5 KEYS TO

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
CONTENTS
1. The route to transformation

2. Executive support is critical - but not enough

3. Start small, celebrate fast and scale faster

4. Embrace failing forward

5. Early adopters always win

6. Management of Change is critical for success

7. Start your journey

8. About TrendMiner

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1 THE ROUTE
TO TRANSFORMATION
INTRODUCTION
Digital transformation is everywhere. You can see it
emerging in marketing, sales, HR, supply chain and
finance - but also in domains such as plant operations
and maintenance. Digital transformation is opening up
new opportunities, challenging the traditional methods
and changing the way we think and act.

In essence, it is a massive disruption and for companies

that want to become the new leaders it offers a
remarkable opportunity. Digital maturity equals 26%
more profitability, 9% more growth and 9% higher
market valuations according to Accenture and MIT.

These are promising numbers, but according to a recent

article in Forbes, 84% of companies currently fail to
achieve digital transformation.

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BREAK DOWN BARRIERS
At TrendMiner, we assist many global process
manufacturing companies in their journey to
transformation.
Our software helps to deliver the operational intelligence
that is needed to inform continuous improvement, but we
know that software alone is not enough. Thats why we
also actively support our customers in achieving next
generation productivity and creating a digital enabled
workforce.
Due to this core focus, we spend a lot of time talking to
potential customers to understand their needs with
relation to transformation and digitalization. Those
discussions frequently spark new ideas to further
improve our software, but they also reveal some
recurring trends and challenges.
The best way to overcome these barriers to successful
transformation is by using proven best practices.
5 KEYS TO SUCCESS
In this feature, Im going to dive deeper into some of the
most important and interesting concepts that are crucial
to achieving a successful digital transformation, such as:
1. Executive support is critical but not enough
2. Start small, celebrate faster and scale faster
3. Embrace the concept of failing forward
4. Technology adoption is only going faster and faster
5. Management of change is critical for success
Some of these may seem like counterintuitive or
irrelevant considerations, but in practice they are not.
By understanding how these concepts affect your
transformation initiatives, you can increase your chance
of success more easily than you may imagine.
Bert Baeck, CEO & Founder of TrendMiner
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IT IS NO LONGER
A QUESTION OF
WHETHER OR NOT
TO TRANSFORM
The only question is when
to get started and how to
ensure success.

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2 EXECUTIVE
SUPPORT
IS CRITICAL - BUT NOT ENOUGH
USE YOUR ENTIRE TEAM
There is no question that having buy-in from the top is a
must, but in addition, the whole organization should be
engaged in the journey.

To initiate a successful transformation, decision-makers

need to believe in the potential value of analytics and
operational intelligence. However, a frequent challenge
to this support is the tendency of leaders to demand a
proven Return on Investment before being willing to
commit budget to a new and speculative program. Often
the economic questions that leaders ask cannot be
directly answered at the onset. When this approach of
proof before investment is pursued, it can easily
become a showstopper killing the potential opportunity.

Visionary leaders can instead support the beginning

groundwork by helping to tear down internal barriers and
supporting the potential gains. By promoting
transformation as a positive change for all, executives
can attract bottom-up acceptance throughout the
organization and this is the key to success.

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 KEY 1:
TRANSFORMATION WORKS BEST
WHEN ALL LEVELS OF THE
ORGANIZATION ARE ENGAGED

Instead of only pushing a vision down, top leaders will

identify champions and advocates who can help them
generate momentum through cross-functional teams.

These teams can be established and with the visible

support of the executive, can be given a clear mandate
to get things done and sufficient resources to enable the
program. Their responsibilities within the transformation
program can form a part of their yearly KPIs, formalizing
their contributions in a transparent way.

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3 START SMALL
CELEBRATE FAST AND
SCALE FASTER
START WITH SUCCESS
From a strategy standpoint, starting small and
celebrating fast with an eye to scale quickly is the best
formula to implement change.

