Digital Business, are you a digital migrant?

It's not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are you busy about? - Henry David Thoreau

In their book " Leading Digital Strategy, "Bones and Hammersley introduced digital business not as usual with the following :

"the changes it makes create a gap between leaders who are accountable for direction and performance and the technical and digital specialists required to operate in this new world effectively. This gap arises from a lack of experience in and exposure to digital commerce's mechanics and practices from many leaders, a lack of experience in and exposure to the operation of a commercial undertaking for many digital specialists. Business Leaders are frustrated through a low return on investment and a sense of underachievement. Digital specialists are frustrated by a lack of leadership engagement with and understanding of what they do, which they see as restricting the level of performance they can achieve".

Digital Business is not a technology problem anymore, but leadership changes, challenges that require leadership action!

What you see is not always the most important thing.

Let's assume "Digital" is a country (not a channel, not an extension of your offline places).

My analogy goes as follow; there are two kinds of visitors to this land (assuming also it is young, with a lot of places untouched, and we are still learning from it, oh, we don't know yet who are the actual residents!), the tourists, and the migrants.

The Digital Tourist:

Is an Executive worried about acting and meeting the rapidly changing customer behavior and diminishing customer loyalty, he knows his business is under threat but cannot quantify or estimate the percentage of business that could be impacted over the next two to five years.

He still sees digital as an extension of the big traditional business. Every year, he looks at the clue to success in what he can see others doing and could be easily quantified; each year, he gets back in shape to visit the Digital Land, hoping to find some golden nuggets.

His motto is, "If I struggle a little, practice quickly and very hard, play in the land, have the toolkit (e-commerce, a digital marketing plan, a big data, and IT transformation,) I will be like the Amazon of this world.

Customers are essential; however, he still needs to sell his products or portfolios of products to a new market or an existing one. Let's build it, and they will come!"

The Digital Migrant

Is an intrapreneur or entrepreneur facing various challenges when starting his project/company, like raising investments, understanding the language, rules, regulations, or scaling its business, for instance, some do not speak the language (digital fluency) or don't have a framework for a two-way integration process (one that is beneficial for the digital migrant and the receiving community), an essential component to maintain social, cultural, and economic viability.

Despite these challenges, many share a drive and perseverance attitude critical to their success.

They understand their identity by emphasizing the value of commitment, ownership(accountability), and smart work (greatness at the moment) as their most important tenets.

Migrants understand that success is a life of perseverance; there is no other way, requiring uncomfortable changes. Understanding the emotional cycle of changes and their principles differentiate Migrants who win from those who quit.

Before taking this life-changing (transformation) endeavor, they seek to understand the invisible approaches about other successful migrants before them so they also can build their game plan.

They heard from migrants coming back from the valley of despair and who quitted that poor processes, unclear objectives, lack of capabilities, misaligned structures, competing priorities, and failure to understand commercial, financial, and operational within teams where the tip of the iceberg people coming back talked about.

They have a strong desire to understand what were the drivers most cannot see:

• Who leads their journey to success? What was continuously distinctive about them?
• How did they incentivize their behaviors?
• How did they organize to deliver their vision?
• What were their discipline, approach, and drive regimen?
• Success doesn't come alone; who did they partner with, what peer supports were they involved with to discuss their progress, struggles, and challenges?
• What strategy did they use to evaluate the choice they chose continuously?

What I learned on the job

Many are replicating the things that they see most successful are doing. Still, they are not going to the core understanding (they know the goal but not the processes) of the cultural, social, and economical approach and techniques to succeed.

Digital masters have at their core embedded a system that allows them to replicate the necessary and possible learning, support services, work, and community activities, leading to digital migrant linguistic fluency, economic, and social integration.

Three important tenets they share ( from The 12 Week Year, by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

They Own it (accountability)

Accountability is not consequences but ownership. It is a character trait, a life stance, a willingness to own your actions and results regardless of the circumstances. They Understand "Wiliness to Pay" or Count the costs: "Identifying the costs before they commit to them, consciously choose whether they are willing to pay the price of their commitment."

 They commit

They Go ALL IN, honor promises to themselves and others; they expect the best, they build and keep relationships front and center. They understand promises build character, esteem, and success.

They strive for greatness at the moment.

Greatness doesn't equate to result but is its precedent; it comes through your daily prioritized rituals and actions; it is a process.

They also understand that knowing what to do is different from doing it, so they follow five disciplines to get the right things done.

1. They have a Vision (backed by a strong desire).

Vision is the starting point of all high performance. It doesn't matter whether it's in your business or personal life - Yet, having a vision is not enough. That may seem a little confusing after all that I've just said about vision. Ultimately, for a vision to be decisive in your life, you must move beyond creating one — you must then stay connected with it. The more you think about your vision, the stronger it becomes.

2. They have a plan and understand the further it is in the future, the less predictability they have.

An effective plan clarifies and focuses on the top priority initiatives and actions needed to achieve the vision.

Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington go a step further by entering the concept of PERIODIZATION. They turned what used to be a year into a period consisting of four "years," each 12 weeks long. A year no longer consists of four quarters; there is just a 12-week year, followed by the next 12-week year, and the next, and so on. Each 12-week year is YOUR ENTIRE YEAR.

Mike Tyson – "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

3. They have a Process control

A set of tools and events that align their daily actions with the critical activities in their plan to make sure things get done, peer support, and accountability meeting to confront breakdowns, recognize progress, create focus, and encourage actions, they understand that their chance of success is seven-time greater if they employ peer support

George Shinn – "There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goal only with the help of others."

4. They have a Measurement system in place

 Lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision-making. High performer keeps score. It is their feedback loop that lets them know if their activities are effective.

5. They use time wisely

 Using your time with clear intention is a must.

"Everything that we achieve in life happens in the context of time. The important things will get done if we allocate time to them. One building block of success is the ability to spend time on what matters most."

 Are you still a digital tourist or becoming the digital migrant you envision to be?

Resources:

• Companies Gain When CMOs and CFOs Measure Success Together
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There is no such thing as motivation; it's a feeling; what happens if you're not motivated? Will you come back to your "why" are you doing what you're doing? What will keep you going when there is no more motivation? – Discipline equals freedom!