Kill your own business before someone else does
In the early 2000's Jack Welsh famously challenged his business executives to imagine themselves as web-based competitors of their own bricks and mortar businesses. He encouraged them to think how they could kill their own businesses using web-based resources and business models - in effect a disruption play. He then flipped the idea and asked them to apply web-based models they'd created to their own businesses - only this time for real. It transformed them. It might be time to try this exercise on your own business. Digital disruption is everywhere - it's killing traditional businesses in every sector and challenging us to think differently. There's plenty of talk of digital strategy, business models, channels and customer experience in the corridors of enterprises everywhere. The problem is not many of them have the skills, competences, operating models, resources or culture to deliver a digital outcome. They are in truth digitally illiterate and incompetent.
So what does it take to create a literate, digitally competent business that meets the challenges that lie ahead, with some evidence they deliver value to the customers and stakeholders. Here are four competences digitally proficient business have. I've deliberately left off technology as a competence because I don't believe that's unique for digitally proficient businesses - its a hygiene factor. Indeed, any organisation competing in this century, whether they believe they need to be digitally literate or not, needs a deep understanding of the technology which is relevant to them. Here are four competences which stand out:
1. Obsess about your customer or end user
Lots of organisations have climbed aboard the customer experience bandwagon. They have CX initiatives; CX executives and they win CX awards. But how CX or user centric are they really?
Digital CX demands an unrelenting obsession with customers or end users, their behaviour, their needs, their feedback and the breadcrumbs they leave behind everywhere they go. This bag of stuff is the lifeblood of organisations that analyse, understand and act on data sources – big and small. In the same way, when it comes to designing digital solutions, its vital to start working with end users from the outset and throughout - not at UAT, months into the project.
2. Collaborate to win
Traditional large enterprises have very rigorous supplier and partner management processes. Unfortunately these inhibit rather than help in executing a digital strategy. Why? Well, because many of the collaboration partners are likely to be in small, young and unconventional entities. They often don’t employ a great deal of full time staff and are just as likely to work hand in hand with people on the other side of the world, as guys in the same street.
In addition traditional, analogue companies have functional boundaries in their own organisations to contend with. These too inhibit collaboration and need to be removed.
To succeed in the digital maelstrom you’ve got to be prepared to collaborate with those who have relevant skills and competences. It's unlikely these will come from existing, established sources. You might not like their maverick style and unconventional work practices, but if they've got a demonstrable track record of success in delivering digital business solutions, find a way to accommodate and collaborate with them.
3. Create an inclusive culture
Digital businesses don’t respect hierarchies, policies, procedures and functional barriers. This is not to say they are all in some way anarchic - although some are. No, it's more a case of recognizing the value of a culture that is rooted in collaboration; freedom of ideas; rapid decision making; a willingness to continually try new things; accepting failure early on as an intrinsic a part of the whole digital innovation process. The culture of a successful organisation in today's digital world has energy, pace, a can-do attitude. It celebrates success and accepts failure as a necessary part of the digital innovation process and learns very quickly.
4. Think Outside – In
Going hand-in-hand with customer obsession is a mindset that says analyzing situations from the inside out no longer works. It’s too slow and inevitably means by the time the work's done, its out of date or not actionable.
Continually monitoring and analyzing from the outside-in yields very different results. Focus on customer and end user experience, mobile, cloud, market disruption and analytics, these are five trends affecting practically every business. From there it's possible to look at an organisation's own customer propositions, products and services and question their value or relevance.
Jack Walsh's approach reinvented an analogue organisation for the 21st century. Quite a few organisations I've worked with recently have talked about creating a digital strategy. Perhaps they'd be better off thinking about a business strategy that encompasses digital competences. At least then they stand a chance of surviving before their competitors and disrupters get round to killing them off.