Reclaiming Strategy

It is a sad irony that despite the International Labour Organization’s forecast of more than 212 million people being out of work by 2019, that many industries continue to face skills shortages.

Granted, there is a significant difference between labour and skills, and the issues are complex, but you could be forgiven for wondering if there has been little innovation to harness available labour in new ways.

Surprising as it may seem at first glance, the “digital services industry” (a broad term I know) is probably guilty of that accusation to some degree. It has to be asked of them:

Where are all the genuine digital business strategists and advisers?

Digital folk are an enthusiastic lot. It's one of the things I love about the space. Many thrive on the essence that they are perpetual change agents. They’re in a constant position of being a challenger, and perhaps understanding something more so that ‘the other guy’. Their favourite word is disruption. Their second favourite word is disruption.

But instead of seeking out those with proven leadership backgrounds from less obviously aligned sectors, the industry is prone to promote those with no such experience, freely handing out titles like ‘strategist’.

I am speaking in general terms here. There are some wonderful strategy people around, but my contention is that they are way too much the minority.

Is it a valid industry response to the perceived skills shortage, to simply "re-imagine" the construct of strategy positions?  

For instance, have you ever noticed the number of the "start-up advisers" and enthusiasts spawned from the digital industry, who have never actually started a business themselves?

Or how many agencies or advisory firms are marketing the transformational expertise of their “digital strategists”, whom it turns out have never run a business, never overseen a department, never presided over anything even resembling organisational BAU, let alone the management of change?

What about governance experience?

Instead, it seems the prerequisite to be a strategist for customers in the digital services industry is to have good understanding of UX, agile development, lean methodology, or even social media (?). Sure, these may be central to their firms service delivery and make no mistake, this knowledge is highly valuable – indeed irreplaceable – when it comes to truly great product development.

But business strategy it is not.

In truth, the problem lies in the use, over-use, mis-use, or perhaps just variable use, of the word itself.

It is legitimate to have a UX strategy, an engagement strategy, and a product development strategy. In fact, we can just about plop any word in there and it makes sense.

You may have had a strategy to get to work this morning.

The thing is, a jockey in the Melbourne Cup will always have a race strategy, but their title is still 'Jockey'. We know what they are. We know what they do. There is no need for interpretation.

Yet in digital service industries, there are account managers that are called strategy directors, and what were once heads of production or client services, are now heads of strategy, or digital strategists, and so on. 

What was their function again? And what is their competence?

It would be easy to waive this off as simply a nuance of the industry, but this is hardly the basis on which to serve the wider community and the economies that we are part of.

Organisations have found the sand shifting beneath their feet in recent years, and they require concrete advice and guidance as they set a course through the digital economy. They come to us looking to understand not just the micro but the macro, to test their strategy assumptions, to re-message their audiences, to plot both the rewards and the risks, to map the economics, and to assess execution paths that might make – or break – their ability to reach their objectives.

Then they often find themselves across the table from parties who aren’t remotely qualified for that conversation, and yet somehow exude the confidence of a prize fighter.

It is a strange, but not uncommon combination.

On the subject of management psychology, the widely read Hodges Golson wrote about the intersection of intelligence and arrogance. He summarises the four profiles of all professionals as:

1. Low competence, low arrogance
2. High Competence, low arrogance
3. Low competence, high arrogance
4. High competence, high arrogance

Category 4 is serviceable (or not) assuming their performance is commensurate with their competence, you can manage them, and you're happy to live with the inevitable impact to team culture and the customer-first ethos. But category 3 (low competence, high arrogance) is of most interest.

If you read Golson’s definition the profile sounds rather familiar. The noisy rhetoric surrounding digital disruption and transformation has effectively taught this group that they are special. It is almost understandable then, that this bears out a degree of arrogance just as he described.

Of course – none of this is terminal.

It’s important not to lose sight of the tremendous talent that does exist across a huge spectrum of the digital landscape. In fact, I have met the brightest and most amazing professionals in this industry. They are truly, truly outstanding.

And the gap at the strategy level only occurs, ironically, due to very positive global market pressures.

The rise of demand for modern digital services occurred almost overnight. It is no surprise that the labour market could not respond fast enough.

As the old saying goes, you gotta fake it til you make it.

But it is time we take another step in our own transformation. After all, the early pioneers were rarely those that truly settled a new land. Thankfully, others are already tackling the challenge.

Addressing the wider skills shortage, Paul Gilbert at Request Media made the case recently that “…the future solution to the digital experience shortfall needs to be both multifaceted and extensive in its reach involving the government, businesses, industry groups and educational bodies…”

Bravo.

My challenge is to the digital service industry at large, and to those that plan to offer strategy services in particular, is this:

Let’s be the innovators we believe the digital industry to be.

That means harnessing more of the available labour market.

When I look at those who demonstrate an ability to help drive meaningful digital direction in business it more often comes from those who have a few battle scars, who have been in business for some time, and who have transitioned into the digital services workforce.

Surely this is the template for strategy and advisory roles moving forward.

They may not be the poster boys and girls of the sexy digital era as it is often perceived from within. But there is no substitute for digitally savvy business experience. To champion change from one state to another, one must firstly understand the rationale for the status quo, its real world application, and have experienced it - or its like - firsthand.

So what will the next generation of digital leadership look like? 

It is my hope that many experienced men and women in all sorts of industries take the opportunity presented by the growing digital landscape. And I challenge the digital services industry in all its parts, to open its doors and welcome in this much needed experience.

Perhaps this will be our greatest disruption of all.