Digital Transformation Strategist

Creating, offering, designing, directing, and/or implementing part of the Digital Transformation strategy for several organizations. The main ones were for:
•	A group of companies that integrate services focused on the automotive sector, which included credit, leasing, and insurance products, where an ecosystem/platform was conceived.
•	A company in the Agricultural Sector, with operations in the USA and Mexico, where an ERP and Big Data architecture were designed to operate flawlessly.
•	A Mexican family-owned retail consumer company, where an e-Commerce solution (including digital payments) was defined.
All of the above:
•	Focused on the customers and using data science to understand when they interact, what they interact with, with whom they interact, how they interact, and where they interact to predict and offer them what they need and when they need it to meet their expectations. Creating a new business model and processes while capturing new value opportunities and innovation.
•	Enabling an open architecture based on flexible technologies (applying cybersecurity) like cloud computing, Big Data, predictive analytics, Cognitive / Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning solutions, APIs, Biometrics, Bots-RPA, e-Commerce, Omnichannel, and remote collaboration tools.

I have also been a speaker on:
•	"Digital Transformation and the HR area" and “1st Digital Transformation Symposium: How to accelerate its implementation” for the Latam Business School. Such good acceptance that I am part of the professors for the Digital Transformation Specialization program.
•	“Change Management as a Key to Success in the Organizations’ Digital Transformation” for the Peru Digital e-Summit and “Talent Management in an Era of great challenges and high uncertainty” for the Peru eCommerce e-Summit of the Lima Chamber of Commerce.

CEO - CIO - CDO Consultant - Advisor | Digital Transformation Director | Fractional Executive

Back to Business

B2B is a company specializing in Outplacement and Retirement, Assessment, and Organizational Development services that supports the strategic function of Human Resources within companies.
✔ Lead the Financial Services and Information Technology industries within the organization.
✔ Help organizations in finding solutions to current Culture, Processes, and Technology issues by being able to design, direct, and implement their Digital Transformation Strategy.

Fractional Director for Financial Services & IT Industries

ICB Consulting® - Consultoría de Estrategia y Operaciones 

Expert Consultant in Digital Transformation.

Fractional Digital Transformation Consultant

Progredi Human Capital Consulting

✔ Lead the Financial Services (including Fintech) and Information Technology industries within the organization.
✔ To be the "voice of the client" into the organization to be able to design, direct, and implement the Digital Transformation Strategy.

Client Experience Fractional Director for Financial Services (including Fintech) & IT Industries

Latam Business School

Fractional Professor

Innovate/improve Strategy, Business Processes, and Technology in Digital Transformation projects for the Financial Services industry, exceeding the expectations of its customers.

Challenge: Analyze the needs of the business areas creating technological solutions that allow re-organizing the life experience of clients in the Financial Sector.

✔	Redesigned the enterprise data warehouse (Big Data) by integrating standardized business concepts to reduce subsequent expenses for upgrades to zero.
✔	Developed the proposals for the definition of master data management, establishing its standardization and governance, removing the duplication of corporate data, and improving the quality of customer data by 100%.
✔	Structured the cognitive solution that minimizes operational errors and fraud regarding transactions, Know your Customer (KYC) / employees, and Anti Money Laundering (AML); improving annual claims, current due loans, and loan reserve figures up to 75%, AML’s false positives by up to 30%, and the costs of handling alerts by up to 60%.

Financial Services / Banking SME (Subject Matter Expert)

Created, offered, designed, directed, and/or implemented part of the Digital Transformation strategy for several organizations. The main ones were:
✔ Bizzon Info Solutions (P) Ltd
✔ Demar
✔ MARSH LatAm & Caribbean

CIO - CDO Consultant – Advisor

Bizzon Info Solutions (P) Ltd.

Bizzon is a private software development company with headquarters based in India.	
Member of Bizzon's business leadership & executive management team.

Challenge: New business development (sales, product development, marketing strategy, customer relationship, alliances, and negotiations, among others).

✔	Controlled the design, testing, and marketing of the commands and inventory of ingredients application for restaurants by innovating the user experience (UX), achieving control in processing times, minimizing waste, and lack of supplies by up to 80%.
✔	Directed the Business Case that led to the decision not to open a local office in Mexico.

Group Strategic Advisor

Demar Instaladora y Constructora S.A. de C.V.

Demar is a Mexican family-owned enterprise dedicated to building, installing, and connecting oil & gas platforms within shallow waters. Its main customer is PEMEX.

