Digital Business insights: New game

DEPARTMENTS are a throw back to the industrial revolution. At that time and throughout most of the 20th century it was the way we got things done. We put things into departments to be easily and sensibly managed.

 

In effect, we built assembly lines in factories and in offices, staged and compartmentalised activities, and did one thing at a time in a straight line. In a paper based, manual filing and postal world, that was the most efficient way to operate.

There was a limit to the degree of complexity we could manage at any one time and breaking activities into their component parts made perfect sense.

Then along came computers. First a few expensive, giant mainframes in a few locations and today, an enormous choice of different personal computing devices owned and used by billions of individuals and organisations all over the world, connected by wires, wireless and networks of many varieties.

This degree of connectivity makes new things possible. Fast computing power and cheap storage makes even more new things possible.

It's a new game. But we are still thinking like the old game.

We are using the new power to enhance and enforce our old ways of doing and thinking.

The new computing power and connectivity allows us to handle things in a way our forefathers and foremothers couldn't have imagined.

The digital revolution doesn't only make our traditional actions and activities more efficient, it allows us to create and manage new actions and activities that extend far beyond what we have become used to.

Because the old limits have gone. The original reasons for organising ourselves into departments for efficiency have disappeared.

The limitations of the tools diminish every day.

The limitations of our thinking remain.

Every business leader has to build time into the week to look forwards now. Just a few big businesses do this systematically - Google, 3M, GE and some others.

They don't just give themselves time to think about today, they give themselves time to consider their future. They look down at their feet, desktops, machines, computer screens like most of us, but also look up at the sky. They look ahead and forwards to tomorrow, imagine and create their future.

Is this stupid? Is this something only they can do? Well, no! It is something that every business and every organisation needs to do.

Because, we exist in an increasingly connected business environment and we have to understand the disruptions and we have to make time to consider. To innovate, just like Google, 3M and GE. It should be standard operating practice. 10% or even 20% of time dedicated to the future...minimum.

Not just for businesses, but for government departments and for any and every organisation.

In a disruptive time like this, it is wise to look around. It is wise to think about today and tomorrow.

The processing tools we now have provide the support but the vision has to come from us. And we need the time to do this. So make time.

Because the operating environment has changed.

The walls have disappeared. Connections extend between silos and across the walls and across the streets and across the seas and across the planet. The digital revolution takes complexity and reduces it to 1s and 0s.

The values have changed.

Which opens a new door.

When things connect in this way, any entity wishing to negotiate a successful journey forwards into the future has to understand what the implications of this degree of connectivity means to them.

They have to understand what it means within their business or organisation. But much more importantly, they have to understand the external changing connected environment.

This is where most digital strategy falls down.

Understanding the position a 21st century organisation holds in relation to all the disruptive forces now in play is essential to plotting a course forwards.

You have to know where you are.

Strategy requires knowledge of "who we are" "where we are" "our resources" - then a clear vision of "where we want to get to".

In the past this was relatively easy. A bit like planning a round Australia tour. Up the road, turn left, drive for 15 miles, turn right, stop for tea, and on we go.

This easy to negotiate fixed environment has gone forever.

The new disruptive environment is like the sea. There are no landmarks. There are no seamarks - because it moves all the time.

But even in a permanently disrupted operating environment (which will get worse as even more organisations connect, collaborate and integrate), we can still use the digital tools - business intelligence tools, accounting tools, search tools, and web based tools of many kinds to inform us "where we are" "who we are", "current resources" and "where we want to get to".

The key is using these tools to inform us as to where we are on our journey relative to our destination - even when the wind blows, the waves get higher, the fog arises, the next financial crisis hits, the dollar rises, the dollar falls and so on.

Understanding what the new environment offers is the key to safe arrival. That is where most digital strategy falls down. Not understanding that the old game is now the new game.

That is why the media empires are struggling. That's why the "old school" IT companies are struggling. That is why all governments are struggling with this issue.

That is why property developers are struggling. That is why retail is struggling. That is why so many business categories are struggling - because they don't know the new operating conditions and continue to play as though this is just a phase...that things will return to business as usual.

Yes, it is a phase. But probably at least a hundred year phase, which makes it the new permanent operating condition where things will only get worse for those who can't or won't become more agile, decisive and adaptive.

That is hard for the big boys. Their strength was their capacity to reinforce and reward consistency and punish innovation with "firing" or encouragement to move on, " you're not fitting in well with our organisational culture, maybe you should look elsewhere".

Large organisations are good at firing the people they need most and keeping the people they need least.

These guys now have all the wrong kind of employees and an "immune system" culture that kills innovation like our bodies kill bacteria. That organisational culture is toxic in the new digital economy.

It all joins up. Understanding thoroughly what is going on and using the new digital toolkit properly offers a future.

Ignoring it, confirms failure.

So on all levels. "Should my digital strategy connect to my social media strategy, connect to my business strategy, connect to my HR strategy, connect to my sales strategy, connect to my staying alive strategy etc?"

Well duh! Of course.

Should my overall strategy be connected and informed by the larger digital revolutionary changes across all business sectors, categories, regions, states, countries?

Yes, as well.

And that is a brand new game.

- John Sheridan, July 2013.

 

www.db-insights.com

* John Sheridan is CEO of Digital Business insights, an organisation based in Brisbane, Australia, which focuses on helping organisations and communities adapt to, and flourish in, the new digital world. He is the author of Connecting the Dots and getting more out of the digital revolution. Digital Business insights has been researching and analysing the digital revolution for more than 12 years and has surveyed more than 50,000 businesses, conducting in-depth case study analysis on more than 350 organisations and digital entrepreneurs.

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