What is Digital Transformation with Ingram Micro - CXOTalk 739

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How can we be better? We're starting  from our CEO and every single employee.  To attract the best talent, you need a vision. We are speaking with Sanjib Sahoo.   He is the executive vice president and  chief digital officer of Ingram Micro.  We are a $49 billion revenue company operating  in 160 countries all across the world   powered by more than 35,000 global associates.  If you look at all of the technology, the brands   (leading brands, emerging brands), we are the  brand behind those businesses. We support tens of   thousands of customers and vendors in technology. There's another interesting statistic, Michael,  

to understand the scale of Ingram Micro. More than  80% of the technology in the world is touched by   Ingram Micro. In the last 40 years, there may  not be a single day in the technology world that   Ingram Micro was not being used, so that's the  way to understanding the scale of Ingram Micro. 

I'm really excited to be at  Ingram Micro. It's a huge company.  Give us an overview of the  nature of your business.  We are a technology distribution company.  We take from the biggest brands – hardware,  

software, services, cloud consumption  – and distribute it to the resellers,   value-added resellers, and customers. That's what we do; we distribute technology.   We're one of the largest technology ecosystems in  the world. We distribute all kinds of technology:   hardware, software, subscription,  services, cloud, everything. 

You are the chief digital officer of Ingram  Micro, and so of course, I have to ask what   does being the chief digital officer mean  at Ingram Micro, and where does the CDO role   fit into the Ingram Micro world? In the chief digital officer role,   I report closely and report to our CEO Paul Bay,  our new CEO, and I spend hours and hours with him   all the time talking. The CDO role is a strategic  role where my mandate is to digitize all of Ingram   Micro, you know, figuring it out everything  that we do – our products, our services – and   create new digital models, create new customer  experiences, modernize some of our technology,   and really create the newer Ingram  Micro and the way we are going, so   how we serve our customers, how we serve  our vendors. Not only create technology.  There is one difference – I'll tell you, Michael  – that we believe, and I personally believe, that   digital or the CDO role is not  just about technology. It is also   an amalgamation of business value and technology. There is a word about digital transformation, but   I also believe more in digital operation like how  do you create a digital operating model, how do   you take all the technology, how do you take all  the processes, how you combine together and figure   out a way forward by data and digital to create  new routes to market and show tangible value in   terms of EBITDA or revenue growth. That's where my  role fits in to create that intersection with both   technology, digital technology, creating platforms  with the product side, digital operations (how   we create the value in the businesses  using digital technology), and also then   rolling out the new changes in a communication  route that's fitting together the new digital   ecosystem and the products we are building. That term, digital operating model, is quite  

interesting. Would you elaborate  for us on what you mean by that?  We talk about digital  transformation generally, right?   The digital transformation generally means that  if there's something that needs to be transformed,   there is a start date and an end date. But in my mind, digital transformation is a   spirit. It's a mindset. It's continuous. Every company has some assets.  

Now, how mature they are, we can argue about  that. Some have more mature assets. Some have   less mature assets. Some have better products. You have to continuously figure out,   with the combination of processes (the  digital technology and assets you have)   improve your operating model in the way you  actually serve your customers or your partners   and create business value but also figure  out always new ways to get to the market,   stay ahead of the competition,  leapfrog them, and be prepared.  The change can come from anywhere, Michael. For  example, every company has either a performance   gap or an opportunity gap. But if you look at the  opportunity gap, whenever competition comes from,   the operating model is taking those assets  and creating as if it is an operating unit   and continuously operating with a digital mindset. As your digital assets mature, and you can show  

value in actual books, you are transforming.  Instead of terming it as transformation with   a start date and end date, I believe in how do we  create a mindset and a spirit with a new digital   operating model which is different and it is there  today. You don't need a start date and end date.  Would it be correct, in your view, to say  that digital transformation, therefore,   is about rethinking the business and  its operations from the point of view of   what's best for our customers? Is that a  correct way of looking at it, in your view?  Absolutely. The digital transformation  starts with the business value or outcome,   which we predict will happen, and ends  with a tangible business value and outcome.   You fit technology in between. It doesn't start with technology   (in my mind) and it doesn't only end with  technology. It starts with the business  

