Leading technology expert and founder of Yar Khan Consulting, Faiz Yarkhan, doesn’t see the world like other people. That’s because he has traveled to nearly every corner of it.
“My father worked for an airline, so while I was growing up, I would get on a plane every three months or so,” Yarkhan remembers. “We were stationed in Saudi Arabia and would go on trips throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.”
As an adult, Yarkhan has continued this peripatetic lifestyle, living in five different countries across three continents. “In addition to Saudi Arabia, I’ve lived in Canada, the UK, and India,” he explains. “Of course, now I live in the US, and my company is based in Chicago.”
This uncommon upbringing has given Yarkhan a unique perspective that informs his approach to digital transformation consulting.
Yarkhan’s uncommon upbringing leads to an uncommon perception
“Traveling to so many different places and living in so many different cultures has taught me to observe,” Yarkhan says. “People in different cultures react differently to the same thing. I learned from a young age to hone my powers of perception and always be aware of what’s going on.”
During his time assisting Fortune 500 and other companies, these powers of perception enabled him to identify a common failing in companies’ digital transformation initiatives.
“Over and over again, businesses would hire me to lead a digital transformation project, and I would encounter skepticism from the employees I was working with,” Yarkhan says. “They had been through many such attempts before, but nothing changed, so they didn’t think my project would change anything, either.”
Indeed, these employees’ cynicism reflects a painful reality. Studies show that over 80 percent of digital transformation efforts fail.
Yarkhan was dismayed by all the waste. “These corporations’ leadership were burning the companies’ money,” he remembers. “Moreover, a culture of inertia had set in, employees had become jaded, and effective digital transformation was becoming more and more unlikely.”
He founded Yar Khan Consulting to help companies overcome these obstacles. “Many of these problems come down to one thing: misalignment,” he explains.
How Yarkhan cures corporate misalignment
“In my experience, companies’ misalignment can take multiple forms,” Yarkhan says. “Either members of the leadership team aren’t aligned with each other, or they haven’t taken the time to align with the team as a whole. Another possibility is that they bring on multiple consultants who aren’t aligned with each other, leading them to work at cross purposes. As a result, the company spends tons of money and wastes valuable resources on a digital transformation strategy that is unlikely to change its operations.”
That’s why one of Yar Khan Consulting’s top priorities is to ensure alignment throughout an organization.
“I get it — major corporations have thousands of employees, and each department can have a budget of millions, so it’s understandable if department heads have their own technology initiatives,” Yarkhan says. “The problem is that, when care hasn’t been taken from the beginning, the different parts of the company can actually start to conflict with each other. As a result, you can have the best intentions, but all those efforts can still become counterproductive.”
Yarkan has years of experience helping the leadership teams at Fortune 500 and other companies pause, reflect, and agree on their digital transformation strategy. For instance, he developed and facilitated a series of workshops that helped the leadership at the insurance company New York Life decide on their purpose and develop a powerful sense of unity.
“We took the time to get attunement throughout the organization, which reduced team members’ resistance to change and led to a smooth adoption of the new technologies,” Yarkhan says. “It’s about putting people first and caring for the human element.”
Streamlining and improving businesses through digital transformation
Yarkhan’s keen perception also enables him to spot areas in business operations that can be streamlined and improved. For example, he analyzed the operations at Discover Financial Services and found ways to improve control while decreasing risk.
“They had been working as a project-based organization,” he explains. “Transitioning them to a product-based organization eliminated a lot of inefficiencies and accelerated workflows.”
Yarkhan also helped Grainger, a leading provider of industrial maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products, transition to an Agile methodology. “We coached their team on the Agile (News - Alert) approach and gave them tools for exerting more control and autonomy over their work,” he says. “The result was more employee engagement and better, more proactive collaboration. Basically, we empowered the whole team and made them more efficient.”
One of the biggest benefits of working with Yar Khan Consulting, however, is that Yarkhan doesn’t bring preconceived notions or canned solutions to the table.
“Many other consultants have established partnerships with specific vendors,” Yarkhan points out. “So their advice — unsurprisingly — is for clients to purchase software or other tools from those same vendors. That’s not how we operate. We prioritize the organization’s people and its needs. If we recommend specific vendors in the end, it’s because our discovery process led us to conclude that they would be the best fit, given the specific circumstances.”
Choose the human element
Companies can bring Yar Khan Consulting into their digital transformation journey at any point. Early in the process, Yarkhan can serve as that single person who ensures team alignment before other consultants or vendors are brought in. He can also assemble an expert team to implement any necessary changes or serve as the implementer himself, leading an organization’s team to success in a direction the company’s leadership has set.
Regardless of the digital transformation your business needs, Yar Khan Consulting can ensure you don’t waste your time and money.
Choose the human element. Choose Yar Khan Consulting.