Mobility Initiative | Planning Mobility Innovation with Your Company

“Are you planning to fail at mobility?” This may sound like a silly question. Who would plan to fail? Particularly at mobility initiatives because there are few businesses that will succeed going forward without taking full advantage of mobile technology advances. Yet, most organizations have major flaws in their mobile device management.

Words of wisdom stand the test of time…

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” 
― Benjamin Franklin

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” 
― Yogi Berra

While failure can be the driver for great innovation it should not be a goal. Building a strategy for what mobility can mean for your business can be daunting enough, but building a plan that you can execute on and that will deliver real business value is even a bigger stretch for most organizations.

Here are the most challenging issues most companies struggle with when it comes to mobile strategy and planning:

• Getting business unit owners, IT leaders and financial resources in alignment.
• Making sure strategies aren’t outdated.
• Taking a holistic approach to mobile management to gain agility and efficiencies.
• Understanding how to get from ideas/strategic plans to execution.
• Identifying and planning for points of possible failure.
• Recognizing end-user expectations and success factors.
• Crucial priorities.
• Unmovable deadlines.
• Planning for change.
• Understanding logistical, regulatory, safety and financial hurdles.
• Letting politics and ownership get in the way.

The three things most organizations lack that really stand in the way of continuous mobility innovation is expertise, experience – and most of all – OBJECTIVITY. Finding an objective, strategic partner that can cross the Chasm between “strategy” and “execution” is paramount. Even if you think you have a strong mobility strategy that circumvents the many challenges we’ve outlined here, get an objective party to audit your plan. You should look not only for feedback but actionable recommendations that provide a roadmap for your success. This year we will be spending a lot of time highlighting examples of successful mobility planning and execution to drive some of these points home.