value and outcome and a result that you think  you can demonstrate. You end or show the value   that you get, and you fit technology in between. Now, there are different ways to create value.   It can be you're improving your automation  and improving EBITDA by automating processes.   It can be that you are creating a new platform  with machine learning, AI, and new experience   that service your customers better and create  a new experience for your customers, or it can   be that you are creating a new platform for your  suppliers. But there's always a value proposition  

which you think you will get, and then  you have to get that value realized   and then use technology processes to do that. One other thing, Michael. It's very important to   focus on why. You don't jump into doing  something digital or creating a new product.   You figure out why and start with the customer  journey, you know, how you serve your customers.  Your focus starts with why. Then you  figure out what are we building. Then you  

figure out the how (the technology and the  pieces). But I always say to end with a wow.  There has to be a wow in a digital transformation  or digital platform where you really delight   your end-users, your customers, or your partners.  That's the wow because that's when you figure out,   okay, it's easy to go that way. Everything you're describing makes  

perfect sense. You start with the customer. You  start with, "Why are we doing this? What is the   expected business value and the outcomes?" Then  we apply technology to help realize these goals.  Here's my question: Isn't starting with the  customer kind of obvious and what every successful   business has been doing, probably since the Stone  Age, whether using writing on the cave walls   up until now? What's actually different? Yes, you always start with the customer. At   the same time, tying everything together that you  have. Organizations are different, so there is a  

maturity of how you serve your customers today. There are also limitations of your landscape   which prohibit how you serve your customers.  It might be you have legacy technology;   you have legacy platforms. It might be that  you are not utilizing data the right way.   It might be that there are too many diversities of  the business that doesn't allow you to serve back,   but there are a lot of limitations. The one thing is that even if you   start with the customer, you have to  figure out, in a very iterative way,   how do you take all those barriers out. Today,  technology has evolved to move your barriers.   Technology has evolved so you can test more, a  faster way, of what works and what doesn't work. 

With the advent of cloud, you can push  solutions much faster. With the advent   of open-source, you can do that. Yes, you start with the customers,   but then you tie your processes in your  business. You have processes internally.   You have processes of how you go to  market. You have processes in operations.  You also have to tie in, Michael, three  areas. One is, yes, the voice of the customer.   You also have to take in the voice of the business  and the operations, like feedback loops. What are  

businesses doing? Take those operations and voice. Then you also have to figure out the focus on   value. One thing I'm very, very  particular is how you do it.  We cannot just build another  shiny new technology or platform.  

We cannot just do cloud for the sake of doing  cloud because it's shiny. We cannot do machine   learning for the sake of doing machine learning. Focus on value. As long as you realize value   can be revenue generation—it can be EBITDA,  margin, whatever way—that's very important.  Then would it be accurate to say that the  customer is your end goal and providing   those relationships, removing friction (as  you described), whatever the goals are,   but operations are the mechanism through which we  get there and, therefore, digital transformation   (as you're describing it) needs to encompass  that entire end-to-end business lifecycle?  Exactly. Let me give you  an example of Ingram Micro.  We cannot just focus on only the customers'  ideas. We start with the customers,   understand the demand that we generate from the  customers, how we serve our customers better. 

But you cannot just serve the customers'  understanding without figuring out a better way   how you serve your suppliers  and your vendors better because   that's source. We have to figure out a better  way, the process that our associates use.  As you said, it has to be an amalgamation  of everything. Your processes,   your vendors, your partners all tied together  with customers being at the top of your value   chain to figure out a way to interconnect  everything to serve your customers better.  We have a great question from Twitter. This is  from Arsalan Khan. He's a regular listener and   he asks wonderful questions. Arsalan, thank  you for your questions and for listening. 

