Who should control digital in your business?

Photo credit: dada 2014

Do a Google search on the above question and you’ll likely be bombarded by huge amounts of opinion pieces and research papers that extol the rise of the CIO as the true controller of the digital agenda, or the CMO who has been custodian of the first customer touchpoint and heralded as the key to unlocking the mysteries of social or even the Customer Services Director, the one who understands the customer best because they know how to really listen.  But then again, we are also told it’s the CTO - as surely digital and technology are synonymous with each other and therefore this is the most obvious answer – Digital is all about tech right?! 

You would be forgiven for feeling pretty confused at this point.  There are vast amounts of research studies being undertaken on the subject of Digital Transformation, even more articles and scholarly theorems trying to shed light on one thing whilst throwing into chaos something else.  So what do you do if you are a leader or a leadership team starting to talk about this ‘thing called digital’ and discussing ‘what we do about it then?’  Or maybe you are an impassioned manager or leader (any one of the titles above) totally frustrated by the lack of urgency and understanding of those around you, feeling like you are in an alternative universe – you can see that you are heading straight towards disaster without introducing urgent change but everyone else is high fiving the last quarterly results and celebrating growth or savings - with no change seen as a key indicator for business success. 

Digital Transformation is no longer about a single project, identified as an urgent seismic (usually technology) shift required to ‘stay alive’ – from legacy to cloud, from silo to integration, or from static to responsive.  Digital Transformation has been around now formally for about 5 years and has matured to mean something that touches every single aspect of your business and your people.  It’s about culture as much as technology, it’s about constant change, which means becoming adaptive in every way, shape and form, in the way you do business today.

So, back to the question – who should control digital?  Well the cop out answer you might think is everyone.  But seriously, we do need to realise as businesses, business leaders, business owners that digital is a catalyst for a more democratic business model – so this answer isn’t that lame all of a sudden.  And let’s face it, the traditional business model doesn’t really reflect a democracy when you consider decision-making, policy and organisational structure etc. etc. does it? 

If everyone is in control of it, how do you ensure ‘it’ happens and who leads?

Digital requires management and control, monitoring and measurement like all things – it’s no different.  And, as with any business is also requires leadership, supported by processes, policies and governance, not inhibited by them.

It would also be easy to think that leadership of Digital can be boxed into the role of a Digital Leader or the increasingly popular CDO – but for everything digital stands for; openness, transparency, immediacy and knowledge, do we really want to start to create new silos?  I think not.  Digital Leaders, CDO’s are the invaluable component that should drive the engine of digital but there is much leadership required in addition, to ensure Digital really becomes pervasive, the new norm, simply ‘the way we do things around here’, not to mention the collective leadership and advocacy required to drive change. 

No one should think they own digital.  That’s a recipe for disaster.  That’s why a new mindset and new approaches to governance are required.  If you really look at the leadership roles of a business, control and ownership is naturally eroding due to digital too – but not in a negative way, in a way that heralds openness, transparency, immediacy and knowledge...  The CMO or Marketing Director no longer controls brand, or owns content – the audience does, the CTO no longer owns or controls technology in all it’s guises - the business does. 

So all leadership needs to change?  Yes.  All leadership needs to adapt to the digital world we live in. Read one of my prior blog posts for more on this.

It’s a tough one but possibly the answer is everyone and no one is in control of digital, everyone and no one owns digital.  But where does that statement leave us in terms of tangible ‘to do’ lists for the next management meeting or board report?  Before you go down the route of ownership and control, assigning digital as a special project or even agreeing the title for a new recruitment, here are just a few guiding thoughts and ideas for you to think about: 

1) Create a sense of urgency

2015 is apparently the year of personalisation and relevancy when it comes to marketing and communications.  2015 is the year of Wearables and the Internet of Things if you think pure Tech. 

Looking at these two points alone, if you haven’t grasped digital as a business wide imperative and still think it’s all about technology or all about delivery within a siloed functional area of your business, how on earth are you going to cope?  For Personalisation you need data, for access to data you need cloud and integration, for use of data you need visibility, for exploitation of Wearables and the Internet of Things you need data, cloud and integration…do you have these?  And, do you have the skills to create, develop, deliver, test and improve these?  Do you have a culture that can cope with these things that change how we do business, or who we do it for? We could even be faced with the question of what we do?

If you can’t say yes to all this stuff, your need to wake up to digital is urgent – maybe fast becoming business critical.  You need the foundation blocks in place before you start to get smart.

