A Purpose-Driven Company: Optimizing Business Transformation through Digital Capability Development and Operational Streamlining
August 12
15min read
From a significant shift in consumer behavior to the normalization of remote working, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way businesses work. While remote working is the key trend being talked about by virtually everyone – with estimated 20-30% of full-time employees projected to be working remotely post-pandemic compared to 5% pre-pandemic, the human resources and operational transformation goes way beyond employees’ physical location. At Bahtera, this disruption coincides with our overall business transformation that started in 2019.
As part of our company-wide overhaul into a more agile, technology-driven company, Bahtera has spent the last two years rethinking the way we work. Grounded in our updated vision to be an inspiration in the creation of a globally recognized upstream supply chain through increased productivity and effectiveness, we begin this journey internally. We put a heavy emphasis on revamping our corporate structure and process as the foundation of our operation. This is key considering 26% of transformation fails and organizations’ lack of capability in executing the transformation is a contributing factor to this.
Our approach in this operational transformation is 3-pronged. First, we want to make sure that our new purpose is translated into our working culture. Some of the key drivers of transformation failure are lack of vision and under-communication. We have a clear purpose, vision, and mission that have been formulated based on the reality of the world and the industry. Now our job is to make sure that everyone in the company understands them through intensive training and working culture development.
The second is technological capability development to help our people adjust to the new processes under our technological transformation. This is vital as the success of digital transformation hinges on the preparedness of the people. On this front, we conduct trainings and set up a helpdesk to address any concern or question from any function to immediately bridge the knowledge gap in our digital transformation initiatives. We also continue to prepare our infrastructure with more technologically advanced equipment and tools.
Third is operational streamlining. We have a big task ahead of us to completely change the way our organization works to catch up with our agile and digital vision. This means a complete improvement of our organization structure, workflow, and employee capability. Borrowing from Six Sigma’s DMAIC method of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling, we began by identifying the needs for change.
Over the last year with the help of professional consultants, we have defined, measured, analyzed our urgent areas of improvement and executed them through the development of extensive Standard Operating Procedures and Key Performance Indicators. But these are merely words on paper. The key to a true change is to empower our people and we’re doing this through talent development, coordination facilitation through digital infrastructure, and more agile workflow. The next step is to make sure that these changes are producing the desired outcome through continuous monitoring, which we will do through regular evaluations and improvements.
Still in its nascent stage, our operational transformation has been propelled forward by the pandemic. The shift from offline to online work forced not just the company, but also our people to be more efficient, adaptive, and resilient in our operation. A surprising find is that remote working has actually improved efficiency and productivity. This seems to be a consistent trend all over the world as 49% of CEOs have reported improved productivity amid remote working. This experience provides valuable takeaways that we can learn from as we continue our transformation journey.
From a significant shift in consumer behavior to the normalization of remote working, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way businesses work. While remote working is the key trend being talked about by virtually everyone – with estimated 20-30% of full-time employees projected to be working remotely post-pandemic compared to 5% pre-pandemic, the human resources and operational transformation goes way beyond employees’ physical location. At Bahtera, this disruption coincides with our overall business transformation that started in 2019.
As part of our company-wide overhaul into a more agile, technology-driven company, Bahtera has spent the last two years rethinking the way we work. Grounded in our updated vision to be an inspiration in the creation of a globally recognized upstream supply chain through increased productivity and effectiveness, we begin this journey internally. We put a heavy emphasis on revamping our corporate structure and process as the foundation of our operation. This is key considering 26% of transformation fails and organizations’ lack of capability in executing the transformation is a contributing factor to this.
Our approach in this operational transformation is 3-pronged. First, we want to make sure that our new purpose is translated into our working culture. Some of the key drivers of transformation failure are lack of vision and under-communication. We have a clear purpose, vision, and mission that have been formulated based on the reality of the world and the industry. Now our job is to make sure that everyone in the company understands them through intensive training and working culture development.
The second is technological capability development to help our people adjust to the new processes under our technological transformation. This is vital as the success of digital transformation hinges on the preparedness of the people. On this front, we conduct trainings and set up a helpdesk to address any concern or question from any function to immediately bridge the knowledge gap in our digital transformation initiatives. We also continue to prepare our infrastructure with more technologically advanced equipment and tools.
Third is operational streamlining. We have a big task ahead of us to completely change the way our organization works to catch up with our agile and digital vision. This means a complete improvement of our organization structure, workflow, and employee capability. Borrowing from Six Sigma’s DMAIC method of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling, we began by identifying the needs for change.
Over the last year with the help of professional consultants, we have defined, measured, analyzed our urgent areas of improvement and executed them through the development of extensive Standard Operating Procedures and Key Performance Indicators. But these are merely words on paper. The key to a true change is to empower our people and we’re doing this through talent development, coordination facilitation through digital infrastructure, and more agile workflow. The next step is to make sure that these changes are producing the desired outcome through continuous monitoring, which we will do through regular evaluations and improvements.
Still in its nascent stage, our operational transformation has been propelled forward by the pandemic. The shift from offline to online work forced not just the company, but also our people to be more efficient, adaptive, and resilient in our operation. A surprising find is that remote working has actually improved efficiency and productivity. This seems to be a consistent trend all over the world as 49% of CEOs have reported improved productivity amid remote working. This experience provides valuable takeaways that we can learn from as we continue our transformation journey.