Arsalan says, "We talk about value and the value  of data. How do executives across the company   view data as a valued asset which has the same  value regardless of who is using it?" I think   the broad issue he's raising is the issue of data,  thinking about data as an asset, and does that   value change depending on where you are in the  company? How do you think about data as an asset?  I think data, in my opinion, is the most  important asset of digital transformation.   Why? Because I think data fuels the whole  digital transformation in a way that you can make   decision-making easier. You can have a data-driven  product model. You can use machine learning and   AI to understand the whole ecosystem better. For example, let's say we want to serve our   customers in a very segmented way, understanding  (in every segment) the nature and behavior of   the customers. We want to build recommended  solutions and match them to the customers.  

How do we do that? That's where data  fits in; machine learning fits in.  Second of all, you want to create an  operational oversight about everything,   globally. That's what we're doing right  now. You cannot do that without data.  Data is the backbone. Even in Ingram, data is a  backbone of the entire digital transformation, the   digital operation that we are creating right now. It starts with data and data is the fuel. We   call it Data Engine Experience. It starts with data. It starts with harmonizing  

data, looking at data, creating machine learning,  AI. Then we call it engines, which are business   functionalities powered by that data. Then  these chained together, we create a frictionless   experience for our customers, for our vendors. Even in the company, I think data sits at the   top in the sense that even our executives look  at data and make decisions. Data helps us make   decisions. Data helps us make our go-to-market  strategies better and the entire ecosystem better. 

To answer your question, in my opinion,  you cannot have a digital transformation   without data. It's the most important  asset for digital transformation.  That being the case, you spoke earlier about the  spirit and the mindset, which implies the culture.   What happens in a business that is  transforming where, yes, digital   data is the core asset but they're not used to  thinking about data that way? What do they do?  You have data, but it's also important how you  strategically use data. Let's take an example,   culturally, how we do it, especially taking  Ingram as an example. When you're doing digital   products or building solutions—as I said before,  Michael—focus on why it's really important.  We do a lot of design thinking, so you bring  different groups of people together. You figure  

out the problem that you're solving. You look at  data as a touchpoint figuring out how you make   your decisions about the problems and solutions  you are building because if you take emotions   out and focus on facts, that data helps you. Then what do you is, together, understand   different aspects of the journey in a 360 way  from the aspect of customers to the aspect of   operations, from everything: finance, operations,  customers, business. We look at holistically  

how you are doing that entire journey. As you then iterate around, as you start   building the products and looking at things, then  data helps you in figuring out adoption metrics.   What is working? What is not  working? It keeps us honest.  At the same time, take an example, Michael. We  are building a solution. Without that detail,  

you cannot understand the pain points  of the frontline managers or operations.  You look at and figure out, "Wow, really?  This actually takes such a long time   with so much manual to actually do that?" That  is an intelligence for us to figure out, "Okay,   let's solve the problem." But if I keep going back to the first   one I told you, that when you look at digital,  there are two parts of the coin. I am very,   very passionate about this. One, I call  the value creation. One is value capture.  Value creation is, yes, you are building  technology with all these inputs and data and   modern technology. Yes, you are creating digital  assets which have a promise of creating value. But   if you do not complete the other side with data  intelligence and business process transformation,   operations, then it's incomplete. You have to have the entire transformation  

to both sides. Start with value creation and also  iterative value capture so that you can show that,   yes, this is how you are creating true,  tangible value to make it a true strategic   agenda in the company. We can talk about  digital transformation, digital products,   but to make a truly strategic delivery,  that value capturing is extremely important.  Where does this idea of mindset,  culture, spirit come into play   with all of this, everything you're describing? It comes into play about two things. One, rallying   the organization about the vision. Vision is,  yes, we are digitizing with a digital strategy,   but we are going to a better way to serve our  customers. You are creating a new strategy. 

First of all, create that culture of collaboration  with all your customers within the company,   across the organization – number one. Number  two, you have to rally the organization   with what you are building. Basically, I talked about design thinking.   We talked about communication. Communication  is very, very important as we employ change,   employ change management. Building the  story about how this will help you,   how this new platform (new tool, or technology)  will help you across the globe. Figuring out a way   of creating a plan that de-risks and balances  the plan of operation that doesn't disrupt. 