2) Don’t bypass hierarchy, support it

Find subtle ways to support the learning and increased understanding of the positive aspects of digital amongst the general leadership.  Some senior leaders still think digital is about Twitter, or it’s for the youngsters.  There is no blame or fault here, just a reality that requires action. Organise some general workshops with digital themes to help them understand where it is relevant to them, or show them the art of the possible.  We often carry out an exercise that asks people to think about what their workplace and business will look like in 5 years time.  At the end of the exercise we list everything on the board and run through the list quickly to show what already exists and give examples.  More often than not in excess of 90% is already in existence.  We must have a focus on sharing and showing what’s available and what’s happening beyond the obvious line of vision to help bring leaders along the journey. 

3) The three C’s of Communication 

Whether you are a CIO, CTO, CEO, CFO you must now understand the business value and true importance of communication.  I remember a manager of mine very early on in my professional career saying to me that there are three C’s in communication:  Communication, Communication, and Communication.  So, tell people, show people and share with people what you are doing and what the possibilities of digital are.  Encourage people to respond and engage. Repeat your message in as many ways as possible and send it out as far and wide as possible.  Lack of communication is often a significant contributor to failed projects.  It’s not the job of the Communications team or the marketing team, it’s your job!

These are just three things you should be thinking about.  There are plenty more that make up the recipe for successfully becoming adaptive across technology and people.  Once you realise that there is an element of control in regard to digital that exists with everyone, and that the leadership required is more about custodian and facilitator you will be on the right track.  Many people talk to me about culture being something that is going to be the hardest thing to tackle about becoming a digital business.  My response is, look inward.  If you evaluate the demographics of your employees and suppliers you will already see a growing number of individuals frustrated with the way your company is run – and they are not totally wrong, not should they be dismissed because they will soon be the majority within your business.

We can no longer try and solve a 21st century business problem using 20th century processes, methods, ideas or structures.  We must resist the temptation to think of Digital Leadership as a role of control or ownership and think of it more as a facilitator, a custodian, advisor and person able to show you the art of the possible.  We really need to let go in order to see where control is really needed in this new and exciting digital world.

Leading Change as the New Norm – The Priority Leadership Attribute for 2015

Photo Credit: daDa © 2014

“Things that should happen don’t and things that don’t happen that should”.  Donald Winnicott talking about the early infant development that requires external environmental influences (support, collaboration, nurturing etc) to ‘adapt’ to their world in order to develop the skills for their future path most appropriately.

I can start this blog by listing out the reasons to explain both the need and urgency for business leaders and businesses to adapt to change and adopt the skills to manage change.

The rate of technology, Digital Disruption (I will leave the opinion of that phrase out of this blog!), changes in demographics, consumer demands changing….

That everything is changing is pretty much understood and agreed by most business leaders. What is not understood or outlined with enough clarity perhaps is that this change is both increasing in speed and in velocity – so the urgency is not about change management being a single project where you can procure the services of an expert individual or organisation to effect on your behalf – the urgency is that leading change as an attribute has become arguably one of the most important attributes a business leader should display – and equally change management as a capability and delivery skill at a management level is required to ensure that this change happens.

Leading change as the new norm is very different to leading change is the new norm.  Why?  Because it’s about consistency, repeatability and something that is a normal consideration within the daily life of a leader.  Not something we do in isolation, when all the forces are in place and the consensus is that a single, possible large investment project has been singled out by the business as a priority.

Leading change as the new norm is about understanding that those key forces that once did require single change projects to adapt to the corresponding shift as a result no longer work.  Take technology as an example, or a key customer behaviour change, or a significant change in demographic…we’ve had all of them before and economies and industries have adopted new ways of doing things to address them.  Today we have a different paradigm, we have change happening in each of these areas and more happening all the time, overlapping, influencing, disrupting.  As business leaders, managers and businesses generally, if we do not have the ability to see these changes, have the ability to assess these changes and subsequently act upon these changes as we see fit, then the Darwinism effect comes into play – those that survive will be those that adapt to their environments, those that don’t will perish.

Is it scaremongering to say Adapt or Die?  Is it spin-doctor narrative that talks about the need to be a Digital Leader?  I don’t think so.  So much so that in my previous blog I talk about leadership in a digital age rather than the rise of a digital leader per se.

This shouldn’t be new news to us – as far back as 2002 the following theoretical paper was published on Digital Leadership “LEADERSHIP IN THE DIGITAL AGE” Ernest J. Wilson III

Stating that as we move from an industrial age to a knowledge or networked/connected age Wilson states "Leadership in the Digital Age needs new attitudes, new skills, and new knowledge."

In many respects the honeymoon period is over.  The rise of the CDO and Digital Leader has a place in the business world to transition us from managing single shifts to managing multiple shifts as part of daily life, but the urgency is really to widen the net, to start to build and support these skills and capabilities required to see, assess, act and thrive with change, so that we become businesses that have many adaptive leaders, not just one.

