These are my presentation slides from the 29 April Cloud Industry Forum Members meeting where I gave my viewpoint and triggered group discussion on the changes in business and use of technology triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was necessarily held as an online Teams meeting as we were 37 days in to the UK's lockdown. I discuss how digital transformation is being accelerated as firms are forced to have their knowledge workers working from home, often for the first time. Tools like Zoom and Teams have suddenly become mainstream and used daily and cloud technology underpins everything. Business is going through a fundamental change as people are forced to examine their business processes, shift online and work in new ways. The successful companies have the rigid open leadership, and think differently. We suggest Mutable Thinking, exponential thinking and different mindset is required for the "new normal". The presentation also uses some slides from Dion Hinchcliffe's Post-Pandemic Playbook, and some Tom Fishburne cartoons. There will be write up to accompany the slides on cloudindustryforum.org

1. How will IT plans and attitudes
change post COVID-19
@DT & @UK_CIF on Twitter | 29 April 2020
David Terrar | Founder & CXO - Agile Elephant| Director & Chair - CIF

3. Some sectors doing well,
but for many businesses
• Little or no Sales Revenue
• Production has stopped
• Can’t visit customers
• Who is digitally savvy?
• Forced in to looking at their processes - what they
do and how they do it (by the way, find your why!)

4. What happens next?
• How long till it gets back to normal?
• How long will we have to social distance?
• What happens to our offices and call centres?
• How do we future proof our business?
• Will there be fundamental change?

5. think

6. Some positives
• The value of collaboration tools and
remote working (WFH)
• The effectiveness of online commerce, learning,
marketing
• Virtual events
• Digital Transformation gets a kick forwards

8. Impact on Cloud adoption?
• Technology Shift
• Operating Model

9. Sudden rise in Shadow IT
• Increase in cybersecurity and compliance risks and
issues
• Data Security
• Increased IT Costs
• Inefficiency and Technical Debt

10. Even before COVID-19
We were/are living in Exponential Times
• 200,000 years of linear thinking
• From Complicated to Complex
• Small changes make
disproportionate impact
• You can’t plan but you can prepare
• We should have listened to Bill
Gates

12. Business as Usual Characteristics Mutable Business / Exponential Thinking Characteristics
Top-down, Command and Control, Hierarchical Flatter org chart, Team of Teams, Connected, Empowered employees
Departmental and Divisional silos Cross-functional teams, Collaboration culture, Social tools over email
Driven by financial outcomes, Quarterly reporting, KPIs
Understand their “why”, Purpose oriented, Dashboards, OKRs (Objectives and Key
Results)
Focus on shareholder value Improving the state of the world, Customer centric, Driving stakeholder value
Linear, Closed, Sequential thinking Experimentation, Autonomy, Open, Exponential thinking
Innovation primarily from within, R&D based innovation Design Thinking, Innovation at all levels, Partnerships, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing
Strategic planning based on history, Long term cyclic planning Agile thinking, Agile management, Iterative, Short throws, Continuous improvement
Risk intolerance Experimentation, Fail Fast mentality, Startup Mentality
Process Inflexibility Autonomy, Experimentation, Responsive, Agile
Owns or controls its own assets Focus on core, Outsource non-core, Leveraged assets
More FTEs, In-house resources
Less FTEs, More Outsourcing, Automation, Algorithms, Gig Economy, Workers on
demand
Business as Usual Characteristics Mutable Business / Exponential Thinking Characteristics
Top-down, Command and Control, Hierarchical Flatter org chart, Team of Teams, Connected, Empowered employees
Departmental and Divisional silos Cross-functional teams, Collaboration culture, Social tools over email
Driven by financial outcomes, Quarterly reporting, KPIs
Understand their “why”, Purpose oriented, Dashboards, OKRs (Objectives and Key
Results)
Focus on shareholder value Improving the state of the world, Customer centric, Driving stakeholder value
Linear, Closed, Sequential thinking Experimentation, Autonomy, Open, Exponential thinking
Innovation primarily from within, R&D based innovation Design Thinking, Innovation at all levels, Partnerships, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing
Strategic planning based on history, Long term cyclic planning Agile thinking, Agile management, Iterative, Short throws, Continuous improvement
Risk intolerance Experimentation, Fail Fast mentality, Startup Mentality
Process Inflexibility Autonomy, Experimentation, Responsive, Agile
Owns or controls its own assets Focus on core, Outsource non-core, Leveraged assets
More FTEs, In-house resources
Less FTEs, More Outsourcing, Automation, Algorithms, Gig Economy, Workers on
demand
Mutable Business™ - Bloor Research

15. Here’s my take on what we do next?
• Expect the unexpected – prepare, learn, relearn
• Emergent, self organising teams do work –
think “team of teams” - partnerships, coalitions,
ecosystems inside and outside the organisation
• Use our imagination
• Allow experimentation
• Be brave and stand for something

16. How is this affecting you?
What’s your take?

17. Thank you!

18. References
https://marketoonist.com/2020/04/digital-transformation-2.html
https://marketoonist.com/2020/04/transformationclarity.html
https://www.zdnet.com/article/effective-strategies-and-tools-for-remote-work-during-coronavirus/
https://dionhinchcliffe.com/2020/04/15/how-work-will-evolve-in-a-digital-post-pandemic-society/
https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news/blueprint-post-pandemic-cio-playbook
https://www.perlego.com/book/778801/abundance-pdf
https://www.bloorresearch.com/2020/04/we-need-to-shift-from-linear-thinking-to-mutable-thinking/

19. David Terrar
Agile Elephant | Cloud Industry Forum
m: +44 (0)7715 159423
e: dt@d2c.org.uk & david.terrar@cloudindustryforum.org
w: http://theagileelephant.com &
https://impossiblethings.fyi
w: https://www.cloudindustryforum.org
skype: david_terrar
twitter: http://twittter.com/DT @DT
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidterrar
blog: http://theagileelephant.com/blog
& http://medium.com/@DT