Organisation in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications industries didn’t receive a ‘Change Vaccine’ making them immune from the transformation challenges others face. In fact, in many cases their problems are more acute.
The speed of change alone means that connecting everyone in the organisation to a common purpose is a challenge. The purpose may pivot with customer preference and technology shifts several times in a year – a frightening concept for traditionalists. Likewise, the processes of product and service development are changing at an extraordinary pace, as are the skills required to work in the industry.
But the culture of TMT organisations is where they really excel or need to excel. Great developers, testers, operations people, and engineers do their best work when they can work autonomously.
The whole thinking around this development is hugely influenced by Agile Thinking and the implementation of Scrum and its variants. But to drive this thinking throughout the organisation the whole business needs to be managed around a business framework.
The direction of TMT companies is driven by Hoshin Kanri and the setting of Objectives and Key Results made popular by Andy Grove of Intel and the venture capitalist John Doerr.
The development of tools, processes and people must be at breakneck pace to keep up with technology. People in TMT organisations were by far the most adaptable when virtual teams became a necessity. They may even have adapted better as this way of working was already prevalent in their industry. The organisation still needs to provide the purpose, processes, tool, capabilities and management processes to provide great products and services.