Stop Being Confused About Digital and IoT!

How do you upgrade your mindset and skills on digitalization and IoT? I get this question a lot and I will share some simple ideas on what you can do in this post.

But first, I would like to share an insight I got from Grimur Fjeldsted, Head of Digital Innovation at ECCO, when I asked about his inspirational sources on digital and IoT.

“For IoT in particular I recommend using the Platform Design Canvas.  I found that process very effective to design for IoT”

I can follow Fjeldsted on this because this is great work by Simone Cicero, who has lots of good insights on corporate transformation and the collaborative economy on his blog.

This is what platform design boils down to according to Cicero:

• understanding what are the key entities in the ecosystem
• understanding how the core value is created and how ancillary value streams are potentially generated (who’s creating value and how this value is transferred to the ultimate value consumer)
• understanding what are the key transactions making up the more or less complex flow of work and ensure that context or (better) well formed channels exist for this transactions to happen flawlessly
• understanding what are the key components of the platform

and last but, probably, most importantly:

• understanding how the platform owners can support and empower the evolution of participants toward better performances, how to hone their capabilities to help them thrive and therefore produce better quality and the creation of a larger social capital and reputation.

You should check out Cicero’s work!

So by asking my good friend, Grimur Fjeldsted, I got some great insights.  This brings me nicely to my first suggestion on how you can learn and better understand digital and IoT.

Get in touch with the right people in your network: If you don’t already know who to get in touch with, go to LinkedIn, go to advanced search and type in digital in the keyword box while only selecting your 1st Connections. You will most likely be surprised to see how some people in your network have developed over the last few years and are now becoming key resources for digital and IoT development within and outside of their organizations. Get in touch with them. Tap their brains.

Go to Silicon Valley: I go to Silicon Valley as often as I can. This is a great place to immerse yourself into disruption, digitalization, entrepreneurship and innovation. The place is booming with digital activity ranging from automotive efforts, retail setups with Walmart and many others, consumer-focused startups to giants like Intel and SAP with their moves into digital and IoT.

Learn from the startups: During yet another to Silicon Valley last week, I met with the great guys at the Plug and Play Accelerator once again. This time with Phillip and Sobhan from their Iot accelerator and their advice was very clear: The best way to learn on digitalization and IoT is through the startups. Point taken.

Find the good stuff to read: I browse LinkedIn posts and groups for good insights. I have set up Google Alerts on the topic. I do not read many books these days, but I really enjoy Digital to the Core, which is full of strategic insights served as an easy read.

These ideas are simple and straightforward. Feel free to share how you develop yourself, your team and your organization on these very important topics.