The New Reality - full report

THE NEW
REALITY
Full report
JUNE 2015
The New Reality is a research study about how
digital technology will deliver the next
step-change in social impact

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Executive summary
The digital revolution has already
happened, and we are living in the
aftermath.
The scale of change that has taken
place - in how people choose to
communicate, watch TV, learn, bank,
shop, and organise their lives - has been
likened to the industrial revolution.
And it’s not over yet. The pace of
technology-fuelled change is still
accelerating.
For the non-profit sector this process of digital
transformation offers both exciting opportunities
and significant risks. Those organisations who relish
the task will find new ways to both revolutionise
their internal operations, and to deliver high impact
services to more people who need them.
The insights from the New Reality study reveal that
there is no magic wand to wave which can create
digital transformation overnight. This is a journey
with multiple potential paths, and some serious
challenges to be faced. Some organisations have
already made significant progress. Others are
uncertain about where to begin. This study aims to
provide some of the answers.
The New Reality offers a framework, examples, and
specific guidance on how organisations can get
further along this digital transformation journey -
and reap the benefits along the way.
A note on audience: This study has looked across and
outside the non-profit sector to bring as broad a range of
shared insights as possible. However, in order to deliver
most value, the report is aimed at established organisations
rather than the new or start-up non-profits who tend to be
more digital by nature.
How do we turn all this
sector talk into sector action?”
Emma Thomas, former CEO of Youthnet
“
Having a digital strategy will soon seem as
ridiculous as having an electricity strategy”
Kay Boycott, CEO, Asthma UK
“

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Key insights
Digital services will deliver greater
value than anyone can imagine
(but first we need to address the
culture and infrastructure issues
that are standing in the way)
The use of technology to deliver social value
is still in its infancy, yet examples given reveal
an already staggering level of impact: from
emergency health information delivered on
Whatsapp - to low cost, 3D-printed, prosthetic
limbs for landmine victims. To realise the full
potential of ideas like these, the change inside
organisations will need to be as far reaching
as those we see on the outside.
Until sector leadership stops
delegating responsibility for digital
we’re not going to get very far
Lack of engagement and buy-in from senior
leadership was by far the most frequently
cited barrier to digital transformation
across the study’s interviews. This applies
to CEOs who have mistakenly delegated
all responsibility for digital to middle
management, to trustees who think digital
is just for the young, and to other senior
executives who have yet to reassess their
strategies in light of the potential on offer.
Major skills gaps need plugging
The speed of technology change has
created a gap between the digital skills that
organisations have, and additional ones
they need. Key areas identified were: data,
digital strategy, lean and iterative process
management, and business model innovation.
You don’t need a digital strategy
When organisations first started to
develop digital strategies it was a clear
sign of progress. However increasingly
this separation from the central mission
reinforces a perception that digital is just
another department with its own goals, rather
than an enabler for all. Instead we need
central organisational strategies that weave
technology throughout everything - for every
department, and for all audience groups.
The age of big, corporate IT is over
In the commercial world, painful legacy
systems are finally giving way to a new
generation of more nimble and flexible tools
championed by a new style of IT leadership
who say “yes” rather than “no”. Most non-profit
sector organisations need now to question
whether it might be the style of IT leadership
that needs changing, not just the kit they’re
running.
#1
#4
#2
#5
#3
Until we’re further along this
process - your CEO is your
Head of Digital.”
Jonathan Simmons, CXO, Zone
“

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Key insights
A tried and tested process for
delivering transformation already
exists - it’s just not being used
Start small: pick one problem and put
enough effort into transforming that one area
through a lean, iterative approach. Learn
from that and move on to the next thing. A
huge number of contributors were advocates
of this prototype-test-iterate process for
transforming operations, but few had
managed to get their organisations to adopt
it at scale.
Funders need to divert efforts
towards supporting core costs to
help organisations through this
period of change
Funders came under fire for choosing
product-led investment over core-funding at
a time when organisations need to reinvent
themselves from the centre outwards. Non-
profit organisations themselves must also get
smarter about the funding they seek in order
to make better use of the rapidly expanding
social finance market.
The next stage of digital for
non-profits is not fundraising and
marketing
Efforts and successes in digital to date have
largely been focused on digital marketing
and fundraising. Whilst these have been -
and continue to be - valuable, the focus now
needs to be on how digital technology can
transform organisations around their core
mission. This may mean moving digital teams
away from these directorates in order to grow
digital expertise across the board.
Organisations need to implement
and formalise R&D programmes
In order to avoid external disruption we need
to move faster and challenge ourselves more
in these extraordinary times. Some of the
biggest successes in digital transformation
have come from organisations who
have integrated structured research and
development activities into what they do.
A range of options exist for how to do this -
many of which are low cost and low risk - but
few non-profits have prioritised innovation.
We need to think beyond web to a
broad range of digital technologies
to achieve maximum impact
The Government Digital Service has already
demonstrated the value of reinventing
information, advice and transactional services
via the web. There is huge potential in web-
based services for non-profits too but an
even bigger opportunity exists if we can bring
together the best of the web’s capabilities
with other technology services from sensors
and trackers to wearables and AI.
#6 #9
#7 #10
#8
The sector is too complacent
about the new, more digital
entrants”
Karl Wilding, Director of Public Policy, NCVO
“

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Themes from the research
The insights from the New Reality are divided into 6 themes:
LEADERSHIP
INNOVATION
CULTURE
FUNDING
INFRASTRUCTURE
SERVICE DELIVERY
Leaders of all types have a
role to play in delivering digital
transformation, but the sector is
crying out for more inspirational
change-makers at the top to help
guide the sector through the next
few years of change.
This theme offers three models that
non-profits can use to experiment
with technology-enabled ideas
for the future, and explains why
organisations who are not investing
in R&D risk major disruption in the
next 5 years.
Don’t be fooled by the word ‘digital’
in ‘digital transformation’ - this is
a culture change process at its
heart. This theme explores how to
achieve the new culture needed to
thrive in this new reality.
What’s holding organisations
back from both getting and giving
investment to support tech-
enabled transformative work? This
theme explores and reviews the
available options put forward by
the New Reality’s contributors.
After years struggling with legacy IT,
a new generation of infrastructure
tools is emerging. This theme asks:
What kind of relationship with
technology do we want for our
organisations? And what kind of
people do we need to deliver that?
Our vision of digital to date has
been heavily focused on digital
fundraising and marketing. Whilst
valuable, the real prize is in using
technology to deliver social impact
through digital services - a journey
that we’ve only just begun.

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THEME: LEADERSHIP
Leading from the front...
not bringing up the rear
“Until we’re further along the journey of this transformation, your CEO is
your head of digital”
Jonathan Simmons, CXO, Zone
The central hypothesis of the New Reality is that technology can and will affect
every aspect of how non-profits operate (to varying degrees). Yet when we look
across the sector, the conditions aren’t currently set up to facilitate this shift.
Within this context, leadership - of all forms, and at all levels - was by far the
most frequently mentioned topic across the interviews carried out for the New
Reality, and the concerns raised here should be a wake up call to any established
organisation in the sector.
Before throwing punches it’s important to recognise that until a few years ago, the
sector had actually been doing pretty well under the stewardship of incumbent
leaders. Non-profit organisations both large and small had been sailing the fretful
waters of policy change and shifting supporter demands whilst growing in the
process (according to a 2014 study by SCVO the third sector has doubled its income
in the past decade despite the recession). So why is leadership coming under such
fierce criticism now? Jon Alexander provided this concise summary:
“We’ve come out of a period where things were ticking along nicely. But
now, when you’re in a period of flux, you need people who are prepared
to stick out their necks. It’s the difference between leaders playing to win
versus playing not to lose.”
Jon Alexander, Founder, New Citizenship Project
The New Reality’s contributors are making a clarion call for pioneering leadership:
CEOs, senior directors, trustees and chairs to seize this opportunity to use digital
transformation to drive a new era of social impact and to also recognise that
`business as usual’ is a more inherently risk-laden choice than creating space for
experimentation and action.

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4 STAND-OUT CONCERNS WERE IDENTIFIED AROUND LEADERSHIP:
1. Sector leadership isn’t currently demonstrating vision or bravery in
digital transformation
2. Responsibility for the process has been delegated away from senior
levels
3. Digital leaders and champions within the sector are often focused on
delivery not strategy
4. Trustees are failing to support proactive change
1. Develop your vision and be brave
“If I could only change one thing? It would be for CEOs to be more open
and brave.”
Vicky Browning, Director, CharityComms
A handful of organisations have used the period of change caused by the financial
crisis as an opportunity to reassess the feedback loop, adjust their business models
and they’ve come out swinging:
“Having all our budgets cut was actually good for us. We slimmed down
and now we only have budget to facilitate stuff rather than deliver and
that’s working.”
CEO of a major City Council
Others have battened down the hatches and are sitting tight in the anticipation that
the storm is weatherable. It may prove to be so, but meanwhile, it might also break
up the boat before it blows itself out.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that this changing landscape calls for a new
style of leadership - one that is playing to win. And the game is all about finding
better ways to serve audiences and run services. Bravery could mean:
• Stopping some existing operations to free up space and budget for digital
planning and delivery
• Investing in unfamiliar skills like data science over traditional ones like
marketing
• Replacing trustees who aren’t up for the journey