I call it Perform as you Transform. You  cannot only perform or only transform.   You have to do both. Creating that  balanced plan is extremely important.  Also, taking the feedback loops. I call it  empathy, Michael. Within digital transformation,   this is my favorite line. I call it communicating  with compassion but execute with passion.  

Really talk to everybody about, "What are your  pain points? How can we solve them?" rather than,   "This is a new tool and platform. Use it." We have to understand how it creates value   internally, tell that story, and make them  understand to create that spirit and mindset.   Once you get everybody hooked on from the start,  the mindset is important. This is where, again,  

there is no technology, IT, or business. This has to be together, joined in the hip   from the start so it becomes one joint strategy.  It's not another shiny tool or technology, but   we are working on it together. That's  where the spirit and mindset comes in.  This then implies that an important part  of digital transformation is the breaking   down of silos (whether it's information  silos, culture silos, product silos,   what have you)? Is that correct, in your view? Yeah, absolutely. It's breaking silos and joining  

everybody together with a common spirit about: How  can we be better? How can we serve our customers   better? How can we be better at our operations?  And overall, how can we be a better company?  It comes from the top. Paul, our CEO, is  extremely about serving our customers better and   strategically focusing on digital transformation,  making sure we can do this better. It comes from   the top and every great organization has to spend  time to communicate, do demos of the platform, sit   with the frontline groups, take their feedback.  That's how it all goes together. That's how   you break the silos with bringing them together. I realize that the focus for you is not primarily,  

not first and foremost, technology  but rather the business outcomes and   the value. But you've referred to the  platform several times, so can you share   with us the importance of the technology and the  platform in this kind of digital transformation?  It's both, Michael. We are working on  technology and platform and business value.  For example, our focus, one of the focuses is  we are doing a lot of work on data, building   global data leads, and harmonizing data. We  are building engines. We are building machine   learning libraries. We are building new customer  platforms, experience platforms, which we talked  

about experience, our vendor experience platforms.  There's a lot of work happening in building   technology, modernizing technology, improving  our customer experience through this platform.  The point I was trying to make was that if you are  building a platform and then waiting for it to get   adoption and adopt it in the business and change,  yeah, it might work. It works sometimes. But  

my philosophy is to do it together. Engage the model about, if the platform is built,   how is it going to improve our operations,  both in EBITDA and tangible terms,   how can we have a different go-to-market, and then  proof of business. Bring that value proposition   from day one and then jointly iterate the  cycles of product development. Basically,  

you get the advantage of having feedback  loops and input from the operations'   and customers' feedback about building the  technology on the product. At the same time,   you can make sure that, when it is developed,  you're not waiting for a long tail adoption.  The second point is, Michael, really  when you are architecting. We put a lot   of focus on architecture. For example, we are  architecting solutions in such a way on cloud,   building data clouds, building API-based,  asynchronous ecosystems that can talk to   each other, making sure that we have  different data distribution techniques,   making sure our customer experience platform is  self-learning, data integration framework based,   machine learning-based, but then changed  based on segmentation and the persona. 

These help us to pivot different ways and  architect because the market is changing all   the time so that is where technology comes  in. Yes, technology is a huge power there,   but you wrap it up with business value.  That's how both of them come together.  Shall we jump over to LinkedIn and take a few  questions? We have some great questions on   LinkedIn. I'll just take these in order. This is from Anshuman Das. He asks,   "How do you measure the maturity of digital  operations at Ingram Micro, and can you share the   metrics that you measure?" It's a great question. There are different ways to measure metrics and   adoption. We call it a financial model. Without  giving too many details over here, let me give you   a broader framework that could be used to measure. When you are building a technology or a platform,  

you can measure changes like volume against  your revenue input. You could have margin.   You could have pricing. There are  different ways to measure the metrics.  What you do is figure out what incremental  revenue this solution can bring   through one digital channel. You can measure.  Initially, if you are a traditional business,   how much is your digital business, how much is  digitization and not. Figure out the revenue and,   as you automate, your operating income should  be better because you're automating more at a   higher EBITDA than a traditional business.  Generally, it's how you think about it.  If you look at different ways to access, for  example, let's say you're building a solution for   providing recommendations for your customers. Now,  every single recommendation will be an incremental  

