The Lean Digital Revolution: Speed at Scale

We’re getting ready to host another day of panels and fun with the Lean Digital Speedway at SXSW Interactive. This is our second year, and we thought we’d give you a sneak peek of our upcoming panels.
 
The Lean Digital Revolution: Speed at Scale session, moderated by CI&T’s EVP of Global Innovation, Leonardo Mattiazzi, will feature a panel discussion with Jason Lambert, Global Director, Head of B2B eCommerce at AB InBev, Brian McSweeney, CTO and CIO at  Standard Industries, and Bärí Williams, ESQ, Attorney & Business Operations Executive & Startup Advisor, StubHub, where they will chat about all things Lean Digital Transformation. Learn More 

The Lean Digital revolution is here

Advances in technology have dramatically changed the playing field for industries. In order to be successful in the 21st Century digital economy, there’s absolutely no substitute for innovating quickly and at scale.
 
For instance, how can any enterprise compete if it takes 600 days to turn an idea into reality? Yes, "digital transformation" is a priority; but what good is design thinking, machine learning, or a brilliant customer experience when your business suffers from such a long lead time?

Lean principles: The biggest market opportunity

Are you saying to yourself, “I thought Lean was all about manufacturing”? Let’s just grab the bull by the horns here: With so much of the literature on Lean focused on manufacturing, it’s easy to relate Lean principles to manufacturing. After all, Lean has helped manufacturers dramatically improve the quality of their products, speed up their production processes and reduce the cycle of new product development. Toyota, for example, dramatically increased its productivity with Lean principles, and all the other manufacturers followed.  That’s the speed of innovation.
 
 
And just like in manufacturing, delivering high-quality products to market quickly is critical in this age of all-things-digital. In fact, every single Lean principle and concept that manufacturers have used is relevant and fundamental to digital. Or here’s another way to look at it: While businesses are defined differently, the principles remain the same. Those companies that can successfully apply Lean Digital to their businesses will find themselves operating faster and smarter while increasing their output.

How leading brands are using Lean

Now that we’ve clarified that Lean is not industry-specific, but rather a business imperative, did you know that some of the world’s most well-known brands are using Lean?

 
From day one, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been laser focused on waste prevention and being customer focused. Or have you ever noticed those people who walk into Starbucks, show their phone, and then walk out with coffee in hand? By allowing customers to get their coffee fix with a few swipes on the Starbucks app, baristas are better able to deliver quality drinks with less wait time for customers. Likewise, Google is so famous for its culture of experimentation and short development cycles that executives from far and wide travel to Silicon Valley in the hope of replicating Google’s success.

Speed is our friend

Many companies have conditioned themselves to think about speed as the enemy. They are slow by design. Risk is lurking around the corner, and we must move slowly – or so the thinking goes.
 
It’s understandable to think of speed as compromise between efficiency and quality. But that doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, that’s not what Lean proposes. Quality should be the first concern.

But how can we be fast when delivering high quality?

It’s not about doing things in a rush. Lean allows us to break down our process into smaller pieces. If you look at the value stream for any product or service – meaning, the entire process from beginning to end – most people don’t realize that the majority of our time is not spent on productive activities. People are usually waiting for something to be completed by someone else. Indeed, overall speed is not a function of how fast people can work. Instead, speed is the result of having a well-designed process that minimizes waste and waiting times.
 
Click here to learn more about our Lean Digital Revolution session and RSVP for all events here.
 
CI&T’s EVP of Global Innovation, Leonardo Mattiazzi, will host a panel discussion with Jason Lambert, Global Director, Head of B2B eCommerce at AB InBev and Brian McSweeney, CTO and CIO at  Standard Industries. Join them as they look under the hood and explore how companies are applying Lean Digital to give them that competitive edge. 

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