2015 is going to be a big year.  Businesses that haven’t yet grasped the fundamentals of ‘digital business’ are already on the back foot.  The building blocks of a digital business are having the infrastructure and understanding of social engagement, the ability to access and assess data, a move to more agile technology infrastructures and cloud services and of course, an effective exploitation of the mobile opportunity.  Just to be aware of these is not enough anymore, these foundation blocks have to be in place to start to take advantage of the more subtle technologies available like gamification and augmented reality as well as the more disruptive and game changing technologies like Internet of Things, Wearables and Robotics.   Any business wanting to really take advantage of these maturing digital world elements have to have the foundation blocks in place to succeed.  Surely that’s a huge hint to anyone wanting to build a digital strategy.

What does leading change as the new norm really mean – aside from the obvious?  What skills, capabilities and attributes are required?

Put simply, leading change as the new norm requires the ability to vision and direct constant change and often effect multiple change at once.  Leading change requires the ability to address the human aspect as well as the business aspect.  It is no longer enough to lead or manage by monitoring hard numbers; leaders now need to understand the importance of the human aspect more than ever before.

The human aspect of digital business can be thought of in three ways:  Empowerment, Independence & Transparency

Empowerment – the ability to try and test new things, to make decisions based upon the access of data and the understanding of parameters, an understanding of change as an enabler not an inhibitor.

Independence – the ability to self learn, and to grow independently.

Transparency – ensuring that access to data and the communication of intent is a business priority rather than a secondary consideration – letting people know…letting people know becomes the primary consideration for a leader of change as the new norm; a leader in a digital world.

For too long now leaders and managers have built and managed businesses through spreadsheets and numbers.  Now businesses that succeed are being built and managed by a focus on engagement, loyalty and the presence of those leadership attributes described above.

To ensure businesses are able to thrive in a digital world a new breed of leadership is urgently needed.  This needs to happen in two ways, existing leaders must not fear, shy away or ignore the need to do things differently to succeed in different times.  New and upcoming leaders should embrace the generation they belong to and adopt those positive open, social and change blasting attributes in their leadership ethos.

If you are a business leader or aspire to become one in today’s digital world you must ensure that supporting and nurturing the ability to lead and manage change as the new norm becomes your number 1 priority for personal development and the development of those leaders and managers around you.  This coupled with the business basics mentioned earlier will equip any leader or leadership team with the key ingredients to thrive in this digital world.  These are the leaders and businesses that will succeed.  It really is time to adapt or die!

In my next post I will be talking about the maturity of Digital Transformation as it moves from the delivery of a single change project to a constant stream of transformations which we term; Adaptiveness.

Digital Leadership? Or Leadership in a Digital World?

Digital Leadership is a phrase fast becoming a buzzword for more and more businesses and business leaders.

However, the word digital has built an impression or understanding that it’s all about technology.  If you think that you are on a slippery road.  It is as a result of the digital revolution that we need to revisit and rethink leadership, business models and ‘the way we do things’.

But, Digital Leadership is less about a single person and more about bringing together a coalition of power, skill and vision that can collectively start the first wave of transformation.

Why do you need Digital Leadership?  Well we all need to become more digital – not just do digital but be digital and that means technology change, people change and business change…so one person alone doesn’t work.

What does this coalition look like and what do they need to do?

Well as with most transformational change efforts – nothing works without a fully embraced mandate from up on high.  So you need to ensure that the highest level of the business fully supports the effort.  Don’t stumble at this first hurdle, believe me, the effort to secure this support will be the biggest success factor in your business becoming more adaptive, more digital.

Then you need three key skill-sets and people of influence in this coalition: Someone who knows technology, someone who knows communication, and someone who knows about people and culture. Why is this important?  Well digital might not be all about tech but it’s going play a huge part in your transformation efforts – moving to automation, creating collaborative environments, aggregating data to make it meaningful, just having someone who knows what new and emerging tech is out there is hugely important.  This is a person who can show the business the art of the possible to achieve business objectives and meet audience needs. 

Communication is another key area that often get’s ignored when it comes to transformational efforts but it’s vital that there is a communication plan.  Don’t just send an email or have a meeting and think it’s done, and you can’t leave people to their own devices – you need to nurture them, keep reminding them of the urgency of becoming more digital.  There are two key areas that need to be managed; the participation of key people to build credibility and a reason to follow, alongside the creation of conversation throughout the organisation; a focus on sharing and receiving.  And then of course there is the need to address culture – because the way you do things at every level of the business is going to change and only the right mindset will allow for this to happen.