Challenge: Transformation from a family-based business into a corporation, establishing the controls and administrative systems required, and coordinating up to 2,500 people.

✔	Structured and integrated the Governance and Transformation Program that controlled and supervised the strategic initiatives applied to employees, business processes, and technology, achieving a reduction in operating costs of 35% and minimizing its risk by 75%.
✔	Planned and directed the rationalization of the processes and records of human resources through the integration of an Electronic Clinical Record and Mobile Tele-Health Services system, minimizing 99% of medical errors and individualizing the treatment of each employee.
✔	Improved collaboration by establishing: ERP (SAP) systems; remote working tools; the migration of data, applications, and hardware towards a hybrid cloud scheme; reaching 100% of the administrative staff, including off-shore.

COO | CIO (Administration Director)

Marsh

Marsh is an insurance and risk broker company part of the global Marsh & McLennan group.

Challenge: Shaped the Operational Efficiency Program for Latin America.

✔	Led the implementation of the regional process transformation and reengineering program, based on Lean, Kaizen, and Change Management methodologies in Latin America, improving customer service times by up to 65% and policy payment processing by 85%.

Change Delivery & Transformation LAC (Latin America & Caribbean) SVP

I help organizations in finding solutions to current Culture, Processes, and Technology issues through Digital Transformation by transforming the business to become more Agile and centered on the Customer (data-informed)

CDO, CIO & Digital Transformation Director focused on helping organizations navigate the digital age. I partner with leaders to develop and execute strategies that resolve critical business issues related to culture, processes, and technology, ensuring a human-centric approach to innovation and growth.

Dynamic and results-driven Executive with 25+ years of experience leading strategic change in global organizations and SMBs. Proven expertise in consulting, designing, and implementing business-transformative initiatives that drive cultural, process, and technological change. Skilled in optimizing business processes through innovative technology solutions. Strong track record of building high-performance teams and ensuring organizational effectiveness. Experienced in business units, IT, operations, and professional services/consulting areas. Adept at delivering results, driving efficiency, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies. Excels in strategic planning and execution, collaborating with stakeholders across the organization to drive Digital Transformation. Effective communicator and relationship builder, fostering collaboration and innovation. Demonstrated ability to establish data and information strategies, governance, and policy development to create business value. A human-centric leader committed to driving organizational effectiveness and success in the digital age.

You can reach me at https://dtstrategist.com

Want Innovation? Make it Safe to Fail.

A team has a solid idea. It could improve a core process. But they sit on it. Why? They know that if the experiment fails, their performance review will suffer. The project will be labeled a mistake, and their careers will stall.

This is the silent killer of innovation.

We say we want new ideas. We hang posters that celebrate bold thinking. But our operational systems often tell a different story. They reward predictability and punish failure. This creates a culture of fear where the safest path is to do nothing new at all.

The antidote is not another motivational speech. It is a change in your operating model.

You must build a "fail fast, learn, and repeat" mindset directly into your business processes. Give teams official permission to run small, controlled experiments. Formalize the act of testing assumptions. This transforms experimentation from a rogue action into a core part of your business strategy.

When you do this, you redefine failure. An experiment that does not work is no longer a mistake. It is a data point. It is a lesson learned cheaply and quickly. This iterative process of testing and learning is the real engine of growth.

How do you permit your teams to learn from failure? Let's discuss with Digital Transformation Strategist how to remove this punishment culture.

Manuel Barragan

Innovation Isn't Risky. Your Organizational Culture Is.

You wrote the new mission statement. You put the posters on the wall. And yet, promising ideas still die in budget meetings. The culture that punishes innovation remains.

The problem is not your mission statement. It is your system. Your organization is built to reward certainty and predictable outcomes. A manager’s career often depends on avoiding failure, not on sponsoring a risky, unproven idea. The corporate immune system is strong, and its job is to kill anything that looks different.

You can fight this by changing the process your organizational culture has.

Human-centered methods like Design Thinking give new ideas a fighting chance. This is not about creative workshops with sticky notes. It is a disciplined framework for de-risking innovation. It forces teams to get out of the building and gather real evidence.

They must talk to customers. They have to understand employee needs. They build simple prototypes and test their assumptions.

When a team presents an idea backed by user interviews and testing data, the entire conversation changes. It is no longer just an opinion. It is a business case built on evidence. This gives leaders the information and the confidence they need to support something new. You make it safer to say yes.

