What is Change Management's role in the Digital Transformation of SCM?

Ah yes, the sweet smell of change is in the air.

The digital transformation of supply chain management, more specifically procurement and sourcing functions, is becoming a part of the new normal in business. Organizations are beginning to hop aboard the technology train en route to their end destination: Innovation City and Top-Line Value Ave. . Along the way, there will be barriers to a smooth journey, but taking incremental steps towards change will allow organizations to overcome challenges.

I’m no cowboy, but “There is a saying used by shooters that applies: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” In this context, it means that change management is vital to digital transformation, no matter how imminent the external threat” (O’Marah 2017).

Without management of change, no change occurs.

But, as our lungs fill wit hope and the air around us smells of fresh baked change and innovation, there remains an unflattering stench lying beneath the floorboards of our organizations….

Reluctance.

It meets us at every twist and turn along the railways of change. Senior stakeholders doubt the impact of digital transformation, traditionalists scream ‘but, we’ve always done it this way and it works’, organizations lack quality supply chain data sets, and all the while the gap grows bigger between those who dare to change and those who dare to sit idly.

Hopefully this article will provide you with some insights of how change is best managed, and we’ll all be a part of a more technologically advanced and smarter future.

An infrastructure for change.

Implementing change and managing change are no easy task, and for that very reason change requires infrastructure, processes and clearly defined actions.

Recently, I read Magnus Carlsson’s book, Strategic Sourcing and Category Management: Lessons learned at IKEA. The book is a masterful composition and guideline of how a procurement and sourcing organization can start building a quality infrastructure by gaining inspiration from IKEA’s triumphs and failures.

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