Retail Collaboration - Innovation - Transformation

Transformation is hard work and is not completed overnight, no matter how it might seem or be viewed in the future, and technology is now making transformation a continuous and disruptive force in many business practices and the retail market may be the most visible example.  The transformative process is made up of changes that happen over a period of time that disrupt the business practices and there are steps taken along the way resulting from collaboration across the practice, or market, that bring innovation that transforms the market. Transformation, or disruption, does not occur overnight, it is made up of many changes and these changes now are driven by collaboration between partners in the retail market network.  These collaborative practices and interactions are building every day the innovations that will transform the marketplace.

Innovation building blocks that are developed through the collaborative efforts of the retail network partners are continuously driving the retail transformation that is driven by market demands for efficiencies and consumer demands for new goods and service.  This continuous process simplifies the change because it allows the partners to change and improve through steps of the continuous change model and this eases the transformation for the participating partners. This makes the process a little more hungry for attention and participation because of the continuous nature.  The result though allows the retail network partners that participate fully and embrace the collaborative innovation made possible by these practices to drive the transformation rather than chase the transformation. This is an important difference because the level and velocity of transformation is just increasing and will not allow for retailers to chase the transformation with any success.

The basic, and I believe most important, ingredient to the transformation model is the collaboration among and across partners in the network.  The collaboration across the network and the partners allows the partners to sense and respond to the changing demands through a continuous model of experimentation and verification (PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Act) that itself is driven by collaboration.  This model can only succeed through the collaborative efforts of the partners in a continuous process, there can be no part time participation. The nature of the process innovation and transformation requires continuous participation to maintain the level of innovation.  There will always be differing levels of change and innovation across partners, however the requirement for continuous participation by the partners maintain the feedback loop for the innovation and change which then improves the quality of the resulting changes.

The next important aspect is the collaborative network and the partners that make up the network.  The partners must expect and prepare for expansion and even contraction of the network and as the network grows and the market changes there will be a steady growth potential and opportunity for expansion based on changing demands and specialization of goods and services.  I see specialization as one of the key factors to responding to market pressures and service demands especially. These specialized partners in the network provide the network and partners with the ability to flex and change quickly and efficiently with their investment in collaboration rather than an investment in developing the new service.  The market will no longer wait for a retailer to develop services and the retailers relationships with the collaborative network will allow them to quickly push new services and goods into the market to meet the increasing demands.

The rule of the day for the retail marketplace in change and especially the velocity of change required to meet the market and consumer demands to transform the marketplace.  The most efficient and effective manner to adapt to this transformation is through the collaborative network. This will become evident shortly as the market reacts to new technologies and potential capabilities, and frankly as Amazon and other forward looking retailers push the envelope.  Retailers will be forced to join a collaborative network to continue to grow or they will stagnate and eventually fade away and the rate of these occurrences will also increase.