Successfully Transform Your Business Using the B.O.L.T.S Framework

“STRIVING FOR A FRICTIONLESS EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES, SUPPLIERS, OR OTHER STAKEHOLDERS ISN’T JUST SOMETHING THAT THE DIGITAL ERA HAS ENABLED YOU TO DO. AT THIS POINT, IT’S A REQUIREMENT. IF YOU AREN’T REDUCING FRICTION IN EVERY PART OF YOUR BUSINESS, YOU WILL SOON BE DONE.”

— The Future of Commerce Belongs to the Frictionless - Wired Magazine

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” The iconic opening lines of the Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities has never been more relevant than in this present moment. Looking at the current trends, it is quite easy to swing from one extreme to another on the emotional pendulum with no stops in between.   

The fact is, we are only at the very beginning of the tipping point of this transformational change. In the next few decades, our realities of how things function, how business is done, how we learn and even our power structures will undergo radical changes that we can’t possibly imagine.

If you are a business owner or an entrepreneur, your focus is undoubtedly on survival or figuring out how best to pivot your business for what comes next. The convergence of a global pandemic, social upheaval, and the continued rapid growth of automation, AI, IoT, and other technological evolutions will only accelerate the need for new ways of serving customers faster and in myriad ways in this new reality.

As more challenges emerge in the environment, you need to rebuild and reimagine your business in a way that allows it to be resilient, sustainable, and flexible in the face of adversity and rapid disruption. It’s time to transform your business, plain and simple.

Transformation doesn’t need to be hard. You can demystify the process if you focus your time and energy on five critical pivot points in your business. These five pivot points are the basis for any business transformation process, and you can focus on them using the BOLTS framework.

The BOLTS framework is a simple process that helps you create a strategic plan for the areas of your business that can help you survive most dynamic disruptions taking place in the market today:

Business Model Innovation. If your current business model is quickly becoming obsolete, or even if it is currently providing great results, now is the time to research what comes next. The best time to prepare for disruption or even look for opportunities is when there isn’t a crisis in sight, not during. Think about innovating your business model by prototyping new products and services and testing them out in the market. They may be your next opportunity during the next crisis. Wouldn’t it be great if you discovered it beforehand and not after?

The second part of the BOLTS framework focuses on Organizational Design. Is the way you are currently organized in your business the best structure to make fast and data-driven decisions? Can you respond quickly to changes in customer demands? Or a new competitor with a more compelling business model? If the answer is no, then it’s time to rethink how you are structured and what is the best model to help you weather the storms that are sure to come. Now more than ever, you need to design your organization for speed, agility, and the best customer experience.

The third area is Leadership Adaptability. Is your leadership adaptable and capable of leading teams with influence, mastery, and autonomy? Can they lead their teams to be strategic, innovative and transformative? Your leaders are a key linchpin to your transformation process and the more they can execute your vision without direction from you, the more efficient your organization will be.

Team Agility-The fourth area of course is your employees. Your teams need to be agile, flexible, autonomous, and free to make the best decisions for your customers. The days of command and control are practically over. What you need are employees who understand the commander’s intent and can carry it out with the best interest of the customer in mind. If your employees do not understand clearly what the vision of the company is and how best to carry it out, especially during times of disruption, then you will be a slow-moving target that cannot pivot when times are tough.

Finally, the last part of the framework is your Strategy. If your strategic roadmap is one that is built as a rigid five-year plan with no room for additional expansion or even change of direction, then you are sure to become obsolete. The environment is becoming so extremely dynamic and unpredictable that strategic initiatives can change from year to year. Your strategic plan needs to be focused both on the short term and the long term. In other words, you need a strategic portfolio where you are exploring and exploiting various market opportunities that can lead your business to be resilient no matter the environment. This goes back to business model innovation and being nimble as an organization.

The different parts of the BOLTS framework work together like pieces of a puzzle with each one influencing the other. The idea is not to apply the framework all at once inside your organization, but rather prototyping it with one team, one project, and one business value. Once it proves itself to be effective for you then work on scaling it throughout the organization.

Surviving the massive disruption taking place around you should be your number one priority if you want to be around for the long run. Now is the time to focus on transforming your business, and the BOLTS framework is a good way to be strategic about where to focus your efforts.

The level of disruption taking place is sure to be around for at least the next decade as new technologies, inventions and creative destruction accelerate. The question for every company now is how best to position themselves above the wave and ride it to its inevitable end.

If you would like to learn a bit more about the BOLTS framework and see if it would work for your organization, schedule a 15-minute call with us. No selling and no pitching. Just a 15-minute conversation about your business and if and how the BOLTS framework could work for you. We look forward to speaking with you soon.