Then you need believers, inspirers, people willing to have a go, test things, try things, learn new things…these are the people that already have the mindset of change.  These people are those who will generate your initial quick wins and good news stories.  These people will create momentum to help move the transformational process along.  Don’t forget them, go out and find them as one of your first key steps – this is your first group of advocates.

Lastly, one of the big outputs of digital transformation is the democratisation of business.  So at this very first and key stage, bring some new and fresh digital native blood into the mix, there is much for us to learn from the digitals, as there is much for the digitals to learn from experience.

What I’ve just described is a really key step in your journey to becoming a more digital business.  You need power at the table, you need capability at the table, you need advocates at the table and some of your newest DNA to help you understand what tomorrow will really look like.

Obviously, I’m only talking about one small item that is needed at the beginning of your journey towards becoming adaptive.  You need to understand where your business sits digitally today so you know where to start and where to focus. 

You need a vision, and rather than a digital strategy sitting alongside your business strategy, create guiding principles that fit with your strategy that can be embedded within the business to help everyone start to become more digital.  You are also going to need some good news stories, most businesses we find have at least a couple of good news stories that can help people see that in some way, shape or form you are already demonstrating success in digital. 

We know the world is changing, we know as consumers we are changing, we know our daily lives are changing.

Digital does have a lot to answer for.  But in a good way.  We now know that things are in a state of constant change and that those who can see change, assess change and act accordingly i.e. adapt to change will be the successful businesses of the future.

Bringing your business up to speed with digital in 2015 really needs to be your number 1 agenda for the New Year.  Create a sense of urgency and start your journey.

The Mavericks Guide to Becoming a Digital Business

You now have to be a Digital Business or at least be considering it otherwise you are doomed for failure. That’s the message coming out of all the large management consultancies and research houses. Act now, act quick, put a huge amount of budget aside for your impending and unavoidable ‘Digital Transformation’.

It’s true. Businesses do need to be thinking about how they are going to address the digital challenge, the increased pace of technology and rising customer expectations have made it so. In fact, if a business hasn’t already put ‘digital’ on the boardroom agenda, they are already way behind the curve.

But businesses don’t need ‘Digital Transformation’. Businesses need to become adaptive. Change is not new, never has been, it’s just that now, change has become so fast, it’s scary, meaning there is huge reluctance to change anything within the organisation that holds risk for the bottom line. And the term ‘Digital Transformation’ has not helped. Wow, do I have to transform everything, all at once and it’s going to cost how much? And it could fundamentally and negatively affect the way the business operates and through a multitude of high profile, failed projects, and the list goes on. Only a couple of weeks ago did Mike Bracken talk about the disillusionment of so-called ‘digital transformation’ due to the failure of long term ‘BIG IT’ contracts within the Civil Service.

It is inevitable that the business world has to embrace digital…every business does, large or small, if they are to survive into the future. And this is not a technology/IT discussion, this is embracing digital across the entire organisation; it’s a change to the business model, the development of people, a shift in culture and the way a business communicates. Digital is affecting every pillar of the business and thus needs to be addressed across every pillar, holistically, to make the most of the digital opportunity. The rewards are proven. There is more research out there than you can shake a stick at demonstrating the benefits, cost savings, revenue growth and increased innovation possible when businesses are more digitally mature. So rather than focus on the obstacles to change, perhaps it’s time to focus on the advantages. 

We have to think differently. We have to take the fear out of digital and provide a means for action rather than just talking all the time. So if Digital Transformation is not the answer, what is?

Here’s our Maverick’s guide to becoming a Digital Business. It is based on the Adapt2Digital: Digitally Adaptive Framework & Methodology™ that helps businesses become adaptive over time. Think of digitally adaptive as taking the best of what a business has today and then looking into the future and pulling both together, in small incremental stages to create meaningful change. Not so scary now is it?

Take the time to understand the difference between technology and digital. Technology has an important and valid place within the organisation but there is a need to change the perception of technology from an internal service provider to a place that can share insight into the art of the possible to create business solutions. Digital on the other hand is about the whole business from the organisation, to the people, to the culture to the wider business ecosystem, it’s about the point of connection between technology, people and culture…and it’s always continuously changing.

It doesn’t matter who in the organisation starts the transition to becoming a Digital Business. The standard interpretation of changing your business to be more digital is starting at the very top. So this is getting someone, generally the CEO to mandate the digital directive. This is not the start, this is actually the tipping point. It actually starts with an advocate, someone who has recognised the digital imperative and can see the business benefit and communicate this upward and outward.

