• 84% of digital transformations fail
• 45% of companies haven’t nominated anyone in executive team responsible for digital
development
• 68% of executives do not see digitalisation as an enabler to international competition
• 51% of executives think IT will not affect their business in any significant way
• …and the list goes on…
Research, Statistics Highlights All public and available in the Internet

6. Comparison of Organisations’ Capability to
Leverage IT, by 90/10 Rule (by M. Rehberger)
Typical/Average (90%) Best (10%)
Management team understands, in
principle and practise, how IT can be used
to create competitive advantage
Seriously challenged Totally
Strategy process is continuous No, strategy process is a ceremonial
activity repeated in intervals of 1-5 years
Yes, strategic thinking is everyday work,
and it is being updated as new
information about competitive
environment unfolds
Management team includes IT view in
strategic analysis
No. IT is considered as an operational
aspect, to be addressed in lower levels of
organisation
Yes, management team seeks
opportunities to improve business
performance by orders of magnitude
with IT
Management team leads technology
investments, ensuring they implement a
balanced, high performing asset
No, (design of) technology investments
are delegated to unit, departmental, or
even personal level, creating a low
performing, costly liability (traditional IT
legacy)
Yes, strategy defines a framework of
development priorities and
dependencies, directly from the targeted
business capabilities
Experimental development is delivering
valuable results
No, experiments are poorly coordinated
and managed, they seldom lead to high
performing operational processes
Yes, opportunistic experimental R&D is
actively pursued and carefully managed,
there is a robust process carrying
innovations to operational production
Company will benefit from new
technological advancements, e.g. AI.
No, organisation may not have
competence to even try, let alone
succeed leveraging new technologies;
the gap to the best companies will grow
Yes, new technologies will open new
unseen possibilities to completely level
the competition

7. Inverted: Setting Strategy into the
Context of Technology Trends

8. • IT is developing rapidly: Ever stronger tools (e.g. cognitive
computing) are becoming affordable
• IT, when intelligently applied, can radically improve
business performance May change supply/value chains,
ecosystems - ’Disruption’, ’Domino effect’
• IT enables scalable growth and expansion , even globally
• Investments to automation drive businesses to seek growth
and expansion, even globally
Premises

9. Brace for impact
• The question is not if, but how, when, and by whom a market will be
disrupted; thru whichever causal chain
• Every company should plan their strategies beyond the future disruptions
Technological development provides critical input for strategy
• Technology must be considered as a major external strategic force
• Strategy must recognise disruptions, and be defined on a level above
them
Conclusions

10. • For the purposes of this presentation, let’s define:
– ’Strategy’:
• The key idea and logic on how to preserve and grow assets
• Recognises the life cycle of an ’opportunity space’ and the
corresponding business operation
• Defines the relevant Business Portfolio at any point of time
’Strategy’: Definition
Dynamic Environmental
Analysis ( ’War Games’)
Opportunity Space(s) Strategy Strategic Portfolio/Program (s)
Most likely scenarios across
industries, ecosystems;
considering impacts of
technology, among other forces
What kind of services/products
To what kind of customers
Points out key business
capabilities and performance
needed
Develop targeted capabilities

11. • It is impossible to define strategy when everything is
changing so fast
– Simply not true! Those with the required competence, are
doing it
– It is only a matter of competence, not resources
• You should replace strategy work with experiments
– Absolutely no. Experimenting is a tactical measure where
losses need to be controlled. Strategy is needed to give
direction to experiments.
– What is the other name for strategic experimenting…?
Common Arguments – And Counterarguments

12. Strategic Context – Which Journey
Are You on?

13. Strategic Context –
When Disruption Anticipated
Current
Business
Operation
CurrentOpportunity Space
New
Business
Operation
FutureOpportunity Space
Develop from scratch, ’IndustryGrade Startup’
Milking strategy; Run down Terminate
Disruption

14. Some Key Factors in Defining Strategic Context
B2C Bulk
Strong
brand
Develop new business capability
to new opportunity space,
beyond disruption
Milk & run down legacy business
until and thru disruption (end)
Assume no disruption, carry on
B2B
Unique
product
Weak
brand
No brand
Gradual transformation of
legacy business until and thru
disruption
Physical
product
Pure
online
service
Time/place
bound
service

15. Design Directives for New
Competitive Capabilities

16. …with any of these options:
• (1) Excellent selection, excellent online experience, but…
– high prices, unreliable and slow delivery
• (2) Excellent online experience, excellent delivery options, but…
– poor selection
• (3) Excellent selection, excellent onsite customer service, but…
– no online access
• How are you going to compete with an ’amazon’ in your own
industry?
Would You Challenge Amazon

17. • Design your future operation directly to be
best-in-class in every perspective, exploiting
all available technology supporting that goal –
that’s the new baseline
Design Directives for New Business Capabilities

18. The Fundamental Principles of Business/IT by
M. Rehberger
Principle Adoption
#1: All existing information, and any
information derived from it, can be
shared, with anyone, anywhere, anytime,
real time
Already successfully exploited by best
companies for decades - completely
missed by most
#2: The significant, even disruptive
impact of IT to business is delivered thru
the standardisation and automation of
efficient and seamless end-to-end
processes thru companies, extended
supply chains and ecosystems
Already successfully exploited by best
companies for decades – completely
missed by most
#3: Cognitive computing outperforms
humans in most tasks
Already successfully exploited by a
handful of best companies; becoming a
critically dividing capability - will cause
major casualties

19. Summary

20. • Ensure the necessary competence in management team, invest
continuous effort into maintaining 24/7 up-to-date strategy
• Define strategy beyond disruption - Winner takes all
• Design your future operation directly to be best-in-class in every
perspective, exploiting all available technology supporting that goal
• Beware gradual, continuous ’digital transformation’ if your target is
revolutional – Consider setting up another path, completely free from
legacy systems, processes, organisation and culture
• Control your investments into the ’dying cow’ - Focus on technologies
that support minimising cost structure and managed run down of the
operation towards end of life cycle
• Catch up with the basics, and keep an eye on cognitive computing
How to Prevail in The Digital Age Competition

21. World Peace!
ThankYou!