{"id":2809,"date":"2017-11-01T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/dream-big-start-small-and-choose-wisely\/"},"modified":"2024-08-06T16:44:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T23:44:31","slug":"dream-big-start-small-and-choose-wisely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/manufacturing-and-mobility\/2017\/11\/01\/dream-big-start-small-and-choose-wisely\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream big, start small, and choose wisely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two weeks ago, my colleague Drew Gude and I led several executive roundtables with business leaders at the Microsoft Envision conference in Orlando<\/a>. Our conversations focused on the opportunities and challenges of building and transforming businesses during the entrepreneurial renaissance of the Digital Era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robert<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Robert Hanegraaff<\/a>. The team I\u2019m on at Microsoft leads Microsoft Digital Advisory Services<\/a> around the world. Digital Advisors bring their expertise, as well as Microsoft\u2019s resources, experience and innovation, to empower organizations to reach their digital aspirations. We partner to drive a program of change to build our customers\u2019 digital business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout my career, I\u2019ve done a lot of business travel, visiting many, many countries. It\u2019s an experience I reflect on a lot. What suprises me the most is that while the product \u2013 flying in a plane from point A to point B – hasn\u2019t changed in over 75 years, the experience is almost unrecognizable from its origins. We check in on the way to the airport \u2013 if at all. When flights are delayed, apps notify us with gate changes. And so on. We consider the full experience, not just the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Company<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I \u2013 and I suspect, you too – expect personalized experiences like this that predict and adjust to my needs. Companies bound by their own processes and operations don\u2019t earn my loyalty and don\u2019t get the business anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because our customers and employees increasingly share these expectations for connected experiences, we are all now in the business of technology \u2013 and technology is now a core part of business. Over the past 20 years, we all went through the same drill – find a niche, crouch behind the barrier to entry, and optimize the business. Diminish inefficiencies. Lower costs. Increase throughput. However, in the Digital Era, being a \u201chighly optimized\u201d business doesn\u2019t guarantee sustainability as the barriers to entry crumble and new and connected experiences emerge as the new \u201cproduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on experiences from over one thousand engagements with customers, our team has captured patterns and practices of successful business transformations. We\u2019ve aligned the approach into three phases- Dream, Design, and Deliver. The objective of the conference roundtables was to dive deep into the \u201cDream\u201d phase to get customers started on building their own Book of Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Book<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Never heard of a Book of Dreams? At the Microsoft Envision Conference, we shared how the Book of Dreams can get you started re-imagining your company\u2019s future by creating a digital vision<\/strong> to identify new ideas, prioritizing them based on value<\/strong>, and creating a roadmap<\/strong> to make it a reality. Although it takes a lot of work, figuring out your company\u2019s vision is critical. Together as a team, you explore trends, customer insights and research. You envision the future to create a few \u201cImagine If\u2026\u201d scenarios. It takes a strong, diverse team as well as time to break out of conventional, \u201coptimize it\u201d thinking, to explore the hotspots within the current customer experience, and to imagine the future. Once we\u2019re thinking creatively, we translate those \u201cImagine If\u201d statements into scenarios that describe the impact on employee and customer experiences. We prioritize those scenarios, using a rough estimate of the value of each \u2013 that is, the revenue, costs, even the opportunity cost of not acting on the identified scenario. Once we have a good idea of the value, we then develop a phased roadmap of scenarios, goals and expected outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are a few examples of organizations making their Book of Dreams a reality in the Digital Era:<\/p>\n\n\n\n