Our High-Value Service - Strategy & Organization Consulting for your Digital / IT Area

There are many service offerings and related frameworks in the market on how to create your strategy and set up your target operating model for digital and IT.

I have a clear opinion on frameworks, which often acts as a differentiator in the market as well:

Your business context comes first - frameworks come second.
Frameworks are good for orientation but are not meant for 100% by-the-book implementations.
Perceive frameworks as construction kits for specific purposes and as an input for tailored usage.
Utilizing frameworks is a method to reduce corporate complexity. Still - large international corporations are fighting with ever-increasing complexity, although they are applying such frameworks.
History repeats itself - this is also true with frameworks where specific philosophies and concepts are repeating themselves, although slightly evolved and often using different terms for the same meaning.
Practice-proofed experience eats non-reflected framework wordings for breakfast.
In the end, you need a concept that your workforce understands and applies instead of "we don't know why we are doing it, but it is stated in the best-practice paper."

Consequently, let me walk you through our core services, centered around strategy and organization consulting for your digital / IT area.

Set the Stage with a Digital / IT Strategy

We have supported many clients in developing their IT strategy or digital strategy in various scenarios and industries. Each setting was different and required a proper approach.

In our approach, we use a - based on many years of experience - custom-developed meta strategy framework for IT strategy and digital strategy. We currently recognize different schools of thought for such strategy development:

Twofold strategy: An overall holistic corporate strategy is supported by individual and comprehensive functional strategies, such as HR, supply chain management, IT, and other relevant corporate functions. The corporate level and the functional areas include the relevant aspects of the digital transformation.
Threefold strategy: A digital strategy covers all essential pieces of a corporate digital transformation, including topics such as digital products & services, markets, and digital marketing, digital channels, digital technologies, and a holistic approach to transform the entire organization towards the digital transformation. Corporate strategy and IT strategy are defined in a more traditional way, without considering the digital transformation in a comprehensive manner.

CKC can operate both ways if the approach and key terms are clearly defined and aligned among the stakeholders.

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Align your Digital / IT Organization towards the Strategy

We have worked in different settings and industries on the target picture of the digital operating model or the IT operating model. Two approaches had been typical:

Develop the digital / IT operating model in conjunction with the development of the digital / IT strategy
Work solely on the digital / IT operating model either to set the stage for an intended reorganization, or to optimize towards specific focus topics

In our approach, we use a - based on many years of experience - custom-developed meta operating model framework to work with IT and digital organization entities.

We are aware, have experience on or are even certified for different frameworks that are established in the market. Among them are:

ITIL v3 & 4
Agile frameworks, including
- SCRUM
- Extreme Programming
- SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework
CoBIT
Spotify Model
unFIX - versatile organization design
Business Process Management & Optimization
Lean Management & Six Sigma

CKC can work with you on your target digital / IT operating model either as the key focus point, or in conjunction with the overall digital / IT strategy development.

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Coach the Executive and Management Level to Drive Strategy and Develop the Organization

As a board member, executive, or management representative, you typically have intensive and demanding jobs, including

Handling multiple topics at once, in the area of your responsibility and in the best way for the overall company
Managing different interests among your direct stakeholders
Constantly balancing making decisions vs. investing time in getting ready for the decision
Regularly communicating with your directs, staff, peers, and (top) leadership, eventually up to the supervisory board, as well as with key clients, partners, and vendors
Running through regular budgeting and reporting schedules

while your time and calendar are a natural bottleneck that requires strict prioritization and still tends to become overbooked.

In your role as a CIO, CDO, IT executive, or responsible board member, setting your digital / IT strategy, aligning your organization model, running transformative programs, and making decisions at the strategic and tactical level are typically crucial activities for you. Having an outside trusted advisor to discuss and challenge specific topics can be of great benefit to you in ways such as:

To receive a neutral, external view to support and accelerate your decision making
To discuss crucial and sensitive topics with strong effects on the organization, team(s), and individual levels that are often tried to be influenced by different corporate stakeholders for their best outcome or least impact
To benefit from a sparring partner who has worked with multiple organizations, industries, and individuals on similar crucial topics
To benefit from a sparring partner who can discuss with you typical challenges, solution options, risks, and near / mid / long term effects as they are discussed in literature - and even more important - as experienced in different highly individual client scenarios

Athletes, speakers, virtuosos, and similar professionals in regular high-performance situations have coaches at their side to develop and perform at the highest level. Let's think through your situation and evaluate whether coaching by CKC could help you to master better your strategic and transformative topics in the area of digital & IT.

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Receive an Objective and Independent External Evaluation of the As-Is

Navigating in uncertain or even unknown terrain requires a solid determination of the own position. We have performed as-is evaluations in different situations, industries, and corporate sizes. Typically we utilize such an exercise in scenarios around:

Digital / IT strategy development
- to derive conclusions on the as-is
- to understand the ambition level of the target state development
- to support roadmap planning
Digital / IT operating model development
- to derive conclusions on the as-is
- to understand the ambition level of the target state development
- to support roadmap planning
Digital / IT due diligence engagements in M&A-related scenarios
- to understand the current situation of the digital / IT function of the target corporation
- to identify potential red flags
- to provide specific content that can be utilized in the contract creation and deal negotiations
To establish a joint basis in specific coaching situations
To work on and resolve special strategic topics

Depending on the scenario, we utilize approaches based on the essence of related frameworks and experience from previous projects. The specific method is further tailored and optimized to set the right priorities, the required level of detail, work effort, and stakeholder involvement.

CKC can work with you to find an effective and cost-efficient approach for the as-is evaluation in your particular situation and overall objectives.

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Solve Specific Critical Strategic Topics to your Situation

In many of our client engagements related to strategy development, operating model alignment, executive coaching, or sometimes stand-alone, we had to solve special topics with strategic relevance. The most frequent special topics comprise:

M&A scenarios, such as
- Digital / IT Due Diligence before the actual purchase, respectively sale of the target
- Carve-out scenarios
- Post-merger-integration scenarios
CDO / CIO generation change and succession planning from different angles, such as
- Retirement planning and hand-over
- Working with interim CIO / CDOs, setting the stage for the upcoming permanent CIO / CDO
- Supporting First 100 days scenarios
Digital / IT strategic sourcing
Digital / IT architectural challenges with strategic impact

CKC is open to discussing your specific special topics and elaborating with you whether to integrate them into an overall digital / IT strategy or operating model development process or handle them stand-alone.

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