Friday, March 7, 2014

Transformation That Reshapes Habitual Behavior

I wrote about the Microsoft’s transformation last month after Satya Nadella was named the new CEO of Microsoft, but talked scantily about our own transformation even though we’re very much at the crossroad of our self-stirred transformation. Right. Why should I bother about transformation, even if Microsoft failed to transform? I should have minded my own business.

Some of my staff commented that our glory is still in progressive manner, and we don’t have external forces like Microsoft to push us; do we really need this transformation?



In fact, I drafted and highlighted the transformation in FingerTec Five-Year plan (from 2010 to 2014) four years ago, the short statement goes like this,” To further strengthen FingerTec’s global position, the third phase 5-year plan was introduced in 2010 with a transparent objective to achieve business and technology transformation. We aim to climb the vertical ladder to provide comprehensive solutions for access control market, and to employ cloud-computing technology for deployment in time and attendance industry. The use of Android platform and other biometric features such as face and vein recognition would be a part of FingerTec technology transformation plan to enhance our new product lines.”

But nobody seemed to really notice the word “transformation”, until lately, when their habitual operation routines were disrupted by a new set of processes. Then everybody suddenly realized that the past 4 years were merely technology transformation, which only involved the R&D of product development. Now, when the new products take their turn for the debuts, other departments have to be involved, and suddenly they found out that the old way is no longer the right way.

Cloud Computing
This is how it usually works; every of our hardware has a clear price tag, and the software is bundled as a complimentary item. With TimeTec Cloud introduced as SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, we reverse the priority; customers need to sign up for a longer subscription period with payment in advance and the hardware will be given free of charge. A string of approaches that follow have to be different to produce desirable outcomes. And for Ingress and Ingressus as well, to position this product in the vertical market, the typical methods suddenly look passé. 

Old habit dies hard. When business operations become a habit, and when the habit is proven to yield excellent results, it’s extremely hard to bend the habit even the slightest. Habitual behavior can easily become addictive engagement that reflects individual pattern, and collectively it forms an organization culture. To change the habitual behavior, ones must outline the important steps, the new tasks, new activities, new expectations in details, and constantly reviewing and revising them at personal level. In short, we have to re-mould our business operations to shape our new habitual behaviour.

Reshape habitual behavior
However, why am I making everybody’s life difficult by initiating the transformation in the first place? The question needs no answer. Because if you’re in the IT industry, you know you just have to do it to secure the future.