How do you arm your teams to defend their best ideas? If not, let's discuss with Digital Transformation Strategist how to do it.

Your Talented People are Powerless if Your Culture Kills Their Ideas

In a company meeting, a group of bright junior managers presented a new service model. A senior vice president immediately killed their idea. He focused on risk and rejected their plan without considering its benefits. The company had great talent but a risk-averse culture that stifled innovation. This is a common scene, and it is a primary reason so many digital transformations fail.

Organizations often say they want innovation, but have a culture that punishes it. They hire talented people and put them into a system that rewards conformity. When new ideas are attacked, employees learn to keep their best ideas to themselves. This is the corporate immune system at work. The result is a stalled transformation. A business cannot be agile or customer-centric if its culture is built on bureaucracy and fear. The high failure rate of transformation projects is not from bad technology. It's from these deep-seated cultural roadblocks.

In this article, you will find some proposed solutions to fix a culture that punishes innovation.

Your biggest obstacle to growth is not your technology or your competition. It is your own internal culture. Your greatest asset is the talent and ideas your system is silencing. Real transformation begins when you focus on your people and the environment you create for them.

An innovative culture gives you a durable competitive edge, boosts employee engagement, and makes your entire organization more resilient.

If you are ready to stop stifling your best people and start building a culture that drives real results, let's talk with Digital Transformation Strategist. We can help you change your internal systems to unlock the innovation you already have, creating a foundation for sustainable growth and operational excellence.

View newsletter: Digital Transformation Stories

Imagine sitting in a meeting that is an absolute graveyard for good ideas. A small, sharp team of junior managers had spent weeks developing a new ser

Open article: Your Talented People are Powerless if Your Culture Kills Their Ideas by Manuel Barragan • 4 min read

Your Talented People are Powerless if Your Culture Kills Their Ideas

Stop Guessing: Why Your Customer Data Is Your True Growth Compass

Imagine this case: you moved apartments and updated your address with the electric company. You got a confirmation email. Everything seemed fine. A month later, a paper bill showed up at your old address. You called. They apologized. It happened again the next month. They had the right information, but could not connect the dots. The billing department used old data. It was a small failure, but it showed a massive disconnect.

Many companies have a lot of customer data. They have purchase histories, service tickets, website clicks, and more. This data should be a strategic asset. For many, it's just a collection of facts. The problem is not a lack of data. It is a lack of connection. Your data lives in different systems that do not talk to each other. This creates friction and missed opportunities. You cannot predict what customers need next if you can not see their full story.

Transforming data into a strategic compass for growth is not about buying more software. It is about changing how you think about information. It requires a human-centric method that puts people, processes, and technology in the right order. In this article, you’ll find out how to start doing it the right way.

Your customer data is telling you a story. It is a story about their needs, their frustrations, and their expectations. A true Digital Transformation happens when you listen to that story and use it to guide your actions. The goal is to move beyond simply having data and toward having a deep, empathetic understanding of the people you serve. This human-centric focus builds better products, creates better experiences, and drives sustainable growth.

What story is your data telling you? If you are ready to translate that data into a clear strategy for growth, let's connect with Digital Transformation Strategist.

Imagine this case: you moved apartments last year. It was a simple change, just a few miles down the road. You dutifully updated your address with eve

Open article: Stop Guessing: Why Your Customer Data Is Your True Growth Compass by Manuel Barragan • 4 min read

Stop Guessing: Why Your Customer Data Is Your True Growth Compass

Data is Your Compass, Not Your Rearview Mirror

Think about your last quarterly business review. Your teams scrambled for days to pull numbers into a perfect slide deck. You reviewed the data, nodded, and then everyone went back to work. The report now sits in a digital folder, untouched.

That is not a data strategy. It is data theater.

Most companies treat information as a record of the past. It becomes a dormant asset, a collection of facts about what already happened. This forces your entire organization to be reactive. You are constantly looking backward to explain a problem instead of looking forward to find an opportunity.

Transforming data into a strategic compass is about changing your operational rhythm.

Embed data review into your core decision-making. Sales teams should review conversion data weekly, not quarterly. Marketing should analyze campaign results daily, not monthly. This practice makes data a living part of the culture. It empowers your people to spot trends, identify issues, and act on them quickly.

This small shift in process moves an entire organization from reactive to proactive. You stop managing by the rearview mirror and start using data to navigate the road ahead.

