Blog Posts Process Management Process Modeling

3 Things Donkey Kong Teaches Us About Digital Transformation

Blog: Appian Insight

3 Things Donkey Kong Teaches Us About Digital Transformation

Fun facts abound when it’s Funtime Friday!

Tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Donkey Kong.

Yep…that Donkey Kong.

The classic arcade game by Nintendo was originally released on July 9, 1981.

No matter if you’re a video game aficionado or a casual player, you must admit…Donkey Kong is an all-time favorite. It spawned all sorts of spin-offs from Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982, all the way through the latest release, 2014’s Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. (I kid you not!)

But waaaay back on July 9, 1981? No one had any clue just how iconic Donkey Kong would become.

What? You never played Donkey Kong?

You are missing out!

If this is you, stop what you’re doing, and watch this short video to get the idea:

Here’s the deal. In the game, our hero, Mario, is attempting to rescue his girlfriend, Pauline, from the clutches of Donkey Kong—a big, mean, ugly gorilla.

Mario must scale massive structures of scaffolding and steel girders while avoiding all sorts of trouble in the form of barrels, flames, and even more treacherous stuff to face the gorilla and finally achieve his goal.

It got me thinking…Mario’s plight is not unlike any of ours when we’re working hard to drive digital change initiatives across our organizations.

Sure, there’s no big, mean, ugly gorilla…or is there?

The status quo can seem pretty safe sometimes. And, that’s exactly how we all get into habits…solidified in today’s ways even though we know—deep down—there are better, faster, more competitive ways to run our organizations.

So here are three things Donkey Kong teaches us about digital transformation. Next time you’re facing a challenge in your efforts to transform your business, stop and think about how you’ve already helped Mario do all of these things to win the game:

In the game, Donkey Kong throws barrels, flames, and all sorts of things at Mario in an attempt to knock him off track; Mario has to dodge and jump and otherwise avoid all this trouble to get to Pauline and save
the day.

In any digital transformation effort, we’re driving big change. And big change is tough. Perhaps the best lesson to learn in any change initiative? Don’t give up. You may have to dodge and jump and even parry…but giving up is the only 100% certain way to fail.

Mario does have help. Big hammers! Mario can pick one up to break the barrels and knock out the flames as he climbs the structure to rescue Pauline.

And you? You have help, too: the technologies you choose in your digital transformation efforts!mario_with_hammer_3

And, the list goes on. You can slay the beast, overcoming your challenges by using the right technology.

Digital transformation is daunting…especially for organizations that have processes and data and employees that have been in place almost as long as the Donkey Kong game Donkey Kongitself.

But, even if you’re reliant on Excel, or feel you can’t let go of that ERP, Sharepoint, or other tech investment made years ago, you can still win the game.

Unify your people, process, data, and technology. Consider an app platform that sits on top of it all and empowers your organization with easy, powerful, and unified apps that take advantage of all of your investments…even the ones still around from way back in 1981.

Digital transformation is not a game. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t find inspiration and help from one of the most iconic video games of any generation.

‘Til next time…

Zach Messler

Product Marketing Guy

The post 3 Things Donkey Kong Teaches Us About Digital Transformation appeared first on Appian Insight Blog.

Leave a Comment

Get the BPI Web Feed

Using the HTML code below, you can display this Business Process Incubator page content with the current filter and sorting inside your web site for FREE.

Copy/Paste this code in your website html code:

<iframe src="https://www.businessprocessincubator.com/content/3-things-donkey-kong-teaches-us-about-digital-transformation/?feed=html" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" width="100%" height="700">

Customizing your BPI Web Feed

You can click on the Get the BPI Web Feed link on any of our page to create the best possible feed for your site. Here are a few tips to customize your BPI Web Feed.

Customizing the Content Filter
On any page, you can add filter criteria using the MORE FILTERS interface:

Customizing the Content Filter

Customizing the Content Sorting
Clicking on the sorting options will also change the way your BPI Web Feed will be ordered on your site:

Get the BPI Web Feed

Some integration examples

BPMN.org

XPDL.org

×