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It may even mean going back to square one and completely reassessing the shape
of an organisation in light of the new potential value offered by digital services:
“Is digital just a better, faster way of communicating? Or are there more
fundamental issues about power, ownership and decision making? About
participation and co-production - and all those buzzwords that are really
relevant to us?… Can we decentralise? Can we devolve? Can we let go
and start doing things in a different way?”
Steve Ford, CEO, Parkinson’s UK
“This is where you need to start from scratch with your strategy. You need
to park all of your current activities and start again asking questions
such as who are your core beneficiaries? What are they really doing in
their lives?”
Is digital really the bottom of the list of CEO’s priorities?
Some interviewees made a link between lack of vision in this area and a perceived
lack of urgency. This appears to be backed up by recent research from ACEVO and
CAF. The recent ‘Social Landscape’ study asked 427 CEOs ‘Which are the three
most pressing challenges facing your organisation?’ The list included options around
finances, awareness, resourcing – and only one option for ‘New technology - online
and mobile solutions for giving and communication...’, which ranked 16 out of 18 -
almost the bottom of the list of CEO’s priorities, below everything from ‘maintaining
volunteer engagement’ to ‘finding skilled staff’.
The message this reflects back to ACEVO’s own membership is dangerous: it says
“it’s OK, other CEOs don’t think technology is a priority either”. It also seems to
suggest that even though sector leaders have a huge list of worries, they don’t yet
see how prioritising technology might help them find the answers. The message
that this is urgent isn’t getting through.
According to the majority of the New Reality cohort - the majority of sector
leadership isn’t playing to win here – and we don’t yet know what the costs of
watching from the sidelines may be. The answer to delivering greater social value
exists, but only if we find leaders brave enough to take some risks. Otherwise the
consequences may be dramatic:
“We’re going to cease to exist if we don’t make everything that we do
relate to how people live their lives now. And digital is really changing
the way people live”
Beth Thoren, Director of Fundraising & Comms, RSPB

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2. Don’t delegate it
Byron Dorgan once said, “You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate
responsibility.”
Many of the contributors to the New Reality shared the view that the responsibility
for delivering impact at scale through digital had indeed been erringly delegated
away from senior leadership. This appears to also be borne out by the experience of
requesting interviews with CEOs for this study – the response was typically positive,
but most CEOs asked first if this should be a conversation with their Head of Digital
in place of themselves.
Various studies have highlighted that digital has yet to find a permanent ‘home’ and
can variously be found in Fundraising, Marketing, Comms and IT. But these studies
may be missing the critical point - the question is not where can digital live within
an organisation to be effective? But, how can digital be harnessed if it only lives in
one place? Trying to ‘own’ digital from one functional perspective limits its potential:
to support an effective change process all functions must be enabled - from the
Director of fundraising to the Director of HR (see more on HR’s role in the Culture
theme). The current picture of many digital operations is one that is deeply silo’d,
and disempowered.
In many commercial organisations the post of Chief Digital Officer (CDO) has been
introduced to raise the profile/weight of technology within organisations. See:
Guardian and Techcrunch articles on this.
CASE STUDY:
BRAVE LEADERS = GREAT SUCCESSES AT PENGUIN
Anna Rafferty was Digital MD at Penguin from 2009 to 2014:
“I was lucky to have worked with two great leaders who fully understood
the need for digital transformation. At Penguin John Makinson the Chair was
very active in social transformation. He was very supportive, very interested,
and very brave. At Pearson (Penguin’s parent company) Marjorie Scardino
the former CEO really lived the core values of ‘Decent’, ‘Innovative’ and
‘Brave’. She did things like giving me access to an innovation fund where I
could apply to for money to do things that were outside business as usual.
I used that to deliver projects like the Penguin online dating business - a
joint venture with Match.com. The incredible surprise it generated meant
that we were on the front page of major broadsheets, and in press everywhere from Toronto to Tobago. The
experiment was all about using our brand digitally elsewhere, and selling our expertise around metadata
rather than our content. It worked, it got good PR and it made us money.”

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A handful of non-profits have followed suit (the Met in the US and Royal Historic
Palaces being notable examples), but as yet, the New Reality’s cohort remained
unconvinced that a permanent role at this level was the real solution (although seen
as a definite step in the right direction):
“To have a permanent CDO sort of misses the point. That’s potentially
creating another silo - albeit a more effective one - it still says “this is
something separate for someone else to worry about”
Gareth Ellis-Thomas, Head of Digital, Prostate Cancer UK
Creating a temporary role at director level (a 2-3 year FTC post), combined with a
serious evaluation and up-skilling in digital know-how for all senior management
is one solution (with the obvious caveat that they must work together against
traditional silos to be effective).
Among interviews there were many examples given where senior teams were
constantly “at each others throats”, and rarely in a mood to see how collaborating
on digital projects could offer cross-functional benefits. In a more positive example
David Steadman, an executive director at Action on Hearing Loss shared this insight
about how their senior leadership team work together to effectively support new
initiatives:
“What makes our leadership team work here? The people in the top
team are very collegiate and work closely together. We’re small enough
that I can get involved in innovative projects and help the organisation
support them”
David Steadman, Executive Director Fundraising & Marketing, Action on Hearing Loss
It is an unhealthy organisational culture where work aiming to secure a positive
future for the company has to be done in secret, yet this is clearly happening.
Interviewees who’ve successfully led and managed change processes around
digital often cited examples where work was done ‘under the radar’ following
unsuccessful attempts to engage senior leadership. Others said that they sought out
‘the real leaders’ within their organisations - managers with some power and budget
who were prepared to help work against the grain to make tech-enabled projects
happen.
In the New Reality, your CEO is your head of digital.

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Digital champions must focus on
strategy not just delivery
“Digital managers are trying to do both delivery and strategy and there
isn’t enough room. Charities are wasting the opportunities that these
people could bring with more space to think. I’ve finally got round to
doing some strategy - it’s only taken a year!”
Erin Hedger, Digital Manager, Depression Alliance
Most references to ‘leaders’ in this theme are about the most senior levels of
leadership within an organisation - the CEO, senior directors and board of trustees.
This section is an exception - focusing instead on the specific digital leadership
within organisations, only a handful of whom are currently at director level.
Let’s be clear: the demands on digital leadership are vast. Heads of Digital are
expected to be experts in everything from social media marketing to digital
fundraising, from data use through to systems integration. Nonetheless some
interviewees raised the question of whether we have been guilty of fostering digital
leaders with high tactical competence and delivery skills, over more strategic (and
potentially more impactful) behaviours in the sector.
“Lots of charities don’t empower their digital leaders to be strategic.
We’re not developing that enough in the sector. I truly believe there’s a
bit of a gap there”
Laila Takeh, CMO, Raising IT
A third of study contributors felt strongly that existing digital leaders were not able to
achieve their ambitions without further support or intervention from higher up. And
it appears that this is creating an even bigger problem: 10% of the study participants
had either left internal roles within the sector – or were intending to leave – because
of a deep frustration over the barriers blocking digital transformation.
Interviewees from cross-sector organisations involved in this study suggested that
the conversation amongst digital leaders in non-profits is changing from one of
frustration at budget and resource limitations (this still exists as a concern but to
a lesser degree), to a firm call for greater prioritisation and more structure around
the process of tech enablement. That certainly looks like more strategic progress,
but the question remains about whether this push is being effectively supported,
and whether the distractions of daily digital delivery are significantly impeding
organisations’ digital transformation processes.
There are, of course, some inspiring stories of success showing how and where
digital leaders in organisations are making significant headway in partnership with
senior leadership. But it’s also apparent that every success required a hard-fought
battle to win support in the first place.

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Given that Heads of Digital are chomping at the bit to drive digital transformation,
but are sometimes struggling to be heard due to their limited representation at
director level, it is also relevant to consider whether change will ultimately be led
from the bottom up rather than the top down.
The dominant view from the New Reality’s cohort was that even though the bottom
up approach may be able to deliver the bulk of the transition, there must be explicit
permission and endorsement given from senior leadership to get the ball rolling.
“You need both top down and bottom up leadership to change an
organisation. The most powerful thing is to start bottom up with small
projects to show that it works - but getting permission (from top down)
to even start – that is the key to everything”
Sarah Prag, Digital transformation coach, Quotidian Consulting
“We’re trying to create bottom up change - and it is working - but
it’s not fast enough. We need the top down backing to really move us
forward quickly. When did Noah build the ark? Before the rain”
Frankie Wicks, Digital Delivery Manager, RSPB
4. Trustees are failing to support
proactive change
The role of charity trustees in enabling and supporting change was raised by over a
quarter of interviewees, with clear frustrations bubbling up about the perceived risk-
averse behaviours of most boards:
“The relationship between CEOs and their trustees in many charities is
really broken. There’s often an atmosphere of mistrust”
Rich Williams, Head of Digital, Bloodwise
“All of our trustees have a direct connection to our cause. Whilst you can
see how that’s happened it has blocked people from other places, who
may have something new to offer our organisation”
Anonymous senior director at a major health charity
There is clearly a problem here.