How often are your teams using data to make their next decision? Let's discuss with Digital Transformation Strategist how to change it.

Stop Collecting Data. Start Connecting It.

Your company is sitting on a mountain of data. Sales have their numbers. Marketing has its metrics. The service department has its tickets. Each team has a piece of the puzzle, but no one can see the whole picture.

This creates a disjointed Customer Experience. It also causes internal friction when teams work from different information. You cannot build a coherent strategy when your data lives in separate kingdoms.

Transforming dormant data into a strategic compass is about changing how you think. It requires a human-centric method. You must put people, processes, and technology in the right order.

The goal is to unify your data around the customer journey. This means connecting your systems to build a single, coherent view. Your sales data must inform your marketing campaigns. Your service history must be visible to your product development team.

This integration is the technical part of the solution. It breaks down internal silos and fosters real collaboration. It ensures everyone is working from the same set of facts. The technology follows the strategic questions you have already defined. It serves the people and the process, not the other way around.

What is the biggest data silo holding your teams back? If you don’t know how to break contact Digital Transformation Strategist to help you do it.

Stop Perfecting the Past: How to Build a Business That Thrives on Change

An Italian restaurant in my neighborhood was famous for its classic lasagna. The owner, Gino, served the same menu for 40 years. For a long time, his consistency was a strength. But the neighborhood changed. New restaurants with creative menus and delivery apps opened. Gino refused to change, and his restaurant closed. His greatest strength became his fatal flaw.

Many established companies are like Gino's restaurant. They built an entire business around perfecting one product or process. Their focus is on defending their current business model, not on discovering a new one. This mindset turns change into an enemy. New technology is a threat, shifting customer behavior is an inconvenience, and a disruptive competitor is a crisis. The company's immune system attacks anything different.

The problem is that the world does not move in a straight line anymore. A five-year plan can be obsolete in its second year. Clinging to a strategy for a world that no longer exists is a direct path to obsolescence. You become very good at doing something nobody wants anymore. In this article, we will talk about how Strategic adaptability is the solution.

Gino's restaurant failed because he saw his business as a finished product to be preserved. Successful organizations see their business as a constant work in progress. They are never finished. True stability in today's world does not come from standing still. It comes from constant, purposeful motion. It is the ability to adapt that separates the enduring companies from the fond memories.

If your strategic plan feels more like a relic than a roadmap, it might be time for a new approach. Let's talk with Digital Transformation Strategist about how to build a business that is ready for what's next.

There was a small Italian restaurant in my old neighbourhood. It had been there for 40 years. The owner, a wonderful man named Gino, served the exact 

Open article: Stop Perfecting the Past: How to Build a Business That Thrives on Change by Manuel Barragan • 4 min read

Stop Perfecting the Past: How to Build a Business That Thrives on Change

Mexico Independence Day Celebration

Today is Mexico's Independence Day. A lot of people outside Mexico think that our Independence Day is on May 5th. But that's only a day to remember here, and for us, it is a normal working day.

As usual, we already started celebrating our Independence Day in the evening of September 15th, and today is the full day.

So I wish my Mexican followers and friends a Happy Independence Day. 🎉🎊

Viva México!!!

I'll be catching up on your posts and comments tomorrow 😉

Great post, Digital Transformation Strategist. Technology is a tool. Data alone doesn’t create value. People and questions make data valuable. Framing precise questions first ensures analytics reveal actionable insights for strategy and growth.

To turn data into a strategic compass, you must change how you think about it. It requires a human-centric method. You must put people and process before technology.

A clear question is your first step. Data tools can follow after that. 

If you find it hard to ask the right question, just DM me 😉

View company: Digital Transformation Strategist

Your Data Has No Opinion. Ask It a Good Question.

Your company is sitting on a mountain of data. You have customer histories, operational metrics, and sales pipeline details. It is a powerful asset, but for many, it remains dormant. It provides very little real business value.

What is the typical response? We buy new technology. We invest in a powerful business intelligence platform or a new AI tool. We expect the software to magically reveal a growth path. But it rarely does. Technology without a clear purpose is just an expensive dashboard. It creates complexity, not clarity.

To turn data into a strategic compass, you must change how you think about it. It requires a human-centric method. You must put people and process before technology.

First, ask strategic questions before you look for answers. Define what you need to know to improve your business. For example:
✓ What are the most common reasons our customers leave?
✓ At what point in the sales journey do our prospects drop off?
✓ Where are our most profitable customer segments hiding?

