Digital Strategist Skills

A new business context

VUCA is the word that defines the current business context, composed of high volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are the ingredients that make it very hard to survive in a competitive scenario, where the only constant is change. Volatility comes from the way that today changes occur every time. In other words, what is trendy today, probably will be outdated or replaced tomorrow. A study published by Innosight1 in 2018 already indicated that the average life expectancy of the S&P 500 companies would drop from 33 years in 1964, to a worrying 12 years by the year 2027.

The reasons pointed to this effect are mainly related to the continuous appearance of startups, which in a few years can reach very high market valuations, displacing giant companies, and taking part of their market share. Those unicorns are capable of meeting people and companies needs with disruptive and innovative solutions, managing to create critical mass quickly and exponentially. Daniel Burrus, an expert in innovation and technology, has a famous quote that reflects this new rule: “if it works, it is already obsolete”.

The ephemerality of the current scenario is even more worrying, since the new is not to be here definitely. Together with volatility, they compose the perfect storm. Nothing is stable, everything can be improved, destroyed to be rebuilt, is part of the paradigm in which we live today. Example are just around the corner: from the nostalgia of going to the movie rental store currently replaced by the innumerable video streaming options in the comfort of your couch, an entire transportation industry that is being crushed by e-mobility solutions such as car sharing, to the power of music streaming that was able to combat physical CDs.

Change being the new rule, companies are looking for a way to survive in the digital era and extend their expiration date. The digitization of processes and activities, to a broader level of digital transformation initiatives, has been the trend in recent years. Surely the COVID context of the year 2020 has accelerated this process, but the truth is that the goal of transforming and reorganizing comes from before. From innovation areas to agile squads, companies knew that change was imminent, and definitely, a question of survival.

Digital Skills

The so-called 4th Industry Revolution will require people to learn how to unlearn. Leveraging all the progress made previously, this revolution will combine a business centric approach with a large and vast deployment of exponential and promising technologies, like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud-computing, Robotics, and others that are not yet available for the enterprises. Here are some of the relevant Digital Skills the strategists should develop to drive and define the future of this 4th Industrial Revolution.

Business and management background

The digital era is not only about technology, it is also impacting the way companies are building their business strategy. We have witnessed the rise of digital platforms that have a global scope, frictionless for the consumer and offering customized user experience. Digital strategists should understand how to position, develop and define business architectures to deliver products and services for a vast audience and potential users. Shifting from the traditional Supply Chain Management approach to an ecosystem, where partners, suppliers, competitors (or coopetition) are articulated to re-enforce the customer-centric strategy. Companies are pursuing an “as-a-service” approach to evolve their business model, extending their customer lifetime value and relationship.

Innovation

To move fast, companies should leave behind the traditional way to manage business architecture and adopt an agile approach. There is no doubt that being agile is not easy, as enterprises should develop a continuous innovation portfolio, instead of isolated initiatives. Innovation should break the walls of the limited laboratories and pilots, and be spread throughout the whole organization. Products/services co-creation, celebrating and learning from failures and MVP based approach are some of the aspects behind an agile methodology. Open innovation is also another way to accelerate and complement companies' portfolios, integrating external tendencies like technologies and new business models. The Digital Strategist needs to know how and where to apply frameworks like Lean, Scrum, Design Thinking and other human-centric methodologies, leveraging resources required to build agile squads and promote entrepreneurial mindset .

Technologist

Digital Strategists have the radar always open to detect, discover and learn new technologies. All digital businesses are enabled by technologies that support underlying architecture. Today's trends are cloud-computing, big data analytics, automation (like RPA) and blockchain. Those technologies are relevant and stable enough to be adopted by companies, but more and more technologies are coming in the near future and will be available for the enterprises, like robotics, quantum computing, biotechnologies and so on. The Strategists articulate technology adoption to define those “building blocks” that will be important to enable and scale new business models. From in-house development to infrastructure and software as a service, there are different options to quickly prototype a first product MVP and be cost-effective.

Human-centric

Digital phenomenon will also impact people in different aspects of their lives and how they interact with others, how they consume goods and services. Strategists will face internal resistance, as new ways to work will be developed and require new skills from the workforce. New types of tasks will require new skills from employees. From the external standpoint, the escenario is even more disruptive, as customers will change the way they buy products, subscribing to services and interacting with others in a digital marketplace. It is important to adopt customer-centric approaches and methodologies to build digital solutions that can solve real problems and decrease customer and internal users' friction when interacting with the company. Leveraging effective in and outbound communication skills, Strategist should create and promote a communication-friendly space, facilitating information interchange among teams and different companies' areas.

Analytics-driven

Data is the new oil. The hype around big data analytics comes before the digital revolution, but there is no doubt that will accelerate digitalization. As more and more digital platforms become part of human life, a unique space is open to capture and analyse every interaction and customer behaviour, spreading the use of analytics across all departments and areas. That will enable businesses to customize services to each customer's needs, connect services and products, and also develop new business models based on data and analytics. Digital strategists should leverage data for innovation, services designing/development, growing the business, capturing more users and improving their experience

Sustainability

Companies in the digital era are shifting from a “less possible damage” to a “net-positive” approach, contributing to a better world. In that process, companies are including sustainable aspects to the core business, adding value to the products and services they sell. Customers are demanding even more green-processes and CO2 zero-emission when trading with businesses. Digital leaders should engage in sustainable considerations and measure social and environmental impact when developing solutions. Doing so will ensure competitiveness and resilience, well-positioning companies in the digital market and for long-term value creation over time.?

The digital revolution will require a new set of skilled people to define how business will be in the future. Combining technology and new business models, the primary focus of the Strategists will be to define sustainable business platforms and ecosystem creation to ensure value creation and customized user experience.

Source:

• 2018 Corporate Longevity Forecast report: https://www.innosight.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Innosight-Corporate-Longevity-2018.pdf
• The Digital Talent Gap: https://www.capgemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/dti_the-digital-talent-gap_20171109.pdf
• The?top?trends?in?tech: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-top-trends-in-tech