What Most People Get Wrong About Digital Transformation

Recently, I gave a virtual innovation talk to 700 associates from one of Mexico’s largest retailers. In my opening remarks, I asked them to choose the innovation winners in the following categories:

Table 1: Who has won the innovation game?

CATEGORY              COMPANY A            COMPANY B

Entertainment             Blockbuster                Netflix

Search                        Yahoo!                        Google

Mobile phones            Nokia                          Apple iPhone

Laptops                       Sony                           Apple

Transportation            Local Taxi                   Uber

Retail                          Sears                          Amazon

Although most of the participants agreed that the companies in column B were the winners of the innovation game, few actually understood why? What do you think?

As we can see in the results of the poll, most of the respondents believed the secret behind their success to be technological in nature (e.g. digitalization, disruptive technology, omnichannel strategy, etc.) or due to their vision, agility, or creativity.

I, on the other hand, believe that, although these factors play a role in their success, they are merely a means to one end: The obsession with making people’s lives easier by eliminating “emotional” friction. Don’t believe me? Let’s analyze a few examples.

The Human Side of Amazon

If the success of Amazon were merely the transition from physical stores to digital platforms, Amazon could have stopped investing in Innovation at least two decades ago. Nevertheless, the company hasn’t stopped launching innovations that reduce unnecessary friction in their customers’ lives that stands in between a customer’s intention and getting the job done.

Table 2: Amazon makes customers’ lives easier by reducing uncertainty in the process.

As we can see in all these examples from Amazon’s most successful innovations, improving the human experience is the driving force of new product and service development. Yes, technology is a vital “lubricant” that enables consumers to satisfy their needs quicker (e.g. use your new headphones, use your drum kit silencing pads, get the new toy for your child) and without the unnecessary hassles (e.g. drive to a specialized store, lose the opportunity to practice a new skill).

The Human Side of Lubrication

Like Amazon, our team at Interlub Group is approaching new projects with a similar mindset. Usually, our technical consultants approach a potential customer (e.g., maintenance supervisor, maintenance operator, production manager, purchasing manager) with the goal of understanding what job the person is trying to get done within the system (e.g., assure process reliability, equipment availability, etc. or reduce total maintenance costs, risk). Then we try to identify the critical points of friction that are limiting the overall system performance. Finally, we design a new or recommend an existing lubricant solution that will improve overall systems performance.

This human-centered systems-thinking view is inspiring the development of more than 2,800 new lubricant solutions and most products help improve the overall systems performance of our customers’ operations:

The combination of these services, products and features helps leading industrial companies unleash their full potential:

• Interfluid Bio® helps some of the most important copper mines in the world lubricate their open gears. But more importantly, it increases equipment availability, reduces environmental impact, increases safety of collaborators and extends the service life of million-dollar equipment.
• Uniplex EXP® is used by some of the most important steel in Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil to lubricate the roller bearings in their continuous casters. But more importantly it helps some of them recover more than US$10 million in annual steel production value, reduce lubricant consumption by 50 percent and reduce maintenance costs and complexity significantly.
• B-Lub® is used by leading container-glassmakers not because it lubricates shear-blades but because it reduces bacteria formation in water tanks, which in turn increases the resistance delivery system and therefore equipment availability and plant productivity.

I strongly believe that it is this “human-centered systems thinking” that has fueled our customers’ productivity, Interlub Group’s sustained double-digit growth, and our international expansion to more than 40 countries.

“When you reduce friction, make something easy, people do more of it.” — Jeff Bezos

If you also want to unleash your organization’s impact, through digital transformation or beyond, try adopting a more human-centric view. The insights you’ll discover will inspire your team to create valuable products and services that can become the catalysts for your organization’s growth.

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Daniel Pandza is Community Innovation Catalyst at Interlub Group | The Uncommon Lubricant Company. He has served as an innovation-effectiveness coach for teams at Intel Mexico, Continental Automotive Mexico, John Deere Mexico, Grupo Coppel and various startups and nonprofit organizations.