This approach offers multiple benefits, such as:

A smaller first scope makes starting the project

easier to initiate.
A quick success is encouraging. It attracts
momentum and gets more people on board.
An early proof of achievement helps overcome
speculation about total value.
The most successful parts of the initial project can
be copied to all subsequent scopes.
Learnings from the initial project can be quickly
applied in future to optimize larger scale success.

The single greatest advantage of this approach is the

flywheel effect, and this is the key to scaling fast.

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 MAKE IT POSSIBLE
When a transformation program is first described, it can
be difficult for stakeholders to imagine it in practice, like
being shown a huge static wheel and told that it could be
set in motion. However, when that wheel starts to move
even a little you can imagine it spinning faster, and it
becomes easier to believe the next step is possible.
Likewise, the credibility that a quick success generates
makes every subsequent step (such as scaling out to
multiple plants) much easier to achieve.

KEY 2:
DELIVER A POSITIVE RESULT SO THAT
OTHERS CAN BELIEVE IN THE VISION
AND WORK TOGETHER
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TRANSFORMATION IS A STATE OF MIND

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4 EMBRACE
FAILING FORWARD
FACILITATE CHANGE
For many people, the word failure is a negative so why
offer this as a best practice for success? Simply put, its
because failing forward is not about embracing failing; it
is about achieving success.

Failing forward is also called intelligent failure, and it is a

concept that aims for innovation, agility, learning and
resilience all of which are advantages during
transformation. Essentially, when you accept that (small)
failure may inevitably occur, you make room for
innovation and change.

By removing the fear of failure, organizations can

respond more productively, learning more from mistakes
and making greater steps forward faster.

So this best practice is about cultivating an attitude that

facilitates change.

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BE OPEN TO CHANGE
There is a big difference between the DNA of many large
corporations and start-ups. For start-ups, it may be
easier to embrace failing fast and often in order to fail
forward, because they are constrained by limited
resources, so they are more open to risk. Within the
culture of many large corporations, failure is often
avoided. Such companies will go to great lengths to
avoid the risk of even partial failure, but without the
opportunities to learn from mistakes, their progress can
be hampered.
When it comes to digital transformation, an open attitude
to uncertainty becomes crucial to success. There is still
a lot of hype around the promise of big data, analytics
and the connected enterprise, and no-one has all the
answers yet. The benefits cannot always be neatly
quantified upfront but if the fear of (partial) failure is too
strong, then transformation programs will be killed
before they can begin.
TEST YOUR SUCCESS
Failing forward does not mean taking unnecessary risks.
As described earlier, it is better to start small (and be
open to learning) than to begin with an oversized
waterfall project in which failure cannot be tolerated.
Provide the opportunity to learn during transformation.
Test a hypothesis and reject, iterate or adjust it as you
go. The moment all the assumptions are validated, there
is nothing to stop you from scaling up fast.
KEY 3:
DONT ALLOW FEAR TO STOP
THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
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5 EARLY ADOPTERS
ALWAYS WIN
DONT FALL BEHIND
The pace of innovation and the adoption of new
technologies are only speeding up. It took decades for
the telephone to reach 50% of households, but it took
five years or less for cell phones to accomplish the
same. Today, large companies need to anticipate new
technology trends even faster to stay successful.

According to the Global Technology Adoption Index

(GTAI), there is a low risk and large reward when
adopting new technology.

This global survey illustrates an interesting statistic:

companies that are actively exploiting analytics, big
data, cloud and mobility have on average 50% higher
revenue growth rates than organizations who have not
adopted these technologies.