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Nesta outlined the urgency of this issue in their 2014 Going Digital report:
“Getting buy–in from trustees and management is crucial. Even if it
requires a shift in culture, it is important to educate people as much as
possible”
And whilst the sector isn’t ignoring the issue – significant numbers of the
organisations who have been involved in the study are actively in the process
of recruiting new trustees, some with the explicit intention of bringing in digital
knowledge – even this strategy is not a sure-fire way to raise support for
transformational change. A word of warning was offered by one contributor:
“In my experience individuals seem to put another hat on when
they become a trustee for a charity - and it makes them much more
conservative and risk-averse.”
Jon Kingsbury, Head of Digital Economy, Knowledge Transfer Network
Fortunately these problems are surmountable and evidence was offered by a
handful of The New Reality’s contributors of some trustees really championing the
use of digital within organisations. Laila Takeh provided this comforting contrast:
“At Unicef UK the trustees were the fire behind bringing in the digital
transformation role. They were pushing for it, and at MS Society we had
trustees who were key users of the very popular forums which meant
there was lots more scrutiny but also support.”
The New Reality cohort identified the age profile of the average trustee as a key
challenge that many were grappling with: 2.1% of all charity trustees are under the
age of 30, with the average age being 57 (source: Charity Commission).
Although bringing a younger generation into trusteeship may result in resistance
from existing trustees and senior management (see this paper), it is an approach that
has been endorsed commercially. The benefits of the diverse viewpoints brought to
boards by digital natives should not be ignored or underestimated.
“Put someone under 30 on your board. It may raise eyebrows but they’ll
soon understand the benefits.”
Pete Davis, Landsdown partners
What is clear is that for existing boards there is work to be done. All non-profits
without a clear tech champion should develop a programme of trustee resources
to educate and press the scale and urgency of this New Reality. A presentation from
the Head of Digital about ‘how the new website is doing’ won’t scratch the surface.

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Conclusion
“Business leaders are getting away with
this because we’re not demanding it.”
Baronness Martha Lane Fox, from her recent Dimbleby Lecture
According to the New Reality’s contributors -
outside a handful of inspiring individuals - senior
leaders in non-profit organisations (of all sizes)
are failing to embrace the digital transformation
opportunities on offer. This applies to: CEOs who
have mistakenly delegated all responsibility for
‘digital’ to middle management; trustees who
think digital is just for the young; and to other
senior executives who have yet to reassess their
strategies in light of the potential digital technology
offers.
The very real risk of losing relevance in a
competitive market over the next 5 years has
been recognised by some enlightened leaders,
but not enough action has happened to date. The
importance of the pioneer or inspirational change-
maker cannot be ignored, whether that’s the CEO,
a leading trustee, or a senior director who has both
the will and capacity to push this forward. This
doesn’t mean that leaders need to understand the
technology itself, simply that we cannot unlock the
next stage in social impact without it.
“Your digital leader doesn’t need to be a
technologist. They just have to understand
the scale of change and the necessary
plan to get there.”
Ed Humphrey, Digital Director, British Film Institute
Recommendations
For CEOs, executive directors and trustees:
• Remember, until you’ve got this nailed,
you are Head of Digital. Ideally find a digital
transformation champion or coach. This person
is your critical friend – they may be inside your
organisation already – or you may need someone
with an external point of view. Listen to them and
let them support you in realising your ambitions
• Make time to listen. Make the most of other
conversations that are already happening – meet
with your digital and technology agencies to hear
what they have to say, seek out the spaces where
the debate is going on and turn up with your
listening ears on
• Set targets. Put targets around digital
transformation in every directorate’s strategy
• Let the experimentation commence! Commit to
creating the budget and space for some tech-
focused R&D to happen
• Hire someone senior to help. If you still really
feel this still has to be delegated, don’t keep
‘muddying through’. It’s not going away. Put a
director in charge of this and seek buy-in from
the senior levels within your organisation and your
trustees to open a digital transformation post.
This is a priority hire, but a temporary one: a 2-3
year post for someone who has a background in
strategy and implementation
• Break the silos. Focus on breaking down
any traditional silos that are frequently your
organisation from getting the most out of the
technology
• Build digital knowledge into your trustee board.
If you don’t have a clear tech champion on your
trustee board, ask yourself and your senior team
why not. If you can’t get buy in from trustees
straight off the bat, develop an evidence base
and an education programme around trustee
resources. You are laying the foundations for when
you revisit the issue with a bigger call to action

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THEME: CULTURE
Be the Change: how to
live and breathe digital
transformation
“This comes down to the culture of the organisation rather than the
technology itself”
Simon Gillespie, CEO, British Heart Foundation
The next few years will be critical to the digital transformation process. We’ll start
to see organisations who ‘get this’ re-merging their digital strategies back into their
overall mission - pushing through a series of unglamorous internal changes, from
investment in skills to changing recruitment processes, from overhauling IT to,
ultimately, changing how they think – and how they do. And whilst it may not feel
like innovation from the outside, the organisations who grasp this change-nettle will
be laying strong foundations to survive and thrive in to the future.
The New Reality’s leaders do not underestimate the task: shaking off the shackles
of old habits and expectations will present difficult challenges. Our experts were
quick to highlight that we should not be fooled by the word ‘digital’ in ‘digital
transformation’ - underlining that what we bring to the party as people is what will
ultimately create cultural change.
“The culture is the fundamental thing. You can talk about digital, but
actually if you don’t change the culture of the organisation then nothing
will happen. It’ll just be window dressing.”
The good news is that we obviously aren’t starting from scratch here – this is a
cultural change that is already underway and there’s an existing zeitgeist to tap
into – if you know where to look. Yet, it’s also crucial to acknowledge that in any
discussion about business transformation, you’ll quickly run up against the “people
don’t like change” mantra. Indeed, the fear of a painful and costly change process
was cited as a key factor in the slow progress to date. But perhaps we should stop
listening to the rhetoric, because there there’s plenty of evidence that we are good
at change where technology is concerned: we all learnt to use computers as part
of our daily working lives, we all adopted email, we accepted smartphones as an
improvement over our landlines, and the fastest growing group on Twitter are 50+
(Source: Fastcompany). Yes, there may be some casualties in the process who resist
this change, but we humans are adaptable.

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To minimise resistance, we must make a relatively swift and smooth transition
between demonstrating why this transformation is needed, to showing how it is
possible. The change may not happen overnight - cultural transformation of any
organisation is hard - but the tantalising prospect of weaving digital technology
into the fabric of our organisations is, in the New Reality cohort’s view, worthy of
all the rejuvenation effort we can muster. And when the idea of a digital strategy
- as separate from the core organisational strategy - prompts snorts of derision,
organisations will know they’re on the path to technology invisibility - and success.
Ditch the digital strategy
“Having a digital strategy will soon seem as ridiculous as having an
electricity strategy.”
Initially the development of digital strategies within non-profits was seen as a clear
sign of progress, but increasingly this separation from the central organisation’s
stated mission is reinforcing a perception that technology is just another department
with its own goals, rather than an enabler for all.
“We’re developing the digital strategy now, but should it have been
more of a part of the central strategy at the start? Some would say it
should have been. That’s what I’d say to other Chief Executives – they
need to question that.”
Steve Ford, CEO, Parkinson’s UK
The New Reality cohort are leading from the front and their message is clear:
there is a discrepancy between having a digital strategy separate from the broader
organisational strategy:
“Many organisations are still asking for a digital strategy, instead of
an organisational strategy that embeds digital and technology as a
universal enabler, across the board.”
Owen Pringle, Director of Therein.org
A number of interviewees also highlighted that existing digital strategies may
already be out of date because of the rapid change in technology and digital skills.
Their recommendation was clear: as a minimum organisational strategies should be
reviewed on at least an annual basis to assess digital technology’s performance. And
strategies should equip organisations with a mandate to seek further opportunities
for its use in wider operations.

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Unlikely protagonists?
Why HR is digital’s new best friend!
Human resources teams and directors are rarely experts in digital technology,
but according to some of the New Reality’s most experienced contributors, they
urgently need to take up this mantle.
Owen Pringle, Director of Therein.org and former Global director of digital for
Amnesty International, originally identified this crucial gap in thinking in his excellent
blog post ‘The role of HR in digital transformation’ and went further during interview
to explain why HR has been so absent from thoughts and conversations to date:
“HR has a key role to play due to its unique and organisation-wide
perspective on strategy and resources. However, a lack of awareness in
terms of its importance in this transformation is resulting in HR people
under-delivering in this area.”
Owen Pringle, Director of Therein.org
The common consensus from this study is that most established non-profits still
have a largely non-digitally-minded culture and the lack of HR involvement in and
around technology conversations may have something to do with that. To date,
outside of pastoral and line management issues, only a handful of the New Reality
contributors had met with their HR directors to discuss the opportunities offered by
technology.
And as any transformation process can only succeed if it successfully captures the
hearts and minds of staff, HR directors must understand that they are instrumental
in shifting internal culture to integrate digital thinking. As a matter of priority digital
leaders and champions within organisations must therefore develop strategies for
getting HR onside.
Interviewees cited three key areas that require HR leadership:
i) Upgrading digital capabilities across the organisation
Efforts to grow digital capabilities to date have focused on the creation and growth
of digital teams. The next stage will be about shifting the emphasis to up-skilling
more broadly across organisations. In addition to core digital skills like social media
marketing and digital content production, staff across the board will need to become
conversant with how the changing audience behaviours around technology impact
on what they do. To create an effective digital working environment HR will need to
communicate, co-ordinate and co-operate closely with facilities and infrastructure
teams to make sure that all staff have adequate access to high-speed internet,
modern web browsers, and are not ‘locked down’ in the range of digital tools and
software they use. Saying “staff must only use IE7” is unacceptable.