Find your champion. Maybe the advocate is the digital champion but maybe not. If not, find the champion. This needs to be someone who:

• Can talk up to the business

• Who believes and participates in digital

• Has credibility as an individual

• Has courage to challenge the status quo

Build a Business Case for digital. You aren’t going to get anywhere without a strong business case that is bought into but the senior leadership team. Make sure you include a broad assessment of current digital capability and competency across the business and what the effects of the transition could be in real terms.

Find some good news stories. There will be pockets of digital happening in your organisation. Find the good stuff and demonstrate the value of this. Use these as best practice examples, think about how learnings from these initiatives can be repeated, enhanced, and made more of. 

Bring people together. Vitally important. Bring the senior leadership team together and do something with them that shares the business case, that creates digital definition for the organisation, that builds agreement and consensus. Everyone needs to be aligned and committed to the digital cause because it is everyone’s responsibility.

It’s all about lots of little. The business isn’t going to transform overnight. Thinking this would be very unrealistic. Neither do you need big digital transformation projects to adapt to digital. What is needed are as many believers and advocates as possible that can start to seed positive change in many areas and just start small.

Break down the barriers and collaborate. Find some areas where you can collaborate, invite different people to meetings, learn something new from someone. Get away from hierarchy. Businesses in the modern world are not hierarchical; they foster collaboration to enable innovation. Empower people to make data driven decisions.

Make sure you have a framework to track progress. So many times ‘digital’ is happening without a structure to monitor results and progress. A robust framework is needed to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Anchor digital back to the business and find a way of proving real, tangible ROI. This is the only way to ensure digital is seen as impacting positively on the business from a financial perspective.

Take care of mindset. No business can change without the right mindset. A collective digitally adaptive mindset shifts culture. Seek the solution, not the reasons to fail, be an enable, not a blocker and remember that mindset is learned, it is not a given. 

Nobody believed in Steve Jobs when he first took the concept of the personal computer to market, in fact he had to describe it as ‘putting a TV screen and a typewriter together’, which to most was a crazy idea. But as Apple has proven, belief by a few can change the world.

It is time to believe in a new business model, one that is adaptive, one that is not stuck in traditional ways of working and operating. Here’s to the crazy ones…

Partners and Suppliers in a Digital Age - How Should You Manage Them?

It was really difficult to come up with a title for this post.  Mainly due to the fact that my message relates to any organisation or group outside your organisation that form part of the Customer Experience – so not just the traditional supply chain – but every single organisation that has some responsibility along your customer journey.

What am I talking about?  I’m talking about the importance of the supplier, partner or provider as a key audience within the customer journey cycle.

Often I am faced with a perception that becoming customer centric is all about understanding the customer in order to increase the value of their experience and your engagement with them.   Without question, this is a key part of becoming customer centric but understanding and collaborating with the supplier/partner ecosystem involved in creating the most relevant and meaningful customer experiences requires equal thought and attention.

The digital age has brought with it an unlimited supply of possibility in terms of technology; from apps, to open source through to predictive analytics and social business elements beyond just social media…and the list goes on and on…

As digital opportunities increase, the reliance on suppliers and partners to provide specialist tools and services also increases.  Many organisations even look towards outsourcing as many areas as possible as a strategic business objective.

All this against a backdrop of the Internet of Things only points to a move towards multiple and complex working relationships with people and organisations, which are outside the traditional four walls of business.

Yet, given all this, businesses often look to supplier and partner relationships in a traditional way that limits both the value and innovation which could be afforded with a more collaborative and integrated approach.

So how should you build valuable and effective relationships with service providers and partners outside the traditional controls of the internal business?

Mindset, Visibility, Adaptability and Resilience.  

It is most important that just as the people you work with within the business need to have a team fit and personality fit, so too should your partners and suppliers.  In an ever-complex world where the customer journey is a series of touchpoints that are controlled by different organisations, a mindset fit is vital.  Though the ultimate customer responsibility might fall to you, those suppliers and partners that deliver service, product and experience to your customers must be like-minded enough to support that seamless customer journey.  Furthermore, with the customer landscape becoming more fragmented the need to maintain visibility of all your customers across all touchpoints at all times becomes a science in itself.

The advance of data and analytics have possibly been one of the most important breakthroughs to enable a single customer view, the ability to analyse, engage, understand and better serve the customer throughout their journey from discovery through to loyalty and advocacy.  But when the customer travels through the different touchpoints that are owned, created or part responsibility of a third party, it’s vitally important you don’t lose full visibility of data – we have to find ways to ensure that no gaps exist across all those customer touchpoints. 

