Quanta D: Exactly.
Simon Chan: It’s really about solving business problems. And the Transformation is really about transforming to that new strategy so that these business problems can be solved in a different way, using technology.
Quanta D: Very interesting that you mention the business problems, it moves right into the next question that we have here.
Q: From what you are seeing, is there confusion in utilizing Digital Strategy and Digital Transformation that is also breeding corporate and/or industry problems?
Simon Chan: That is definitely a yes. It comes down to a lack of understanding, and if the terms mean different things to different people, then you’re going to be opening up yourself to potential bad practice if you’re going to purchase solutions that are not well-defined also, and actually solve the wrong problem. So I think, yes absolutely, you need to have the right level of expertise engaging with you on your business journey so that you actually develop your strategy, otherwise you end up with the wrong services. Implementing the wrong services,  could ultimately mean losing market-share and customers so it had very serious consequences. I think it is  very important, , to get a good understanding of what Technology can do for your particular business. This is the area where you need an expert. You need someone who understands change and transformation. To be able to actually analyze that market and craft some potential solutions and options for you that may align with the ideas that you have, going forward for competing with your competitors.
Quanta D: Right, and for growing and expanding your business.
Simon Chan: Absolutely.
Quanta D: You know, I’m so happy that you are on today to be able to answer these questions, because we tend to look at a lot of different things, especially in the Marketing space because that’s where we ultimately come from, we come out of the Marketing space. And, I’m talking about from even 6, 7 years ago being a part of our Marketing Masterminds and having to analyze and assess different ways, this is something that we’ve seen from back then. It’s nowhere near the amount of time that you have happened to see these things taking place, but it’s so painful, because I mean, these businesses, again, it’s more prevalent in the Marketing space. We’re seeing so-called agencies that don’t really know what they’re doing, being contracted out by brands with huge hopes, very small budgets.
You know, and then they, they go in and act like they are experts and they end up messing things up, because they weren’t really clear and they are really not within expertise, properly, to even give anyone any proper consulting or advise on what they need to grow their business. So, I’m just happy to hear you’re speaking of this and hopefully there are some people that you can help even more. And I look forward to seeing more of that because it’s definitely needed, especially with all of this confusion about how to define what Strategy is, even what Digital is, what Transformation is, so thank you so much for that, because this is something that is so painful for us to see for a long time.
Simon Chan: Yeah sure. Ms. J, well are you there?
Quanta D: Yes.
Simon Chan: Yes, obviously, if you do get the strategy wrong then the costs could be astronomical.
Quanta D: Oh please. Sir, please excuse me? By all means, it goes beyond financial costs, I’ve seen great concepts and ideas, from you know, beautiful people with great hearts, and everything plummets, everything goes down all because of the one simple mistake of choosing the wrong individual to help them.
Simon Chan: Absolutely. So there’s one particular example that I wanted to point out. There was a big project up in Scotland for the Police, called the I6 project, the aim was to actually integrate one hundred and thirty systems together, to streamline the process to make it quicker. It started in 2013 and it was due to go live in 2015, but in July 2016 it was scrapped, After three years of hard work.
Quanta D: Oh, my God.
Simon Chan: 60 million pounds down the drain. Yeah so, it’s just an example of what can happen to your business if you engage with the wrong type of people.
Quanta D: 60 million pounds down the drain? Three years of hard work and 60 million pounds?
Simon Chan: Yes.
Quanta D: That’s kind of hard to come back from.
Simon Chan: It is. Absolutely. It can actually destroy an organization. So I think this is the reason that a lot of people are nervous about  starting a, Digital Transformation.  Change is tough anyway but to go through such big large changes can be very detrimental for an organization, in terms of people, in terms of the process and also the customers as well in that process. So it’s very important that you know you engage with the right people up front.
Quanta D: Of course.
Simon Chan: You need People who can simplify the area of IT and digital rather than make it more complicated. I think as a CEO, as a C-level, it’s important you actually understand it yourself. If you don’t understand some of the components yourself and you don’t understand some of the strategy yourself, you need to drill into that to understand it. And it’s part of your Consultant’s job to make it clear to you how the Technology is going to work and that you understand it. Because that is the most important thing in Consulting I think of Consulting as a Partnership, rather than a Consultant telling a Client what to do. I believe in it being a collaborative arrangement