volume acquisition for your customers which is  purely through the channel, and that may be at   a higher margin because you are not putting OPEX  or human costs behind it. Then you can figure out,   okay, if you grow this business at a  lesser operation cost, that is profitable.  There is no one single metric. What we do is  figuring out every single engine. There is a  

financial model that we are building to measure  success and how you can make sure that that works.  It brings to the point about the whole digital  operations and digital operating model that   if you think there is a shadow business by itself,   then it'll start measuring the revenue  flowing through your digital channels,   the operating income, and what are the levers  through which you can show that the operating   income is improving at a level better than  over revenue. That's the way we measure it.  In summary, you're looking at  a range of really traditional   business outcomes—including revenue, (I'm sure)  customer satisfaction, a whole range of things—but   they're not digital transformation metrics per  se. They are business metrics, value metrics. 

Yes. In the value metrics, you figure out what  is your access channel and how you measure it.   There are different access channels. Some  can be pure digital. Some can be blended   because one of the traditional  challenges, I know, is figuring it out.  Figure how to measure how much is truly  digital and how much is an operating   improvement. To start that model before, as a  measurement, when you are building the product   with that analytics model setup is easier so  that you can measure it as a product is built. 

The second point is (to answer your question)  that as you are building the digital products,   inject the measure of adoption there so that  when it is live, you can measure those analytics   and improvement. But the bottom line is very  simple. If you are doing everything right,   you will see the results in your books somewhere  which shows, yes, everything we are digitizing,   operating, is improving our EBITDA, margin,  or revenue. It's as simple as that because   there is no ... [indiscernible,  00:26:26] if we truly do digital right. 

We have another really interesting question from  LinkedIn. You can see that I try to prioritize   the questions that come in from LinkedIn and  Twitter. Now they're starting to stack up,   so we'll get to folks' questions. Steve Jones on LinkedIn, Chief data   architect at Capgemini, asks this question: "How  do you get people to understand new outcomes   when they are dealing with legacy systems?" People can visualize the experience much better   than just a PowerPoint or story. Giving them demos  of what the end experience will look like, showing   prototypes of the product that you are building,   giving them examples, taking one pain point  of their day-to-day life of an associate or a   manager or an operations, and showing them (in the  prototype), "Look, this is your daily life today.  

This is what you could do. This is how you do  a process today. This is what is possible."  Showing them the art of possible in a  way that excites them, motivates them   is very useful. One of the things that we do  is a lot of demos of our experience platform   we are building and the product teams do  lots of demos and communication explaining.  Both ways, right? When we are doing design  thinking, we understand that feedback.   Absorb that with empathy maps and do that. What I have noticed is that, in that approach,   it helps a lot in creating excitement,  understanding, and with empathy rather   than talking about, "Yes, we are doing this  technology," because yes, technology is important,   but larger organizations really do not hear  you use technology A or B, which is okay. 

You can build the best technology platforms in the  world. If it is not used and driving the business,   it's pointless. Really starting with the users,  demoing their experience, and engaging them in a   way that works – to that point. Really, you are very  

rigorous, it sounds like, and very disciplined in  terms of always reverting back to the core point,   which is, where is the business value that we're  creating? Are we doing something materially   different that we can measure with customers? Is  there a financial result? It sounds like you're   really maniacally focused there. It's very important because other transformations   fail and, in my mind – and I don't know the magic  bullet – my understanding is that if we focus   on value from the start and work on it together  with people who are from the business, take them,   engage them, have the message – I call it an  informal communication network – to have that   network in every company spread the message  about the art of possible with digitization,   engage them from the start, and really measure  value, that's how you do true transformation.  Yes, a lot of the time we feel we have a shiny  algorithm, a shiny object. But if you dive  

