<\/a>Illuminating a light bulb takes work that occurs \u201cbeneath the surface.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/div>\nAt the time, Edison was working to transform the way the world was illuminated at night, and there is a direct application of what Edison accomplished to what we are experiencing today.<\/p>\n
What many people don\u2019t realize is that, as he was developing the incandescent light bulb, Edison was also focused on the \u201cend-to-end process.\u201d Challenged with transforming the customer experience of seeing at night in a better, cheaper and safer manner, Edison worked on building the physical end-to-end process of generating and delivering the power necessary to illuminate the bulb he had developed.<\/p>\n
The world only saw the \u201cend customer experience\u201d of the illuminated bulb \u2013 and how it would change the world. But not many people realized that this couldn\u2019t have happened without Edison\u2019s focus on the end-to-end process: How the bulb would get illuminated.<\/p>\n
A Lesson for Today<\/h2>\n
This parallel is crucial when thinking about today\u2019s digital transformation. Too often, organizations are focused on the end customer experience, i.e., the light bulb. As long as the \u2018light bulb\u2019 looks good, responds well, is intuitive and has the features we want, then the organization considers their efforts a success. Unfortunately, organizations that only focus on this aspect ultimately do not achieve the full transformation they are hoping to achieve.<\/p>\n
Learning from Edison, it\u2019s necessary to make sure a successful digital customer experience is tied to an efficient, integrated, end-to-end business process. The process needs to be able to execute the customer request quickly\/efficiently, effectively manage exceptions and ultimately achieve what the customer is trying to do with no interruption.<\/p>\n
Compare this to digital experiences with which you interact every day; notice \u2018light bulbs\u2019 that are tied to incomplete or inefficient supporting physical processes.<\/p>\n
Some examples:<\/p>\n