These questions give your data a specific job. They turn a vague goal like "be more data-informed" into an actionable mission. They provide the direction that technology needs to deliver real answers.

What is the one strategic question your business needs to answer today? If you are finding it hard to answer this question, talk with Manuel Barragan. He will be more than glad to help you.

A focus on learning over short-term returns builds a company ready for change, Digital Transformation Strategist.

You cannot fix this with a new mission statement or a colorful poster. You fix it by changing leadership behavior.

Instead of asking about immediate ROI, leaders should ask a different question. “What could we learn from this, even if it fails?” This simple shift changes everything. It reframes experiments as learning opportunities, not just financial bets. It rewards the process of discovery, which is the real engine of growth.

This builds a culture of curiosity.

Stop Asking for ROI. Start Asking What We Can Learn.

A junior analyst has a wild idea. It could simplify a customer process, but it’s untested. She presents it to a senior vice president. The SVP listens, nods, and then asks the classic question: “What’s the immediate ROI?”

The idea dies.

This scene plays out every day. It’s not the fault of the SVP, who is measured on predictable results. It’s a symptom of a culture that punishes innovation. The corporate immune system attacks new ideas because they are different and uncertain.

You cannot fix this with a new mission statement or a colorful poster. You fix it by changing leadership behavior.

Leaders must become active sponsors of curiosity. Their job is to protect new ideas from premature judgment. They need to create psychological safety. This means people can present a half-formed concept without fear of ridicule or punishment.

Instead of asking about immediate ROI, leaders should ask a different question. “What could we learn from this, even if it fails?” This simple shift changes everything. It reframes experiments as learning opportunities, not just financial bets. It rewards the process of discovery, which is the real engine of growth.

How do you protect new ideas in your organization? If you are finding it hard to answer this question, talk with Manuel Barragan. He will be more than glad to help you.

Stop Letting Your Processes Kill Your Best Ideas

Your team has a great idea for a new product. It could open up an entirely new market. The potential is clear, and the energy is high.

Then the idea enters the corporate machine. It gets bogged down in budget committees, risk assessments, and endless stakeholder meetings. The very processes designed to run your core business are now slowly strangling this new venture. Your company’s immune system has identified a foreign body, and it is trying to eliminate it.

You cannot use your old rules to build something new.

If you want to explore a new market, you need a different approach. You must build like a startup. Create a dedicated team and protect it from the main organization. Give it a top-level sponsor who can clear obstacles. This team needs freedom to experiment, fail, and learn without waiting for three levels of approval.

This model combines the best of both worlds. It uses your company's resources and stability. But it operates with a startup's speed and focus. You get to build the future without being held back by the systems that protect the present.

How do you protect your best new ideas from your own company? If you don’t know how to do it, contact Digital Transformation Strategist to help you.

Strategic Adaptability

An open minder post from Digital Transformation Strategist. The most adaptable companies are a fleet of small, fast teams. They can quickly respond to market changes.

Companies must trade rigid silos for agile, autonomous teams to respond more quickly and capitalize on opportunities before their competitors do.

You can reach us if you're having a hard time doing it or don't know how to do it.

Stop Defending Your Castle. Build a Fleet.

For decades, the goal was to build a fortress. A big, stable company with deep moats and high walls. We built departments like stone towers, strong and specialized. This structure was designed to defend a fixed market position.

Today, that fortress is a trap. The market changes faster than you can rebuild the walls. Smaller, faster competitors are not laying siege. They are sailing right past you.

Strategic adaptability means shifting from defense to offense. It is about building an organization that thrives on change, not one that fears it. The first step is to rethink your structure.

Reimagine your company as a network of small, nimble teams. Break down large, slow departments into "mini-businesses." Give each team a clear mission focused on a specific customer. Grant them the autonomy to make decisions and hold them accountable for the results.

This design pushes authority to the edges of the company, where the information is best. It allows you to react to opportunities in days, not quarters. Your operating model itself becomes a competitive weapon. You are no longer a single, slow-moving battleship. You are a fleet of fast ships, able to swarm an opportunity or explore new waters independently.

Is your structure built to defend the past or capture the future? If you are finding it hard to answer this question, talk with Manuel Barragan. He will be more than glad to help you.

Taplio

Manuel Barragan's Linkedin Analytics

What is Manuel talking about?

's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Manuel Barragan's Linkedin Analytics

What is Manuel talking about?

's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Manuel Barragan's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)