deep into looking at the balance sheet and the  P&L, where does it show, you can't find them.  I think my point is, let's start finding that in  the books. It becomes a true strategic lever, not   just something that we are trying to figure if it  works. If you start by solving the pain points and  

the business value and create the models early,  then you are not really focused on adoption.  I don't now believe the word adoption because  adoption means you first build a technology   and then you are looking at adoption. I believe  in operations. Build technology and operations   in a continuous spirit every day so that  you are improving every day how you operate   using technology that you have.  That, I think, is my mantra.  You know I will say, last week on this show, we  had a professor from INSEAD, the business school   in Europe. He was talking about innovation  and, like you, really emphasized collaboration   with customers, co-creation of value, focus on  operations and, like you, he really emphasized the   importance of listening to the frontline  workers because those folks are the ones   who are actually talking with customers, and  they know what customers are experiencing.  Absolutely. I think the feedback loops, the voice  of the business, the voice of the customers,  

doing design thinking, focusing on why, and  starting there is a very important aspect.  If you build technology or product in a vacuum  (because technology changes all the time),   too often we get lost. I agree 100%, and that's  why we are starting, in Ingram, from the start.  If you look at it, we now have the collaboration  we started. We do a lot of design thinking.   Our organization is hungry for change. One of the things I love about Ingram is  

everybody, every single day, is not about,  "Hey, this is changing." It's about how can   we be better, and it's starting from our CEO  and every single employee. That motivates me   every day to come to work because how can we  achieve it better, how can we change, and then   understanding their voice. "We have this problem,  

Sanjib," or any of the teams. "How can we  solve it?" Then showing them those demos   excites them. Now we are on the path of solving. Really creating that digital operation about how   we can navigate and create value in the  business on day one, that's where we start   from day one. We don't start a product and  then adoption. That's where we are going.  We have another question from  Twitter. This is from Nick Haddad,   who asks, "How do you leverage digital technology  to mitigate against rising logistics costs,   sourcing challenges, and supplier risks?"  Really, the whole supply chain aspect.  There are two aspects, we call it. If you look  at our focus, there are two or three aspects. 

One is obviously the entire customer  experience that we talk about,   creating the data, machine learning, segmentation,  personalized customer experience. Then we are   working on solutioning and a lot of stuff. You cannot really digitize your experience,   customer experience, without creating the entire  automation in the digital value chain, which is   really figuring it out like inventory  replenishment. We're looking at   making sure we source the supply chain better. We are also working on making our platform   and technology for our partners better. That  makes it easy for them to integrate with us.  

It makes sure we can give the information  better, give them the product information better,   what works and what doesn't work. All of this, we talked about the   global data before, taking the  data and figuring it out where are   the issues, where are the challenges, where are  the backorders. Figuring out all of that helps us.  To answer your question, there are three parts. • One is visibility to the problems. That helps   us through data because you can be  more prescriptive, predictive about   your supply chain, and make sure you do that. • Number two is data creates you synchronously   connect your suppliers with your customers  and making sure your internal ops as well.  

That whole ecosystem is interconnected, so digital  with modern message bus, service, bus. API-based   ecosystems help you to connect back. • The third thing is action,   so you are able to take actions, immediate  actions, and optimize your cost to data. 

Now, this cannot be all perfect. This is always an  incremental process. There's no silver bullet with   all the supply chain and logistics challenges we  have in the world today. There's no silver bullet.   But there's a constant process that we  are working on right now to improve.  We have another comment from Twitter. This is  from Terri Griffith, who raises the important   issue of talent. When you talk about culture,  you must talk about talent. Can you weave   that aspect in for us, please? To attract the best talent,   you need a vision. What we are doing  is we have a vision where we are going,  

and we tell our story to attract the talent. The talent is very important, Michael, because,   personally, when I hire, there are three quotients  that I look at. I call it CQ, EQ, and IQ.  CQ is competency quotient. It  means if you say that you are a  

product person, an engineering person, or  a programmer, you better know your stuff,   that you're competent. That's competency quotient. The EQ is very important. It's how you connect   with people today with a digital journey. It's  very important that you collaborate, co-create.   Like, Michael, we talked before that you need  to listen to people. You cannot just build  