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ii) Recruiting a digital-ready workforce
Charity staff recruitment practice needs an overhaul. The pattern of recruiting in
the shape of previously successful candidates no longer works when business
operations are being revolutionised. The growing demand for digital capability
across teams means that job specifications for all departments must include digital
competencies:
“Take off ‘must be proficient in Word’ and put in ‘must have used a
CMS’, ‘must understand basic data analysis’ or ‘must be able to write
pithy copy’.”
Gareth Ellis-Thomas, Head of Digital, Prostate Cancer UK
Leaders must support their HR teams to help bring in more digitally-capable senior
roles.
We will also need completely new skills – particularly in the key areas of data
management, digital strategy and business model planning. Not all of these will be
easy hires – there is just as much demand for these roles in commercial businesses
and traditional charity salaries may struggle to compete for the best talent. Instead
HR teams may need to form new partnerships - with universities producing brilliant
data graduates, or with corporate secondment schemes - in order to find the right
new kinds of staff.
iii) Anticipating and managing increased staff turnover
The elephant in this particular room is whether or not digital transformation means
a smaller workforce, and therefore job losses. The honest answer is “possibly”.
Views from the New Reality contributors were split between those who believe the
efficiencies offered by improved digital processes and tools will create more space
to deliver great services, and others who see the potential benefits of running a
lighter, more agile workforce.
The experiences shared suggest that after initial reticence most staff come
along willingly after some technology myth-busting and the potential benefits to
beneficiaries are clearly demonstrated. However, some resistance is inevitable,
particularly among longer-serving staff. HR teams should prepare for a higher staff
turnover rate in the next few years which, although more work for them in the short
term, will lead to a fit-for-purpose workforce in the future.
“Our staff turnover is around 30% at the moment and that’s what I’d
expect during a transformation process. We’ve needed to move people
on and have new people coming in. It helps to create the revolution.”
HR director at a major charity

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HR has a major role to play as the challenger in ensuring organisations’ digital
capabilities are up to scratch – and leaders and HR directors must recognise that
these assignments won’t be optional. Over two thirds of contributors to the study
raised the point that the incoming generation’s use of and expectations around
technology will change the shape of workforce whether the old guard likes it or
not. For an average graduate the idea of not being digitally enabled will seem an
absurdity.
“As digital natives grow up and enter the workforce it’s going to be
increasingly odd for those skills to be silo’s.”
From the New Reality interviews it’s apparent that beyond the CEOs and digital
champions, HR directors and their teams are the unlikely protagonists of digital
transformation. Firstly, it’s therefore crucial to invite HR directors and teams to
participate in meaningful conversations around digital. Secondly, it’s important to
then challenge them to lead up-skilling and recruitment to get your organisation’s
fit-for-purpose workforce of the future ready to jump to it.
CASE STUDY:
HOW THE CYSTIC FIBROSIS TRUST ARE CHANGING THEIR CULTURE
THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Lucy Semmens is Director of Strategy & Performance at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
She is currently leading a major change programme at the charity to coincide with
their office move.
“We want to create a culture where our staff feel empowered so we’re using the
opportunity of moving offices to do that. We’ve invested properly in infrastructure
technology - everyone has a laptop, we’re getting rid of landlines, everyone will have
a mobile. All the applications are in the Cloud - for example we’re using Office 365 in
the Cloud. In terms of office continuity it’s amazing. If the office burns down everyone
can carry on working!
We’re also introducing some robotics because we have people who can’t physically
meet because of the infection issues with Cystic Fibrosis. We’re using something like
a Segway with a mini iPad on it. You can control it from home, you can FaceTime with
people through it, you can get IT support through it. It’s all part of making the office a
place for collaboration, and for working together to deliver on specific things.
In the space of 6 months I’ve seen a change in my office that’s huge. We haven’t
needed any major training - people have just adapted. If that’s possible in 6 months -
10 years down the line what might we be talking about? “

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Breaking the digital bottleneck
When it comes to current digital staff’s role in bringing about culture change it’s
not all about revolution. This is one area of digital transformation where fuelling the
good practice that already exists can bring quick and important wins. The Directors
and Heads of Digital who contributed to The New Reality shared an unusual
common ambition: to try and do themselves out of a job…
“I would love for the digital team not to be needed because it’s just
a part of how everyone works. We’ve quite a way to go before we
get there.”
Luke Surry, Head of Digital, RSPB
“Digital leaders need to hand the flame around as quickly as possible.
As a Digital Director you want your role to be obsolete as soon as
possible.”
Ed Humphrey, Director of Digital, BFI
This strong desire to push digital capability across organisations rather than empire-
build is evidence of the New Reality as it already exists – and a demonstration of the
positive and open mindset that many suggested typifies good ‘digital’ people.
As digital teams gradually shift from being the owners of all digital knowledge to
being enablers and centres of expertise that can empower their people and their
organisations, so the New Reality will gather its own forward momentum. Currently
many teams are on the nursery slopes – and the temptation (particularly at more
junior staff levels) to assume responsibility for all digital production is hard to resist.
But others have already graduated to the black runs and are demonstrating an
accomplished approach to devolving digital responsibility across their organisations:
“We picked an area of focus and spent a lot of time on training staff
on social media. We’ve trained nearly two thirds of the organisation in
social now, so instead of having 3 people in the social media team, we’ve
effectively got 1000! To support that we’ve also put social media in as
part of staff objectives and job specs.”
Amanda Neylon, Head of Digital, Macmillan Cancer Support

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A word of caution to digital ‘experts’ though: humility appears to be in as
much demand as expertise. During interviews some levelled criticism at
digital professionals in non-profits for alienating others by slipping from being
knowledgeable to appearing arrogant:
“There are quite a lot of people in digital right now who think they’re
hot stuff. But then you look at the fact that some big charities aren’t
landing their digital strategies. It might be that they didn’t listen to their
digital hot potato or give them enough power, but it also might have
been that they weren’t humble enough to recognise what they could
learn from your 20 years experience and work with the organisation.”
Matt Davis, Director of Comms, Shareaction
The aspiration to devolve ownership of digital is the right strategic goal to aim for,
but immediately getting rid of digital teams isn’t the solution. And whilst insufficient
digital knowledge persists across organisations – from specific, technical knowledge
to the right digital mindset – it will continue to be impossible for digital teams alone
to deliver transformational change. For now, we need our digital teams to refocus (if
they haven’t already) on how they can support and enable the wider organisation to
help themselves.
“As you start to be successful in digital transformation there are more
people who start to pay attention, which is good… but it also causes a
problem and slows things down because more people are involved [in
sign off].”
In short what we really need is:
“more people doing digital, fewer people in the digital team”
Amanda Neylon, Macmillan Cancer Support

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Be curious. Be proactive. Be
transparent and, above all, collaborate.
The nature of ‘digital culture’ was a frequent topic of discussion during the New
Reality interviews. No single definition emerged, but four words came up time and
again: `curiosity’, ‘proactive’, transparent’ and ‘collaborative’.
The positive, ‘can-do’ attitude of modern digital thinkers and doers was supported
in interviews by countless examples where digital champions had tended to “ just
get on and do things” – often under the radar, without waiting for permission - with
brilliant results:
“I’ve put together a group of what I call ‘Ninja innovators’. They’ve
all got different skillsets and I’ve given them space separate from the
day-to-day issues to deliver some quick wins. It means we’ve got things
launching and delivering all the time - while the bigger stuff is rumbling
on. It helps to changes attitudes about tech, and it helps the team
through the tough times. I don’t ask for board buy in because it doesn’t
cost much - we just get on and do it.”
Rosie Slater, CIO, British Red Cross
The particular emphasis these examples reveal is how finding small ‘low-hanging
fruit’ projects which offer digital success stories, pays dividends and helps to build
stakeholder buy-in to do more.
DIGITAL WITHOUT BORDERS
Almost all examples centred around the need to create small, collaborative, cross-
discipline and cross-department teams to deliver these projects. This offers the
two-fold benefit of feeding years of organisational insight into new digital-enabled
work, and in creating a culture of understanding and engagement with digital
practice across internal borders. To extract the value of their close engagement with
beneficiaries, many contributors placed particular emphasis on involving helpline
and frontline staff in these projects.

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TRANSPARENCY IN ALL THINGS
Contributors also raised the need for increased internal and external transparency
around these collaborative projects. The open sharing of examples – both
successes and failures – from internal tech initiatives can offer guidance,
reassurance and even inspiration to other organisations seeking to do the same. It
was for precisely this reason that the Government Digital Service put transparency at
the heart of it’s GOV.UK programme:
“People ask “what problems has being open caused you? Honestly? None!
How much difference has it made? A lot. It helps the communication
because there are lots of people out there who get it and know what to
do, but maybe aren’t senior enough to break through. We give them
examples and evidence to give them more power to get things done.”
Senior spokesperson, Government Digital Service
Having a transparent and open culture was also cited as increasingly vital in light of
both personal and aggregate data collection and use:
“Data is going to ramp up the transparency agenda. Charities will have
to be naked in 5 years time, because people are asking for it.”
Karl Wilding, Director of Public Affairs, NCVO
Director of Audience Research for Intel, Hannah Scurfield explained the particular
importance of this type of transparency for a new generation of potential supporters:
“Gen Z [the born on the web generation] believe that they can be agents
for change, but they will only engage with brands who are upfront
with them. They value honesty, transparency and have a very direct
relationship with the organisations they engage with.”
Hannah Scurfield, Director of Audience Research, Intel
At a time where trust in charities is decreasing those that are able to offer
a compelling, honest and real time picture of what they are doing for their
beneficiaries and supporters are likely to increase their market share, particularly
with younger audiences, at the expense of those who don’t.
To read more around the issue of transparency see Zoe Amar’s JustGiving blog