These same organizations also reported that one or

more of those new key technologies were responsible
for several other areas of company progress, including
increased efficiencies and organizational growth.
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 KEY 4:
THE TIME IS NOW Innovation is unlikely to slow down; if anything, it will
probably accelerate further. So dont wait to transform.
DONT WAIT TO START BENEFITING Start leveraging new technologies as quickly as possible
it is your key to future success.
FROM NEW TECHNOLOGY

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THE QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER THE
DIGITAL REVOLUTION APPLIES TO YOU
The question is when you will embrace it and take action

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6 MANAGEMENT
OF CHANGE IS CRITICAL TO
SUCCESS
HELP PEOPLE TRANSFORM
As mentioned earlier, transformation cannot only be
pushed top-down you need to get everyone on board.
By delivering early success, you can get people to
believe in the vision and engage with the initiative. But
once youve generated that momentum, youll need to
ensure that everyone keeps pulling in the same
direction. To achieve that, a plan is needed.

This is where having an effective Management of

Change program comes in.

A Management of Change program is the key to shifting

behavior and reshaping organizational culture during
transformation. Rather than describing a vision, such a
program actively helps people to change.

By focusing on a finite initiative, the way things work

inside the company is shifted. If that shift is in line with
your digital transformation program, it will assist in
moving you forward.

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 CHANGING MINDS
According to the Mckinsey influence model, there are 4
aspects that need to be tackled if you want that people
change their behavior.

They will change if:

They have a proper insight and understanding of

KEY 5:
TAKE CONTROL OF CHANGE
AND PLAN TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS
why to change. They need to agree to a certain
extent that the change is meaningful to them.
They have developed the right talent and skills so
they have the capabilities to behave in a new way
and to be successful. Training, on-boarding and
academy models need to be designed in an
optimal way
They see role modeling and culture change.
Change requires that people see that their leaders,
peers and reports all behave in the new way.
There is reinforcing with formal mechanisms. The
structures, processes and systems support the
desired change.

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18
7 START
YOUR JOURNEY
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
Now that you understand the 5 keys to digital
transformation, you can see how they work together in
combination, each synergistically adding to the other.

When you plan to manage change as part of a vision of

a new (transformed future), you can enlist the support of
your leaders and stakeholders throughout the
organization to begin with a small project. Having
overcome the fear of potential failure in that initial
project, you can move faster to start benefiting from new
technologies and overcome the internal barriers to
success. And by approaching the journey to
transformation with the help of proven best practices,
your company will open the door to previously hidden
opportunities for growth.

If youre ready to begin, or youd like more information

about how TrendMiner can support your transformation
initiative, start a conversation with us. Our team is on
hand to help you achieve success.

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 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK
The perception that change is too difficult and expensive is the leading
cause for companies to remain hesitant of new technologies.

Today theres an affordable self-service analytics solution that enables

data-driven transformation and improved profitability:

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8 TRENDMINER
WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO
SELF-SERVICE ANALYTICS
TrendMiner is a software company that provides self-
service analytics for the process industry. Our software
helps users to analyze, monitor and predict asset and
process performance.

We put the power of the data into the hands of the

people who understand what it means: the subject
matter experts. By providing them with a self-service
analytics solution, we help them to turn their data into
actionable insights.

TrendMiner was created by engineers who saw the need

for specialized analytics for the process industry. They
developed a user-friendly software that meets the high
demands of time-series industrial analytics - but is
designed to be used by non-data scientists.

TrendMiner is dedicated to our customers' success.

That's why our team is dedicated to helping you every
step of the way.

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CONTACT US
If you have a question about this topic, or youd like to
discuss your specific situation with us, contact your
nearest TrendMiner office to start the conversation.

We also have a network of global partners who can

provide local support in your area.

TrendMiner Head Office

Kempische Steenweg 297, Corda Building 4, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium
Phone: +32 11 26 38 30
Email: info@trendminer.com

TrendMiner Netherlands: Takkebijsters 57A, 4817BL Breda, Netherlands

TrendMiner Germany: Hoffmannallee 41-51, D-47533 Kleve, Deutschland

TrendMiner New York: 1177 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, USA

TrendMiner Houston: 5444 Westheimer Rd, Suite 1082, Houston, TX 77056, USA

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MORE INFORMATION
ABOUT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?

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