From Looking Digital to Being Digital: The Impact of Technology on the Future of Work At one level, there’s nothing especially Why focus on first- and second-level like Rio Tinto look at command and control. new in this insight. We’ve known for a management? Their jobs are likely to Recall that the head of innovation and long time that delegation is essential to change the most in the transition to being technology at Rio Tinto described the role managers’ ability to oversee larger numbers digital. They will need to be both literate of remote data centers as an advisory one of people and more complex processes. and numerate if they are going to support for mining operations, not a command role. However, there’s a dimension here that employees in making the most of available goes beyond simple delegation. That is, one data. They are going to be called upon We expect to see over the next five years of the lessons of the quality movement in to exercise judgment in reconciling what a similar development in digital enterprises. the 1980s and 1990s was the importance the intelligent tools recommend and what But the most significant break with the of measuring and charting the behavior history, culture and customers demand. past will be the exercise of restraint on of complex, end-to-end processes in order They are going to play the essential role of the part of core management. That is, the to bring them “under control”—recall the encouraging responsible experimentation, ability to scoop up data from the edges practice of drawing control charts as part dealing with inevitable failures or will tempt managers in the core to second- of statistical process control. breakdowns that experimentation produces, guess decisions made at the edges and, and translating strategic direction into worse, to usurp those decisions. So, just as The computer power to do that operational action. the Pentagon has marveled at technology automatically did not exist then but it that allows the US President and the Joint does today, and the highly instrumented Military organizations the world over Chiefs to see operations in real-time, it nature of many processes means that it have recognized the critical role of non- has also had to resist the impulse to is possible to “control chart,” model and commissioned officers for centuries. But make decisions at the edges. Figure 5 experiment with much larger segments of it was the emergence of guerilla tactics, below details other changes we anticipate a system than ever before. In fact, the asymmetrical warfare and terrorist attacks seeing in the role of management in the ability to model without intervening means that forced the US military into driving years ahead. we can experiment without shutting down; “power to the edge.” And, when they in some instances, it is possible to got there, they discovered even greater The point is, therefore, relatively simple: experiment even in the midst of routine importance in the role of unit leaders. first- and second-level supervision in operation without introducing undue risk. The military has moved from a centralized the digital enterprise will need to be system of command and control to one in carefully chosen, developed and rewarded. By increasing system control, management which strategic command set objectives Otherwise, the promise of being digital is is not rendered redundant; it’s given a and rules of engagement and leaves likely to wither on the vine. new mission: from a core objective of operational control to unit commanders. controlling processes to one of finding It has also reshaped the way companies ways to unlock value in processes or to create new value by applying well- understood processes in new ways. Figure 5: What happens to management? The second insight from the case studies is much more focused on the behavior of From To a stratum of management that only gets attention fitfully: first- and second-level Control process Unlock value management. These are the men and women responsible for being the universal Process information Make judgments gear that connects line employees and higher levels of management. Plan-check-do Experiment-then-scale React Initiate Deploy apps Listen to apps Manage Inspire 37 | Accenture | Copyright 2014 Accenture. All rights reserved. ©