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CURIOSITY CULTIVATES CREATIVITY
The final characteristic that digital culture can offer organisations is curiosity.
The British Library is guardian and champion of millennia of human cultural history
- you might expect that they would be one of the organisations who might struggle
with this very modern change - but not so. As an organisation they are embracing
digital transformation from their internal culture outwards, and CEO Roly Keating
shared this explanation as to why:
“We’re not immune to the headaches that any large organisation with
limited resources confronts when trying to do anything in the area of
technology. But the community here are curious-minded people, and
they are very hungry for any tool that can build new insights into our
collections. They are absolutely not precious about whether they are
very old tools or very new ones, and it’s an attitude that has created
some very digitally adept people who inspire others. Ultimately that’s
how gradually you engineer a change in an organisation like this - by
fostering curiosity.”
Roly Keating, CEO, British Library
The culture of curiosity at the British Library is creating room for digital transformation

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Conclusion
According to the New Reality’s contributors The
New Reality cohort were emphatic in their belief
that the benefits of digital transformation cannot
be achieved without a far-reaching internal culture
shift. There is no magic wand here, achieving a
fundamental shift requires curiosity, creativity
and commitment from CEOs, trustees and HR –
as well as money, time and resources to enable
teams to deliver.
More importantly this is a culture change
process that needs to involve staff from across
departments. Having recently been through a
major internal culture shift including a full brand
redevelopment, NSPCC’s Head of digital, Helena
Raven, had this advice to offer:
“You can only create real change when
people feel like they’ve done it for
themselves. Unless people feel that they
own it, then it won’t be successful…
We’re not there yet, but our vision is that
every volunteer is a digital volunteer,
every fundraiser is a digital fundraiser,
and every senior exec understands how
digital shapes their business plan.”
Helena Raven, Head of Digital, NSPCC
The shift in culture towards fewer silos, more
collaboration, and greater transparency will offer
multiple benefits for those staff who are prepared
to weather the bumps in the road.
Recommendations
• Don’t start developing a digital strategy - instead
take the organisational strategy and be explicit
about how digital technology can help your
organisation deliver on that
• Be transparent - sharing your successes and
failures is the new reality – we help others learn
and avoid the same mistakes and, in turn, we
benefit from the experience of others
• Be thoughtful about the change process -
understand that it won’t work if it’s a set of
imposed top down ideas. Consider using external
consultants or facilitators
• Be agile - create small, collaborative, cross-
discipline and cross-department teams to deliver
quick-win projects
• Annual organisational strategy review - no
organisation can consistently reinvent the wheel
year on year, but understand what elements of
the strategy you can topline review and make sure
you do it
For digital champions
• Start talking to HR - about their role in digital
transformation today
• Develop a mantra for your digital staff - around
facilitation and enablement: acting to support
other departments – not doing things on their
behalf
For HR
• Change recruitment and internal job specs - they
should include digital competency by default
• Set up reverse mentoring - between digital
experts and senior staff, or set up a cross-
departmental buddy system
• Seek advice on new digital skill sets - to ensure
you can operate well in a digitally-transformed
way
• Seek out partnerships - partnerships with
innovative companies, universities and other
organisations might help you fill those skills gaps
in the short term

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THEME: INFRASTRUCTURE
Computer says “yes”
“The best technologies are the ones you stop noticing”
Chris Thorn, Head of Digital, British Heart Foundation
This may look like the only theme in the New Reality that is actually about
technology. In fact that’s only half true. When discussing barriers to digital
transformation interview conversations repeatedly turned to issues and questions
about the culture surrounding infrastructure technology and ‘IT’ not just to the kit
itself. It appears that the role that IT has to play in the New Reality is as much about
human-ware as it is hardware, and as much to do with mindset as skillset.
‘IT’ is often seen as a nerdy-but-necessary evil - operating in darkened office
corners, conducting impenetrable technical wizardry, whilst its people talk about
“security” and “compliance” a lot. In some organisations this picture is not far from
the truth, but the notion that infrastructure-focused technology can be handled by a
single department “over there” – and largely left alone - is well past its sell by date.
There are certainly decisions to be made about the kit needed to build a
fully technology-enabled future (and if you just want handy thoughts and
recommendations about the ‘Kit’ then jump to this section below), but there are two
broader questions which must first be answered:
1. What kind of relationship with technology do we want for our
organisations?
2. What kind of technology people do we need to deliver that
relationship? (And do we currently have them?)

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What kind of relationship with
technology do we want?
Strong feelings emerged during interviews when discussing the damaging impact
that current infrastructure systems are on having digital transformation ambitions.
Examples given repeatedly painted a rather dark picture of internal ‘IT’ that has
become unfit for purpose – with systems that have grown monstrous in both size
and reputation over time.
“How is our internal IT? We have four database systems that currently
don’t talk to each other and Raiser’s Edge costs us a fortune. We’ve been
trying to replace our intranet for the past 18 months. The only thing I’m
happy with is our website CMS since we relaunched last year...”
Head of Digital, at international development charity
“The biggest challenge we have is around IT. It’s a culture challenge and
ways-of-working challenge - and a question of roles and responsibilities
around technology. We don’t yet have the right internal architecture to
support the customer facing things we want to do. It’s not robust enough
to build upon and do amazing things so we have to make short-term
fixes which, longer term, create more complexity.”
Anonymous, Head of Digital at major health charity
Ouch! It’s no wonder that people are failing to see the opportunities technology can
offer when this is the kind of treacle they’re wading through on a daily basis. So, what
would an ideal relationship with technology look like?
AN INVISIBLE RELATIONSHIP
“It works best when the technology disappears. Invisibility is a good thing.”
Ed Humphrey, Director of Digital, BFI
Many interviewees expressed this vision for technology: a world where infrastructure
was no longer erecting barriers between reality and progress within the organisation
– and therefore becoming, to all intents and purposes, ‘invisible’.
But how likely is invisible IT when most organisations report that even though their
websites and social channels are ticking along well enough, their infrastructure is
complex, cumbersome, and mired in legacy issues? Most of the New Reality cohort
felt that their organisations were some distance from this goal and for some, it
seemed as achievable as finding the holy grail.

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Certainly it is true that IT nirvana cannot be reached until there is a better
understanding of both the existing systems we have, and the smorgasbord of new
options available across the broader technology landscape.
A note of caution: There is a hidden danger that when IT becomes invisible – or,
ostensibly, out of plain sight – it is also out of mind. One study participant in a very
senior IT role described the perverse situation that had arisen after she had solved
some of the technology ‘pain’ at the major charity she worked for:
“IT went from being everyone’s top priority to fix it, to no longer
being on the shit list... so they cut the funding. The original problems
were caused by systemic underfunding, so clearly they’ll see the same
problems occurring again in 5 to 10 years.”
Anonymous IT Director, major UK charity
A RELATIONSHIP BUILT ON UNDERSTANDING
“At the moment people at senior levels who are tech literate, let alone
tech strategic, are very rare.”
Richard Craig, CEO, Technology Trust
For an organisation to have a strong and transformative relationship with IT and
technology we must start with the basics: being clear, at all levels of an organisation,
about which areas of IT we need to focus on.
Emma Thomas, former CEO of Youthnet, offered this excellent and straightforward
definition of the technology services within an organisation:
“There are 3 levels of technology: #1 public-facing digital services,
#2 your day to day hardware, #3 strategically managed infrastructure
(how things fit together to serve the organisation)”
Emma Thomas, former CEO, Youthnet

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The three areas Emma identified overlap, but it is #3 where understanding most
frequently breaks down. Most leaders who contributed to The New Reality believed
that they still had a way to go to realise a truly strategically managed infrastructure,
rather than one based on a series of tactical decisions taken over years. What did
they feel was holding them back?
a. Reporting lines: currently most sector IT teams report into Finance
- a reflection of how tech infrastructure has historically been viewed
as a tactical means to efficiency, rather than underpinning the wider
organisational strategy. For organisations without a strong CIO or
collaborative IT Director to bridge the divide, technology infrastructure
conversations are usually separate from conversations about the core
organisational strategy.
b. Perceived complexity: Some areas of IT infrastructure require a deep
level of technical knowledge to fully comprehend. However others –
for example integrating databases in order to build a single view of the
supporter and beneficiary – are not difficult concepts to grasp, but the
vision still ends up being lost in translation:
“In IT, we are our own worst enemies. We speak in acronyms and we
convey an attitude that says `Only we understand this technology.’”
Brian Lurie, CIO at Stryker - from “The Transformational CIO”
Clearly the fear of complex technology scenarios is damaging many organisations’
ability to work strategically with IT teams to achieve the best outcomes.
A SUSTAINABLE RELATIONSHIP
Unlike other areas in digital technology high importance is placed on IT
infrastructure within organisations. Many larger non-profits are now investing millions
in their internal systems, but interviewees questioned the quality of decision-making
around this expenditure, and whether it was actually delivering `bang for buck’. A
critical gap was identified between the amount of investment made and whether
that investment was structured sustainably:
“In my experience it hasn’t been uncommon to see an organisation buy
a product that they can afford to get, but not to have the budget to tailor
it to what they needed it to do... And the cost of the person to support is
£800 a day - but that wasn’t factored in”

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What solutions are there to prevent bad investment decisions in IT
infrastructure?
The following summary of interviewees responses offers a useful checklist:
1. Make sure that there is enough money – not just to pay for the
implementation and any licence costs – but also to customise the
system to the organisations specific needs.
2. Be really clear about both the need and the cost of ongoing system
management. If software consultants are going to be £800 a day, make
sure you’ve factored that in.
3. Focus on building a solid relationship with the service provider you
choose – this is crucial.
4. Make sure that the provider has a well planned roadmap for future
iterations, and that your organisation is able to adopt upgrades relatively
painlessly.
5. Make sure you have someone in-house who really understands the
system and can troubleshoot before you need to start paying for
expensive consultancy.
You might think this checklist is stating the obvious, but you might also be surprised
to learn that many organisations had failed on one or all of these factors for building
a sustainable infrastructure – and that it had cost them dearly.
To get further on this transformation journey we need a shared understanding of
both the technology and how to handle it sustainably. Ultimately we need to see a
New Reality where the technology has become so much a part of everyday working
culture that it is invisible.
How do we achieve this? The New Reality cohort’s recommendations and successes
were drawn almost exclusively from efforts to break silos between ‘IT’ teams and
other departments, and from making tough decisions to ditch systems that their
organisations felt they were intrinsically bound to.
Whether the technology achieves invisibility or not, we need to get a place where
this is a relationship that works – and most of the New Reality’s participants believe
this needs to start with redefining the roles of technology and IT people within non-
profit organisations.