This is not always easy and should be something which forms part of the contractual negotiation right at the very start of the business relationship – and even cited within any contract agreements.  Data is the key to unlocking optimal value and insight in the search to create the best customer experiences and achieve business goals.  Don’t throw that vital element away just because of the lack of attention at the first hurdle.  Having full data visibility within the boundaries of compliance and security is a must with all partners and suppliers.

When you put mindset and visibility together you have the component parts for a solid collaborative working environment.  And as the concept of design and innovation becomes less about a siloed R&D department in the darker levels of a business and more about the open, integrated collaborative environment where suppliers and partners become an intrinsic part of product and service development – we need to ensure that we either choose or consciously build this environment with all our suppliers and partners.  To ensure both mindset and visibility are focus points for your supplier partner relationships is hugely important to deliver innovative and effective end to end customer experiences.

Adaptability.  Customer demands are in constant flux, a new app or social platform can take off in what feels like a matter of hours, in particular with the younger digital generations.  And as new features and functions are added to more established digital platforms and products, the consumption habits of the audience changes as a result.  What this means is that the whole supply chain needs to be able and willing to adapt to changes when relevant and meaningful to the customer experience.  Equally, your partners and suppliers should have a good enough focus on the advancement of technology within their specialist area to continually provide the most valuable contribution to the customer lifecycle.  Adaptability is going to be an increasingly important part of supplier partner relationships when it comes to the full customer lifecycle in a digital age.

Resilience – this word is often more likely to be used within the manufacturing context or the more traditional supply chain area of logistics etc.  However, in the digital age having a sense of resilience between all partners and suppliers is really important.  Why?  Well, the concept of test and learn, the idea of experimentation takes resilience to achieve.  There will be tension across the whole customer lifecycle when experimental and concept elements are put in play, but the reward is, as we are increasingly finding, far greater than the risk. 

With changing technologies, with increased connectedness, the increasing demands and expectations of customers all point towards a need to test and experiment more in the name of innovation and ultimate delivery of relevant and meaningful customer engagements and experiences. 

For some time now we have helped our clients understand that beyond the customer there is an audience landscape that requires focus in order to achieve real customer centricity and that’s what we all want right?  The employee, the supply chain and the stakeholder all should have a seat at the table.  So do start to think about your suppliers and partners with our four guiding elements to help you stay in control and better able to provide the best possible products and services to your customers in the most relevant, meaningful and timely way to achieve your business goals. 

But before I sign off, it would be remiss of me not to mention one other audience which is fast becoming a valuable strategic asset to many an organisation – that of the crowd.  Cost efficiencies, User Testing, Collaboration, Co-design, Build and development, even funding; just some of the areas where tapping into the crowd can massively help the business achieve their goals…but that’s a story for next time.

Collaboration & Integration: A Match Made in Heaven

Collaboration has become quite the buzzword within business recently as leaders start to realise one of the future success factors of surviving in the digital age is dependent on enabling a collaborative environment. And this is for many reasons, improvements in communication, an empowered workforce and importantly, the ability to continuously innovate at a time where innovation can mean the difference between business success and failure.

There are many examples of collaboration within business. Google for instance introduced the concept of Google Garage. A space where “Googlers can come together from across the company and learn, create, and make.” Apple has always been known as a collaborative company, as referenced in this interview with the late Steve Jobs where he talks about how the company is organised like a start-up. AMP Bank in Sydney spend time with their employees side-by-side to understand how they work and how new technologies and strategies can enhance their personal and professional lives. Cisco leverages a collaborative environment to crowd source issues and requests, enabling them to find the best and fastest solutions for improved customer experiences.

So we can all agree that collaboration is a necessity. As businesses move to become digital businesses, adapting internally so that functional areas do not operate in silo is a real imperative.

So where does integration come into it? There are many definitions of integration. Here we are referring to integration as systems, as technology that enables collaboration. Interestingly, there are very few examples of businesses that are successfully combining collaboration with integration, which is somewhat odd given the amount of tools and systems that are now available for businesses to utilise. There is very little point investing in a collaboration tool that is never used and in this day and age, there is very little point having a meeting to collaborate on something without the tools to enable further collaboration and effective progress. Time and time again, systems and tools are introduced into the organisation to promote and encourage collaboration yet they fall by the whey side because there isn’t an explanation of why it has been introduced, the reasons for using it and how to use it – therefore you end up with just another platform or tool that becomes a burden for the employee rather than an aid. 

