Transformation Requires the Right Ingredients and Mindset! Do You Have Them? – Cisco Blogs

Recently, I had my team participate in a virtual pie-making activity.

For some, this was business as usual. They were very comfortable in the kitchen, knowing what the experience would be like. Without missing a beat, they whipped out the supplies, utensils, and ingredients they needed from their shelves the night before and were ready early the next morning to get their ovens baking.

For others on my team, however, baking was way out of their comfort zones. This group’s cupboards were relatively bare, and they had to order all the items required and literally (no kidding) dust off their ovens.

But beyond this preparation, what I found most important was everyone’s spirit to prepare, collaborate, and, for many, try something completely new—everyone taking into the pie-making activity the mindset to transform the supply list and their efforts into yummy pies!

I was also struck by how this activity also aligned with a quote I recently read:

“We prepare for the moment, so that we can be prepared in the moment!”
-Kevin Deshazo, Author “Keep Chopping Wood”

This pie-making experience reminded me of the transformation that many of our partners are going through daily. Even before the craziness of 2020, our partners have been transforming as they figure out how to best leverage cloud, SaaS, managed services, customer experience, line-of-business selling/solutions, and API integration, while also looking at new consumption models that their customers now demand.

The parallel with my team’s pie-making exercise seems clear: For some, the leap to do something new is in their comfort zones and relatively easy, while for others it can all feel rather complicated and confusing.

So, whether you find helping your customers with their digital transformation journeys a piece of cake (or pie, as the case may be) or are putting on your transformational apron for the first time, in 2021 we will share a series of stories, videos, and other content meant to help you bring your “transformational action plans” to life.

But for now, our supply list for transformation includes:

• Customer experience
• New buying centers
• Emerging technology
• Multipartner integration
• API/DevNet
• Managed services
• Renewals and customer success

And this is just the start.

Our hope is that by laying out transformational action plans, along with the aligned transformation supply list, you will be better prepared to cook up some delicious transformations for your customers. Stay tuned!

Now, time for me to get to eating some of this yummy pie!

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