in the vacuum. That EQ, emotional quotient, about  can you collaborate, can you talk to everybody,   that's very, very important to judge. The third thing is   IQ, which is not traditional IQ, but can  you focus on why. Can you connect the dots?  If you combine this, we focus on these  three elements to attract talent.   Now, obviously, talent is an issue right now. We  are trying to go and attract talent and build,  

but also it's very important to re-engage  and re-motivate your current talent.  One of the things that I tell our teams is, "Don't  limit your challenges but challenge your limits."   Sometimes, if somebody is doing a job for many  years, just trying to give them a new opportunity   and push them, you can get better returns  from them. Then always attracting new talent. 

Look. Today, in the age of AI,  if machines can learn over time,   why can't our employees learn over time? I  believe in investing in figuring out can we   give opportunity to our people to learn more? There are two parts. One is re-engage,   push, challenge your current talent to do more and  get better. When you attract talent, look at these   three quotients so that you have the right mixture  of traditional talent who understand the business   and new talent who brings in new ideas. As a  leader, my job is to mix them, breed them together   to create a culture that is sustainable. We've spoken about a lot of different   aspects of digital transformation. Can you  identify where the challenges are, where  

companies tend to get bogged down, what's hard,  whether at Ingram Micro or at any other companies?  The number one competition or hurdle of a company  to transform digitally is the company itself.   That's the number one competition because nobody  can stop you from transforming digitally or doing   something digitally, apart from you yourself. Number one is coming up with a mindset about   can we think newly, embrace  change, and strive for the better?  A lot of companies struggle there because  it's very difficult if you think that you   have done something for many, many years, how  to do it differently. Change is hard. Human   minds generally do not accept change.  It's very hard, so that's number one.  I think mindset is one of the  biggest obstacles, I feel.   That's why I talked about, in my mind, digital  transformation operations should be a spirit that   is every day. That's number one, Michael. Number two, I feel that  

sometimes this differentiation between  technology and operations, because many   people think digital is technology. In fact, it  is not technology and not only about technology.  Digital is an amalgamation of business operations  and technology. If you do not start it soon,   it fails because you are building some product,  the customer changes, the operation changes,   adoption doesn't work, then you do not  succeed, and market conditions change.  

Really being able to do that is critical,  so that's the second reason of failure.  Number three is focusing on a plan that balances  your risk. You have to be able to take calculated   risk. I call it perform as you transform. You cannot stop performing.   How you create that balance between  performing but transforming and creating   a plan that takes calculated risk is number three. A lot of companies are doing silo transformations,   performing in silos, transformation.  You have to bring it back together,  

mainstream, where it's a balance. I think those are the three things I can think   of off the top of my head, what are the challenges  why organizations fail in digital transformation.  We have one last question from Arsalan Khan. I'll  ask you to answer it just in a sentence or two.   "Do you see differences in digital transformation  and culture from one region to another?"  Yes, there are always differences in how you  launch your product because regions are different.   The spirit or how you adopt  products are different.  It's very important to customize the message  for the same platform or product in a way   that you could connect and understand the pain  points. That's the secret sauce of adoption. 

You are right. Yes, the challenges and  the opinions are different. But when you   are building something globally, like as large as  Ingram Micro (which we operate in 160 countries),   we have to be able to translate back into what  is meaningful for the region and the country.   Otherwise, adoption will not happen. Okay. On that note, I have to say a huge   thank you to Sanjib Sahoo. He is the executive  vice president and chief digital officer   of Ingram Micro. Sanjib, thank you very  much for being here and taking the time  

with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Michael. My pleasure.  Everybody, thank you for watching, especially  for those folks who ask such wonderful   questions. Now, before you go, please subscribe  to our YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button   at the top of our website so we can send you  our newsletter, check out CXOTalk.com, and we   will see you again next time. Have a great day,  everybody. Thanks so much for watching. Bye-bye.

2022-02-05

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