The story of Vasco: Who is living in your house?
Transformation Management
Buying a house is generally a well-considered decision. You choose a house with enough space, in a nice location, close to all the amenities you like to use. You go for a marketable house, an excellent investment with an eye on the future.
But suppose you buy a house on your own, without consultation and without considering the wants and needs of fellow occupants. Then such a house is still a good investment; a property will still become worth more over time given the current market. You can't easily do anything wrong.
Sooner or later, however, you might have to deal with a small house revolt. Kids who have to cycle an hour to school generally don't find that very funny. And a spouse who gets to wash in a far too cramped but oh-so-authentic bathroom every morning can get rather cranky about it pretty quickly.
So, for the sake of everyone and the peace of mind, it is better to take stock of everyone's wishes beforehand and factor them into the decision-making process. You will then probably end up with a slightly different house, but one where you will live satisfactorily for years to come.
Vasco Consult helps companies and organizations with their transformations. Big or small changes, the impact for the internal structure can be overwhelming. For a transformation to be successful, it is important to take into account the people who will be dealing with this change.
Rieneke Lanting, general manager Vasco Consult: "A company is not a house. It doesn't automatically become worth more. In large transformations, but frankly also in smaller innovation projects, a lot of time is always invested in the business case. Is the investment going to pay off? And in how many years exactly? Investments in IT applications, for example, serve to be more commercially successful or operationally more efficient and effective.
Yet for years, I have been surprised at how little attention is paid in these discussions to making sure the major projects land well in organizations. For the investment to pay off, the organization must start using it properly, employees must be trained, and processes adapted. Business readiness we call that.
At Vasco, this is precisely what we pay a lot of attention to. Together with the end-users we work on an implementation plan where we have an eye for training, communication, processes, and customers. For this, we always start with a thorough impact analysis. Yes, that takes time, but in the end you will win that back and save a lot of money.
At both large, international clients and smaller SMEs, we have helped with business readiness, and every time our clients cite this as a key reason for success. So, I will continue to fight to give business readiness a more prominent place on the agenda. The question should always be: who is living in the house? Or rather, who are the people in the organization? After all, what applies to a house also applies to an organization: if you take the user into account, only then will your investment be a real success."