Collaboration & Integration are key parts of a continuous journey, and also key elements of successful digital business. What they require however, is combined focus and a committed driving force to keep both moving forward to generate value for the customer. What is important is understanding the parameters of both as part of a wider digital business strategy, how far it should be pushed across audiences (and by audience, I mean not just employees but customers, supply chain/partners and wider stakeholders). In addition, they require ownership. Who owns collaboration and integration in the organisation? Motley Fool has a Chief Collaboration Officer (CCO) who is charged with making collaboration part of the daily doings of the company. Of course, this responsibility could also fall to another member of the C-suite. So who owns Integration? You could argue this is the future role of the CIO, who historically has been kept at arms length from the senior leadership team. This would make sense given the growing importance of the CIOs role and responsibility in driving the organisation from being a traditional business to a digital business and all that entails. And then of course there is the challenge of bringing these two roles together so that they are not working in isolation. Moving forward, both of these roles will be integral to building a digital culture internally across the wider workforce.

As our working environments change due to the combined forces of technology advancement and customer demand, the need for collaboration and integration to work together will be key. Workers will be spread across many time zones, employee demands will be greater, and technology will continue to advance. In the end, the future workplace will be a digital and analytical environment and businesses should be starting the journey now to put a workplace infrastructure in place that accommodates this – one that smartly enables innovation to increase competitiveness and the bottom line.

Painting a clear picture for your business to thrive in a digital world.

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At last, businesses can join the digital dots and create effective adaptive strategies to succeed in this post industrial world.

It can be argued that where most businesses are today is through no fault of their own.  If you think about the growth and hype around Mobile, Social, Data and Cloud, you’ll find a vendor heavy landscape flocking to provide products and services to specific functional areas of the business around one of the above.  What you find quickly is a picture full of tactical and siloed decisions and strategies that lead to short term gain without really providing solutions to the business which will help them become adaptive and holistically competent to deal with the pace of change and new consumer demands. 

It’s pretty safe to say that the professional services industry, or management consultancies have been slow off the mark to promote and provide services around digital strategies.  Usually when a transformational change happens, a ‘change agent’, there tends to be a consultancy shift towards support services to deal with that change as a result. We might not embrace the traditional management consulting model for a variety of reasons but when they do engage and take note of a shift, the result is copious amounts of surveys and research, swiftly followed by recommendations promoting new models and frameworks to herald the dawn of a new service industry. Yes of course, in this case we are talking about Digital Transformation.

Let’s just take a step back in time to look at how we got to where so many businesses find themselves today, still siloed with presence of digital visible but either ad hoc or tactical at best.  Only a few businesses can really say they are embracing the full potential that digital has to offer the audience experience and the resultant business success awarded to those who can look outward and forward, those who can adapt to a changing environment moment by moment – always refining the audience experience to deliver business objectives.  As an example let’s look at ACME Co. (only because I used to love The Roadrunner on TV!).  As a business they have been adopting various aspects of Cloud, Mobile, Social and Data but mainly in silo; essentially trying to embed channel shift. Why? Because on the surface this seems the best way to cope with the new and evolving environment, especially with lack of understanding or buy in at a senior level.  So, channel shift serves a purpose, providing some evidence of success but invariably the audience experience falls short in specific areas and there is an increasing pressure on internal systems, competency and capability.

Around 2011/2012 a tipping point occurs. For whatever reason, be it market analysis, boardroom buy in, a growing confidence in digital spend – we see the big consultancies officially launch a new service industry; ‘Digital Transformation’. For the first time, a customer-focused approach at a business level emerges and a new mindset and wave of thinking begins to bubble up.  Coupled with the dawn of digital disruption and the millennial consumer, hindsight shows us something huge and globally relevant was taking place – we just didn’t think it was happening to us right?

Since 2012, Digital Transformation has grown exponentially, as a term, as an industry, as a mindset.

But for us the story doesn’t stop there.  A silent shift from consumer to audience has taken place – all driven from the digital opportunity.  What this means is that businesses everywhere must look to define and refine the audience experience across all 4 corners of the business:  Customer, Employee, Supply Chain and Stakeholder.  Dealing with the audience holistically means a pretty big deal for any business small or large, public or private. 

• You need to break down barriers so that the audience journey can be mapped and refined holistically.

• You need to get buy in from the whole senior leadership team, not just the CEO – yes they should endorse and mandate the business wide change but more support is needed to drive it home.

• You need a pretty good situation analysis of your current competency and capability to adapt.

• You must ensure that digital doesn’t become either a point to point change programme or a bolt on to your current business strategy: you want a journey that starts but never ends and a business strategy that embraces digital.

• You need guts. Not just in one person, that’s not enough, find the people with the guts to try, the guts to drive, the guts to risk and the guts to vision a future.