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2. What kind of technology people
do we need to deliver digital
transformation?
This is a much thornier question than asking ourselves about the kind of relationship
we want with technology. Firstly because it involves actual people, not just
software and hardware. The blunt answer, according to the majority of the study’s
interviewees, appears to be “not the people we have now”.
New research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services shows that roughly
half of 750 business and technology leaders said their organisations had missed out
on new technology-enabled business opportunities because their IT department
was too slow to respond.
Be aware though that the IT team is a soft target for taking the rap – they aren’t very
good (on the whole) at self-publicity – and the balance of maintaining systems that
handle key risks like privacy, performance and security (whilst keeping them flexible
and usable across an organisation) is sometimes hard to strike.
Perception is everything and IT technologists need to take control of their own PR
and change how they’re viewed internally and externally. Naturally this will require
that some people also change or adapt their behaviour to deliver the step change
integral to the sector’s overall positive development.
The New Reality’s cohort had a clear view of the kind of technology people needed
to lead the sector through this transformation:
PEOPLE WHO SAY “YES”
Many contributors highlighted the growing divide between what they described as
‘old school’ IT and the growing generation of ‘New school’ modern technologists.
Where the majority of digital professionals can be categorised by their positive
attitude to change, classic IT teams are often seen in stark contrast as the people
who always say “no”.
“The general spirit of openness, collaboration and generosity which
is a direct product of digital culture and technology – it’s becoming a
norm and technology people who are adopting this way of thinking are
leading the way.”
Adam Gee, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4

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The defined differential boils down to mindset – it’s not enough to only have ninja
tech skills within a team; the foundation stones also need to rest on strong people
skills and a positive attitude to the New Reality.
This is a legacy issue. Look at the job history of most IT directors and CIOs in large
non-profit organisations and you’ll see a career developed in classic, locked-down
companies from the security and finance sectors. It is unsurprising then that in trying
to protect organisations from risks around data security, these people have uninten-
tionally become leaders of a risk-averse “no” culture.
Modern technology leaders need to be pioneering: open minded, curious,
development focused and collaborative. They have the people skills required to
excite those around them and bring them on board with new ideas, approaches
and tools. These aren’t people who want to hop on every new, shiny piece of tech,
but they are typified by their continual search for better ways of doing things - and
they aren’t afraid to throw things out and start again. Their attitude is reflected in the
development of hardware and software itself, which is exciting, empowering and
growing exponentially.
“We’ve got a great IT guy who’s got the vision to say ‘let’s just do it’. We
knew we needed a new strategy so we brought him in to deliver that.”
Lucy Semmens, Director of Strategy and Performance, Cystic Fibrosis Trust
COLLABORATORS
“[if you’re an IT person] you need to stop being aloof. You need to be
one of the idiots that runs the 10k and speaks the language of the rest of
the organisation.”
The need for collaboration is a recurring theme across the New Reality, and
nowhere more so that between those who are supporting the infrastructure of
an organisation, and those who need that infrastructure to facilitate what they
do. Concerns were raised about IT team’s lack of engagement with the wider
organisation, but this is not a one-way street - contributors also admitted that they
rarely sought to involve IT staff in audience-facing service discussions.
Better collaboration may help us use the untapped potential that exists within IT
teams. One example given was the humble IT service help desk: the people working
there almost certainly know more about the pain points within their organisation’s
infrastructure than almost anyone else. They may also be in charge of the systems
that gather audience feedback through digital channels. The data from both those
sources would provide extremely useful insight into where transformation efforts in
internal infrastructure could offer the most value.

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The vast majority of IT successes shared by the New Reality’s interviewees were as
a direct result of efforts to break down silos within their own organisations, and to
build new ways for teams to work together.
British Red Cross CIO Rosie Slater describes her process for breaking down
boundaries:
“It’s all about broadening people’s experiences - it’s bigger than just
getting people to talk to other teams more. I bring in apprentices and
put them on rotation in the applications training team, then in digital,
then the service desk… that way they get an all-round view of how to
support the business through technology. I also try to do secondments
for staff - so that they’re bringing different experiences back to the
organisation”
The takeaway here is clear: treating IT as one directorate, separate from the wider
business isn’t working. Keeping a hard distinction between IT in one and digital
in another is a recipe for disaster when technology of both types have a role in
enabling all departments to succeed. Although simply merging the two also risks
stalemate. The New Reality research shows that now, more than ever before, there
is a clearly defined need for people who can cross the IT/digital divide and foster
collaborative working practices.
In practical terms this means:
• No more acronyms or pet names for systems – speak the same language as
each other and the rest of the organisation.
• Build cross-discipline groups that include IT/IS people, digital people and
services people working together on a regular basis.
• Make sure there’s someone in the mix who has good supplier management
skills.
• Ensure HR are primed to hire people with a variety of backgrounds and
knowledge - not an identikit ‘tech person’ – no-one has all the skills needed
on their own.
• Have teams undertake secondments to other departments (or even outside
the organisation).
EXTERNAL ADVISORS WHO OFFER OBJECTIVE ADVICE
Internal teams cannot be expected to cover every aspect of the fast-evolving
technology world, and there is an important role for external consultants in the
sector. As high-paced change is the New Reality, trusted sources of advice are
going to be crucial – and in high demand. Unfortunately – as many interviewees
identified – it is not always easy to find advice you can trust:

34
“There’s a gap in objective advice here. There are some really shoddy
people out there offering technology services. And others who just
haven’t moved with the times themselves.”
Emma Thomas, former CEO Youthnet
This isn’t a malicious attempt to sabotage the sector - the fast pace of change also
means there are lots of IT consultants out there who haven’t caught up yet either.
Many are tied into selling particular systems, often proprietary, non-modular and not
cloud-based, and they haven’t adjusted their position to keep up with the new tech
movement and its development.
Digital technologists who are excited about these changes, and who are actively
trying to bring their organisations along with them are worth their weight in gold. IT
dinosaurs who resist this change should be very worried indeed about their place in
The New Reality.
3. WHAT KIT DO YOU NEED?
ASSUME THAT THE KIT YOU NEED ALREADY EXISTS
“The number of freely available services, tools and platforms is just
incredible now. The ability people have to get stuck in and do something
amazing – if you have a clear view of your mission, it’s quicker and
easier than ever before to get something out there.”
Senior spokesperson, GOV.UK
There has been a proliferation of low cost tools and services launched into the
world and led by the growing tech startup movement. Initially these services
were aimed at small businesses, but now many have established themselves as
mainstays of major businesses and will soon be the market leaders ahead of the
Sage, Care, Raiser’s Edge, and the rest of the old guard.
In the New Reality there’s already a proliferation of options which will help you run
your organisation more effectively and they’re probably cheaper and easier to use
than you might expect.
What kinds of services and tools are we talking about? The New Reality cohort’s
bucket list is here, but a few favourites stand out: Quickbooks and Xero for finance,
Dropbox or Box.com for file storage, Slack for internal comms, Stripe for payment
and donation services and Basecamp for project management.
“So much can be achieved for very little input. There are so many tools
out there that we can use, that don’t really cost any money.”
Adam Gee, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4

35
GO MODULAR AND NIMBLE
“Taking class leading, independent platforms that can talk to each
other and plugging them together is infinitely better than trying to
find one, off the shelf solution that will involve compromises.”
This theme has already described how big IT systems can cause a lot of pain. In
non-profit organisations and commercial organisations alike we suffer a semi-
regular ritual of trying to replace a failing system with a new one that is affordable,
comprehensive, flexible and user-friendly. Often we have to compromise on at
least some of these ambitions (usually one or both of the last two). Traditional IT
systems are rarely well loved. Tolerated is probably the most positive any of us
feel about them.
There is an alternative to this fruitless search for a one-size-fits-all panacea. A
new, more flexible way of developing infrastructure has been born out of the
types of tools and services outlined above, and this approach is now being
embraced by both commercial companies and non-profit organisations. To free
yourself from the beast you need to take a nimble and modular approach.
What does this mean? At its most basic it simply means ditching the idea of a
one-size-fits-all, multi-function system in favour of making your own – shaped to
your organisational needs – by combining best in class small services. It sounds
painfully obvious, but it has taken until now for the range and quality of these
services to reach a tipping point.
There are two key differences between the old systems and these new more
modular ones:
a. These systems are built to be open and to integrate.
They all come with straightforward APIs to use as standard and for free.
“Some of the big name systems in the sector - the problem is they
lock everyone down and block integration. We thought Microsoft were
going to stay on that path, but they woke up and have had a major
reversal. For organisations who don’t embrace that openness they’re
going to start to struggle – for example to get an API from Raiser’s
edge is thousands of pounds – are we still going to pay that when we
don’t need to anymore?”

