Dassault Systèmes’ Compass mag editors interviewed experts to get their tips on how companies can accelerate the transition to a hyperconnected business model, a necessary evolution as – for the first time ever – humans aren’t just exploring the existing reality but are imagining, mapping, modeling and engineering new environments via the virtual world. Harnessing the power of hyperconnectivity can bring together minds, ideas, solutions and information to unleash possibilities that did not previously exist.

1. THE
HYPERCONNECTIVITY
PLAYBOOK
6TipsforCEOs
onTransformingtheirBusinesstoThriveintheAgeofExperience

2. Always and everywhere connectivity is reinventing the
business world.
This new hyperconnected reality allows companies to
imagine, map, model and engineer new environments
via the virtual world.
Harnessing the power of hyperconnectivity can bring
together minds, ideas, solutions and information to
unleash possibilities that did not previously exist.

3. If a company isn’t as far along in its
hyperconnected transition as it should be, how
can its CEO accelerate change?
Dassault Systèmes’ Compass magazine editors
interviewed experts who recommended a
series of 6 actions.

4. 1.Think strategically, not project by project.
If every project or exercise requires its own large investment of resources, people
will be less likely to explore changes, according to a study published by MIT Sloan
Management Review. Invest in data, systems and governance that promote
community building at every turn and encourage experimentation to garner
experience and insights quickly.
In its paper “The Digital Imperative,” Boston Consulting Group (BCG) advises: “Take
advantage of digital capabilities to transform the current business. Best-in-class
companies think ‘end to end’ about where digital efforts can produce a step
change in performance and value for their customers – not only in marketing, but
also in operations and the back office.”

5. 2. Be willing to alter or replace your current systems
and processes.
MIT Sloan found that most large corporations are saddled with fragmented
analytical processes, limiting their ability to operate with agility and insight.
Companies need better ways to use internal and external data. BCG research
shows that “leaders in the use of big data generate 12% higher revenues than
companies that don’t experiment with big data.” BCG goes on to say that “digital
transformation offers companies new opportunities to gain sustainable
competitive advantage from data and to generate entirely new revenue streams,
business units and standalone businesses by capitalizing on the data they hold.”

6. 3. To envision the future, disregard the present.
Robert C. Wolcott, executive director and co-founder of the Kellogg School of
Management’s Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) at Northwestern University
(Evanston, Illinois) and author of the forthcoming book The NOW! Economy, urges
CEOs not to define their company’s prospects based on what it does today, but on
what customers might demand in the future. BCG makes similar recommendations.
“Incumbents should be more disruptive in their approach,” BCG advises. “They often
do not fundamentally rethink their business model. Only rarely do they launch
anything that might attack the current business.”

7. 4. Build a portfolio of options.
Many companies think they have a three-year strategic plan, but it’s really just a
one-year operating plan extrapolated over three years. That’s budgeting, not
strategy, Wolcott said. In a volatile world, leaders need mechanisms to generate
foresight about the longer term, to translate insights into action, and have flexibility
to pivot rapidly as the future unfolds. BCG therefore recommends that businesses
“prototype” their strategies. With rapidly evolving competitive landscapes,
businesses must conduct rapid cycles of test-learn-refine and continually revise
their strategies based on what they learn.

8. 5. Position your business in the broader landscape.
Like the musicians in a symphony orchestra, companies (instrumentalists) must
understand and secure their own place in a broader community – what BCG calls
“the network of companies, individual contributors, institutions, and customers that
interact to create mutual value. Ecosystem players join forces with external
companies working toward a common goal to achieve complete alignment of the
value chain. Collaboration across a broader ecosystem creates new opportunities
to address consumer needs.”

9. 6. Support digital transformation with structures,
governance and incentives that promote speed, risk
taking and experimentation.
Hyperconnectivity success depends on technology, people and process. BCG
advises that businesses adopt an organization and culture that “promotes speed,
risk taking and experimentation.” To support these efforts, look for a platform that
helps establish and customize the layered processes of creating, managing and
supporting hyperconnected communities; facilitates dynamic and fast-changing
interactions among staff members; and helps management track results in real
time, enabling organizations to do more of what works and re-invent what doesn’t.

10. To learn more about
Hyperconnected Business, check
out the latest issue of Compass
magazine
http://compassmag.3ds.com/9