What is a DOMA Based digital Operating Model and how it is the key to organizational resilience?

Operating Models are defined by three interlinked dimensions: Process (what is done), Roles (who does it), and Metrics (how performance is measured).  Originally, operating models were artisanal in nature with a few simple activity steps completed by one person. Performance was judged on final completion of the product or service. For the most part this was only understood by the artisan. While simple to manage, the artisanal model was not repeatable and very difficult to scale or replicate. While artisanal operating models may have fit the needs of the time, their limitations became more apparent over time as technology advanced, the world became more complex, and aspirations expanded.

Modern approaches to dealing with complexity and change tend to make a trade-off between two competing attributes of structure versus agility. On the one hand, businesses can attempt to “hard code” in every element of the value chain. While this “assembly line” approach was very beneficial in the early stages of industrialization, the complexity of current businesses and the accelerating pace of change has increasingly exposed this approach as being far too rigid. To gain greater agility, some businesses have moved to the other extreme by loosening organizational integration which can limit the ability to achieve seamless flow and affect change in an integrated manner. The accelerating pace of change in the world exposes both these approaches as too limiting.  A new approach is called for that simultaneously provides BOTH structure and agility.     

How Digital Operating Model Atoms fit together

A DOMA (Digital Operating Model Atom) Based approach builds in integration between the processes, roles, and metrics of an organization at an “atomic level”.  In turn, the linkages between each DOMA is explicitly defined. This approach mimics the type of atomic level integration that occurs in nature with these atoms then being able to form complex systems which are both structured and adaptable to enable business optimization and resilience. Since DOMA Based Operating Models are integrated across multiple dimensions at an atomic level, they have the ability to scale, flex, and adapt without losing cohesion. In the event that radical reinvention of the value chain is required, the rewiring requirements across all the elements of the business are easily understood upfront and straightforward.  DOMA Based Operating Models achieve higher levels of performance and adaptability with complete visibility to every employee. The implications for scaling, adapting, and evolving are profound.