• Don’t think your thinking stops at the business strategy – for this to succeed you need to ensure that there is a strategic focus on culture, which means communications and people. Bring those who lead these areas on board at the start to ensure inclusion, adoption and a basic belief that change for good can be achieved.

Heed this warning:  If you are reading this blog, great, but if you are reading it with a half-hearted attitude you’re likely in trouble already.  If you are still thinking mobile, cloud, social and data, raise the alarm within your business immediately, these are the forefathers of the modern digital business, they are the building blocks of your future so get them right now.  Why the scaremongering?  Well we are fast moving into the next phase of the modern digital business, that of ‘things’ and machines.  Artificial Intelligence and machine learning algorithms are gaining breakthroughs every day. And it doesn’t stop there.  These aspects are already here, around us, part of our lives making connections and creating opportunity, forever new connections that will bare the fruit of a new phase and a new phase beyond that and beyond that.  

During a recent conversation with a global business leader he mentioned that the leaders of tomorrow will be those who can look forward and outward.  This really resonated with us as a team and as an organisation that provides the support to help businesses and people adapt to this constantly evolving landscape of connections, made possible through digital.

Think forward and outward.  Look beyond your current vision to where your audiences will be tomorrow.  As the pace of change becomes ever faster, tomorrow might well be here.

So here is a quick summary of where we think we are today:

1. Businesses are not stupid, they know they need to address the digital revolution but they don’t necessarily know how urgent it really is or what it might look like to do something about it. 

2. The view of the future is already becoming a reality; those who are only addressing channel shift are behind the curve. Just look to Moore’s Law to see that the future is coming so fast, it’ll hit you when you least expect it.

3. Disruptors will continue to enter markets and industries. It is predicted in 10 years, 40% of the Fortune 500 will no longer exist (Source: Socialnomics), so start to look beyond your current line of vision to influences that might impact your very existence.

4. People matter more than ever, but not just what they can do and how they do it, it’s becoming more about how they think and how they feel.  Treat your audiences with the respect you would expect from another human being – that’s the power of digital.

5. There isn’t any area of the current corporate structure that’s immune.  This revolution doesn’t discriminate it will demand change across every industry, every size of business, private, public and charity…it really will turn into a Tsunami.

Maybe it really is about adapting or dying...

Keeping pace with digital change

Digital is vast. It has redefined IT, Sales & Marketing, Customer Service and Operations; every area of the business and every industry sector has been changed forever. Why? Because the demands of the customer and the employee are rising at a pace faster than most businesses are adapting to these cope with these changing needs. This pace and the fundamental “access all areas” shift that digital has created has also generated a melting pot for new and disruptive competitors into sometimes hugely monopolised verticals.  If you want to find out more, pick up a copy of James McQuivey’s Digital Disruption.

The bottom line is clear for all CEO’s and business leaders. To be a leader in a digital world you need to:

• Really commit to digital

• Be prepared to go back to school – build up your knowledge and understanding of digital and the opportunities it can bring to your organisation

• Adopt a mindset that focuses on finding the right pace that matches your customers

• Keep pace with your customers (that’s digital maturity)

• Don’t delegate your vision; own the vision and empower the organisation to implement it

When something comes along that fundamentally changes the way we do business across the globe, we still see a struggle to take hold of both the challenge and the opportunity. All too often this results in a failure to use it to our advantage.

As far as digital is concerned, we still have a long way yet to go.

Christopher Columbus went out in a ship and realised the world was round.  Similarly, businesses need to realise digital is pervasive, it has no edges. It has changed things forever because it’s shown us that what was once thought to be the throne of power has flipped. The customer drives the pace of business now.  Customer Experience is a business-wide priority and Digital neither resides within the siloes of IT or Marketing. In fact, digital is not owned, digital just is.

Seize the moment

If you are a CEO, I hope you have already actively embraced digital and matured beyond allowing it to live in those siloes. I hope you have seized the moment, and that you are learning and awakening an almost youthful passion for experimentation and change. I hope, also, that you are beginning to experience and realise that honest and open communication is reciprocated tenfold in sales and advocacy.

On the other hand you might be about to head into a meeting to assess the business Quartile results thus far, only to realise sales are down, morale is at an all time low and the board wants answers… If so, commit to digital!  Think not about how you are currently performing. Think about how you are currently losing out because you haven’t already started to drive change in a way that is adaptive; your opportunity to really increase market share, enter new markets and gain competitive edge. We need a call to arms.  Those of you who have taken onboard the role of a true leader, I encourage you to share your stories, to seek out other peers and help them make the move.

Becoming Digitally Adaptive is no buzzword, but a call for all leaders to ensure they are aware and actively addressing the transition required to stay in the game.