36
b. There is higher value placed on the user experience and design than on the
number of features.
Given the important functions of many of these modular tools it is incredible how
fast the learning curve for most of them is.
Modern software technologists no longer believe that creating a great user
experience is someone else’s job, or that an IT system should require a manual.
This modular approach allows organisations to find tools to fit the size of their
operation, and to scale up or down according to need. It also means that even
though there may be right and wrong decisions about which tools to choose, the
learnings happen quicker, the impact is less costly and any mistakes made can be
fixed without impacting the broader system too significantly.
The move towards this type of modular infrastructure has been led and championed
in many emerging markets. The prohibitive cost of established, big systems has
created a huge rise in demand for both customer-facing and internal systems that
are more nimble.
CASE STUDY:
HOW EMERGING MARKETS ARE GETTING AHEAD IN DIGITAL - THANKS TO
NIMBLE TECHNOLOGY
Steve Rogers, Google’s Director of EMEA shared this story from a recent trip to one of Rio’s favelas:
“There’s millions of people who don’t have the baggage we have… they’re coming online incredibly rapidly
because the cost to entry is now low enough, and the tools are there.”
Over 50% of people in Rio’s biggest slums are now online.
“During a recent Google project, in one of the huge slums in Rio
– where you’ve got people who are really living at a subsistence
level - we found this incredible hive of digitally-enabled industry.
On one floor there was a full digital radio station being run. There
were two cyber cafes with pretty high grade computer systems. A
big hotel turned into a community hall at the top - that was being
used as a school where they were running computer science
classes. Another room where a women’s collective was running an online-only fashion house. Those people
are all leapfrogging – they’re missing out desktop web. You can run a whole business on a tablet using apps.
A massive change is happening.”

37
GO CLOUD BASED
“We’re only just seeing the start of cloud-based opportunities.
Everything GDS does is cloud supported.”
Senior spokesperson, Government Digital Service
The Technology Trust offer this simple explanation of cloud computing:
“The cloud refers to an ability to store files and work together with colleagues via the
internet. Think of it as a virtual storage or collaboration space.”
Cloud-based services have been around for a while and many organisations
have already adopted a cloud-based way of working. A recent survey by Eduserv
suggests that the Cloud will be the dominant way to handle infrastructure in the
next few years:
“61% of have adopted some sort of Cloud technology already, 30% of charities have
adopted or plan to adopt Cloud infrastructure next year”.
The 70% who have not yet planned to move to a Cloud-based infrastructure need
to get moving, or risk being left behind. Even Microsoft has moved to leading with a
Cloud-based service (Office 365 is available free to charities).
Technology Trust provide an excellent summary on the benefits of using the Cloud
for non-profit organisations. Of these benefits - the ones most frequently cited
during this study were:
• scalability to suit growing organisations;
• flexibility for staff to work productively outside the office (particularly helpful
for regional teams who are usually last to get any IT infrastructure updates)
• software that is automatically updated for staff
This last point is a significant shift for the sector. Charities often don’t have the
most up to date software and therefore security, simply because they don’t have
the resources to keep pace. As the cloud computing service provider is constantly
updating its own software, the problem disappears.
So are there any serious risks? Security used to be a reason cited for not adopting
cloud-based data storage, but these concerns have shown to be unfounded. In fact
a study conducted by Microsoft found that: “Among small and mid-size businesses,
91% said moving to cloud services had a positive effect on the security of their
organisation, and 94% said they’ve had security benefits (like up-to-date systems
and antivirus protection) that they didn’t get with an on-premises solution.” (Source:
Capterra)
There are of course some other important considerations. In particular the need to
consider where data will be held in order to check that the provider has a UK data
centre.

38
CASE STUDY:
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Richard Craig, CEO of Technology Trust shared his organisation’s approach to IT infrastructure:
“We realised a while back that to really offer future-proof, strategic advice to charities we’d need to live this
stuff ourselves and trial it. In the space of three years we’ve put everything cloud based including telephony.
Anyone can work from any computer or work from home in the same way.
We run our finance systems in totally different way - we have an app for $18
a month that automatically sucks in credit card statements, we take photo of
receipts, it scans them and pays them. It’s a nice interface and I can do it on
the run on my mobile. There’s no way you could deliver that kind of feature-
rich experience cross platform for that cheap cost in the old way of doing
things.
The world has moved on from an idea that you take a one-size-fits-all system, to thinking actually we’ll find
the right app for this one thing and make sure it works with the other things we’ve got. That way if we decide
we don’t like one part any more, it’s quite easy just to switch out that module without impacting the wider
network of services.”
CASE STUDY:
STAFF ARE STARTING TO REJECT TRADITIONAL IT
One study participant offered this insightful - and common - modern
scenario where staff are moving to cloud-based solutions in spite of
official IT policy:
“We had an older IT director who set up everything on non-Cloud
contracts and has since left. However none of the staff are using the
massive server that hums in a corner of the office - they’re all using the
Cloud. This is happening to a large extent below the radar – people
are simply using their own devices, and choosing their own software
services to do what they need to do. In the meantime all of the IT
budget is being poured into the wrong place.”

39
Conclusion
The fundamental changes which have taken place
in technology culture and practice over the last
couple of years is reflected in this theme more
than any other: this is about having organisational
infrastructure that is truly ready for ‘The New
Reality’ we are living today.
Painful IT projects and dinosaur infrastructure
systems have been responsible for giving tech
a bad name. Better tools, services and working
practices that are leaner, more nimble and with
better future-proofing now exist, and are already
helping staff to work more flexibly and in more
efficient ways. If your organisation is yet to see
these benefits, it might be that it is the IT leaders
that need changing, not just the kit they’re
running.
Non-profit organisations’ approach and attitude
to IT needs to change along with the tools we’re
using. IT must be seen and led as a strategic
function that can improve productivity and service
delivery across departments.
The age of corporate infrastructure systems is
over.
Recommendations
• Sever ties: Start planning how you can phase
out systems that are causing you pain
• See what’s out there: Get familiar with the
new range of software options that exist and
test them - app development in particular is
prolific and has much to offer all sectors, but
particularly those who need to show maximum
value for money
• Don’t start with the crown jewels! Pick one
system to change first - but probably not the
biggest. Try a new approach with something
like the intranet – if it’s done swiftly and is a
reasonable success then it’s easier to build the
case for the bigger system changes
• Beware the snake oil: Just because a
consultant has 20 year experience in IT
consultancy, doesn’t mean they know what
works now. Seek independent advice from
people or companies who can demonstrate
that they’re moving with the times
• Put in the right technology leadership: If your
technology leadership is letting you down - get
a CIO from the new world, not the old one

40
THEME: INNOVATION
Transformation through
experimentation
“We need more R&D. Create an umbrella that protects the team and let
them experiment with trying to break your business”
Jon Kingsbury, Head of Digital Economy, Digital Transfer Network
Nobody is going to confess to being anti-innovation, but non-profit organisations
are rarely the first that spring to mind when thinking about who’s pushing the
boundaries. ‘Innovation’ is a broad concept, but in relation to digital transformation
it’s all about introducing new methods, ideas or services which change the status
quo. This theme is about the kind of experimentation which will help us to find
better ways of doing things to achieve better outcomes; it is not about chasing an
impossible Willy Wonka style vision that can never be implemented.
Across the course of the 50+ interviews carried out to investigate the New Reality,
the conversation around technology regularly blurred with the question of
innovation in the sector. Opinions on the extent to which non-profit organisations
could - or should - be at the cutting edge of new products and practices varied.
However, the majority of the cohort agreed that the changing landscape would
make it both necessary and beneficial to actively seek out new approaches to both
business practice and service delivery.
When discussing barriers to innovation interviewees were critical about the lack of
commitment to tech-led initiatives in the past:
“Middle management is all-too-often incentivised to achieve efficiency, and
that means a preference for repetition of what is already working well.”
Laila Takeh, CMO, Raising IT, former Unicef Head of Digital Engagement
Many felt that funding for experimentation (whether internal or external) was either
inadequate or focused almost exclusively on idea and product development rather
than more sustainable and fundamental service or core business evolution.

41
Where innovation is happening many cited an over-reliance on ‘band-wagonning’
rather than investing in development which might lead to genuine breakthroughs.
Many blamed a lack of strategic planning as well and recognised that, as a direct
result, ideas were tending to fall flat before they had been given a chance to come
to fruition.
“With innovation - you have to carve out some time, and do it in a
structured way.”
Bob Barbour, Head of Digital, Shelter
Few organisations have formalised innovation or ‘R&D’ staff and teams. Where
specific innovation job roles exist, these are usually assigned to Fundraising.
Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the few examples that also has an innovation
team within Services - and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research - recently
rebranded as ‘Bloodwise’ - have recently made innovation a core part of digital,
creative and marketing team remits.
Of course this is not just a non-profit sector problem, the Dysons and Googles of
the world remain few and far between and the context here is that the UK invests
significantly less in R&D than other nations: just 1% of GDP in comparison to 4% in
the USA.
Apple is the tediously repeated exemplar of companies who have achieved
a transformative shift through innovation. What most people don’t note is the
circumstances that led Apple to innovate and change so substantially. By the early
90’s Apple’s business was in serious decline. Apple almost reached rock bottom
before it took Steve Job’s radical new approach that made them the massive
success they are today. Is that what needs to happen to non-profit organisations
before they change?
Brands such as Red Bull - who embraced technology early on to re-shape their
businesses – potentially offer more useful insights: Red Bull originally just made
soft drinks, but now it’s recognised as a global media brand with reach and
customer loyalty far beyond the consumers of its product. If it stopped making
the drink now, would the business collapse? Doubtful. That’s real business
transformation.
So who has successfully transcended their original form to deliver greater value
within the non-profit sector? Cancer Research UK got a few honourable mentions
for their R&D programme - the most recent output of which is contactless giving
on their shop windows. But most it is more notable that two of the biggest tech-
enabled innovations from the past decade – online giving, and advocacy – have
not come from established brands, but from new organisations like JustGiving,
Avaaz and Change.org. Could it therefore be the case that the sector is unable to
reinvent itself?

42
“We put a lot of pressure on the established organisations to change.
Maybe it’s the smaller, more nimble organisations who should be
leading the charge.”
Jon Alexander, Founder, New Citizenship Project
This question came up frequently in discussion, with the New Reality interviewees
split almost equally between those who believe the sector can innovate for itself
and those who believe that it relies on external forces to act on its behalf. Of those
who were firm in their view that innovation was possible, there was clear agreement
around an urgent need for better innovation practice to be established.
Throughout this New Reality innovation theme we explore the innovation and best
practice examples shared by interviewees – if you currently lead or work for an
organisation without a clear R&D strategy the following is designed to provide some
inspiration and guidance.
THREE INNOVATION MODELS THAT WORK:
1. Establish an internal r&d lab programme
2. Develop an innovation partnership
3. Create your own startup
1. Establish an internal R&D lab
programme
What is meant by a lab in this context? The Digital Transformation R&D lab is a space
that is separated from the day-to-day work environment where research, rapid idea
generation, prototyping and development can happen.
We need organisations to do more R&D. Create an umbrella that
protects the team and let them experiment with trying to break your
business. You need to justify that to your board and trustees, but that’s
the best way of doing it.”
Jon Kingsbury, Head of Digital Economy, Knowledge Transfer Network

43
Labs can be run as continuous R&D environments or used periodically in a regular
innovation cycle. Labs have many variations, but successful ones share these
characteristics:
• Focused on one specific problem or goal at a time and getting a version of
something live as quickly as possible.
• Protected time and budget devoted to them.
• Audience-led.
• A creative environment - work space that is designed to facilitate creativity
and has the tools to help you work rapidly (you may need to use an off-site
space to achieve this).
• Small, cross discipline / function teams who, for the duration of the lab, only
work on the lab projects - it may also be beneficial to bring in facilitators or
contributors from outside the organisation (and wherever possible to include
some of your audiences).
• Freedom from the constraints of the organisation (policies, systems,
hierarchies).
• Regular sharing of progress with wider organisation.
By focusing on rapid iterations around a specific problem, labs circumvent the
paralysis that can set in when organisations try to tackle chunky issues. And Labs
don’t need huge budgets and years to deliver projects - they launch ideas quickly
and then monitor and iterate. As the Shelter case study shows, a few thousand
pounds can deliver substantial achievements.
When set up correctly a lab will offer huge benefits to the organisations that
run them: efficient processes that break down unwieldy ideas into a series of
manageable tasks, they deliver evidence and outcomes quickly in a low-risk
way. Labs can also foster cross-organisation relations, plus a host of side benefits
including staff motivation and retention, and good PR.
“Pick a problem, solve it in as cheap and quick a way as possible, set
some sensible metrics and see if it works, if it doesn’t then don’t worry
because you haven’t spent much and you’ve probably learnt something
quite valuable. Do it 10 times and you’ll wake up to find you’ve built the
whole new system for a fraction of the cost.”
Bob Barbour, Head of digital, Shelter
Whilst labs have obvious and proven benefits, it’s also crucial to be aware of the
pitfalls: instead of feeding into the core business operations, labs can languish
on the sidelines if they’re lacking board level support. And as missing innovative
solutions could be fatal, plan ahead for successful trials and ensure successful
practice can be elevated and embedded into the wider organisation with your
board’s backing.

44
“Set up in a separate part of the office. Pick one service or problem.
Then cherry-pick your most adventurous service manager, a developer,
an audience rep and get prototyping. Work really transparently and
you’ll achieve a lot.”
Sarah Prag, Digital Transformation Coach, Quotidian Consulting
This key concern of the New Reality Cohort reveals useful insights. For further useful
guidance about how to establish innovation labs as part of organisational culture see
Nesta’s Innovation labs practice guide. It is also well worth reading James Boardwell
and Joe Roberson’s excellent Learning from the labs report to avoid common
pitfalls.
CASE STUDY:
SHELTER’S TRIAGE PROJECT LAB
Shelter has recently introduced an innovation labs programme where every three months they put a
small, cross discipline team together to work on a specific challenge that the charity faces.
Bob Barbour, Shelter’s Head of Digital explains their most
recent lab:
“The one we’ve done recently is working on triage for the
helpline to tackle the chronic supply/demand issue that we
- and many other charities - face. We need to find a way to
make sure that we get people to the right service as quickly as
possible and that the highest priority calls reach the helpline.”
This innovation lab process involved:
• A four day innovation lab, bringing together staff from the helpline, face to face services, supporter
help desk, advice team, and the digital team.
• Two days of idea generation and persona development around the problem.
• Two days to design and build a working minimum viable product (MVP).
The outcome of this lab has been the development of a triage tool that prioritises calls from people who
are about to be made homeless and are in priority need. It uses a simple quiz to take them through self
diagnosis, and then offers a callback booking service to prioritise the calls and help users save phone
battery and credit. Non-priority cases are referred to a package of web content that explains their options.
The developed prototype is launching as a pilot and further iterations are being planned.
Traditionally, in most charities, this sort of challenge would have been the subject of a multiple month (if not
multiple year) project process at great expense and significant risk. The new Shelter triage prototype has
gone from kick off to launch in less than 2 months.

45
2. Develop an innovation partnership
Most of the New Reality’s cohort believe that innovation needs to become part of
internal culture to fully succeed. However many conceded that sometimes breaking
out of existing structures and cultures is just too hard, and at this point looking
outside is a useful option.
“We have these big ideas, but because we don’t have available digital
resource, and we’re caught up in so much tactical stuff we never fully
realise our bold and ambitious ideas.”
Emma Thomas, former CEO, Youthnet
Tasking an external party to deliver product innovation is one part of this model, but
to get real transformative value requires giving the partner a connection to the most
senior levels of management, and permission to question elements of core strategy.
A number of the New Reality’s interviewees highlighted a significant shortcoming in
the sector’s current relationship with external suppliers.
“Often clients will come to an agency like ours and ask us to make them
a product. That’s fine, and a good basis for the start of a relationship,
but actually our real value is in our broader expertise and knowledge.
It’s our business to know what other organisations are doing, and what
lies ahead in the future.”
Jon Davie, UK CEO, Zone
From personal experience, as someone who has worked both in-house and agency-
side, I certainly share this view. I’ve worked on numerous projects where the brief
was entirely focused on tactical product delivery rather than asking for a broader,
strategic answer that might offer more value. Likewise, earlier in my career, I was
guilty of limiting the agencies I commissioned and not finding out what more they
could offer in terms of innovation beyond the constraints of the original brief.
Finding agencies, or consultants, who can act as genuine strategic partners and
who can command enough authority to challenge senior personnel in pursuit of an
improved outcome, will be a better use of funds than the current modus operandi of
simply outsourcing production.
This will, of course, mean changing the nature of procurement processes to place
more weight on chemistry and relationships over documentation. Inherent in
this shift is a shared commitment to build stronger relationships between senior
leadership and partner organisations so that new ideas can feed directly into central
strategy and planning. Given that many senior agency side people have also taken a
turn as the client, and vice versa, this approach makes good business sense.

46
Finding an agency that is prepared to work transparently and closely with your
organisation is therefore crucial. Outsourcing product and service innovation can
only work well when the organisation is still heavily involved throughout – to make
best use of the organisation’s insight and knowledge of their cause and audience –
but also to see and learn new processes that could be adopted internally. The most
successful service design agencies place equal value on sharing their process as
well as the end result:
“At IDEO it took us a while to realise that the service design process
we took with clients, that way of working, was even more valuable to
organisations than the products we made”
Colin Burns, Executive Creative Director, BBC and former MD at IDEO
Finding the right partner to go on the digital transformation journey with you might
not happen overnight, so the sooner you can start, the better. Begin by looking at
the external parties your organisation is currently working with and consider and
discuss the relationships between the personnel involved. Think about how best to
create an opportunity where you can both explore and challenge your suppliers to
innovate further in pursuit of your mission.
3. Create your own startup
Changing organisational culture is extremely difficult to do and generally
acknowledged as a relatively slow process. In the tech world, Silicon Valley startups
often feature heavily in innovation conversations and efforts to bring startup-style
methodologies to established organisations have had some success. The ‘lean
startup’ mindset and process is well respected, but putting it into practice within a
well-established working culture is another matter altogether. What if there was a
way to gain all the benefits of being a small, nimble organisation without actually
being one?
“It’s about creating small, atomised, startups that are spawned by
the mothership, but are given autonomy to go and do stuff that the
mothership might not necessarily do. Which might even be about
disrupting its own business model in some way”.
Matt Walton, Head of Product, FutureLearn
The past few years have seen the start of a trend where established organisations
are setting up their own challengers.

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