Digital Business insights: Full steam ahead, but nobody at the wheel

 

THE DEMANDS of modern life makes it increasingly difficult for a CEO and board members to pause, look around, take stock and move on in a sensible manner. This is a disruptive time for many reasons.

 

Major transitions are under way as a result of the digital revolution. Some are obvious, many less obvious and some completely hidden. Because this revolution is taking place at the digital level, in microchips and over wires and wireless mostly invisible to us in our day-to-day lives.

We see the iPhones. We see the iPads, the array of computers, tablets and the myriad of applications they bring. We interface with technology through touchpads, keyboards, earphones, screens and mice.

The real impacts are where the connections, collaborations and integrations take place. This is the level where societal disruption is taking place, both for better and for worse.

Because, all the positive digital benefits are matched by a negative downside of cyberbullying, cybercrime, phishing, scams, identity theft, privacy invasions and so on that needs to be managed wisely if we are going to leverage digital technology to springboard us into a better world.

Like it or not, we are on the journey. And unless there is a major nuclear war, there is no going back.

Government, industry, business, environmental, health and community organisations are all structured for success in an operational environment that we are fast leaving behind.

We have become very good at managing, subjects and specialities, silos and departments, councils and states and even countries. We are good at short term. Good at ticking boxes.

We are nowhere near as good at identifying, defining and managing long term, strategic and holistic, big pictures.

And there are two things to consider.

The world we are born into and live in is already a totally integrated, connected environment. And has been for many, many millions of years.

The digital revolution that sweeps us merrily along, is moving us inexorably towards more connection, more collaboration and more integration. And the internet of everything.

Pretty much towards synchronisation with the already interconnected world we live in. Not tomorrow, or next week but at some time in the not too far distant future.

There have already been a number of seismic shifts on the way.

Access to personal computing devices of all kinds has become affordable.

Adoption and use of these devices is becoming universal.

The internet has provided a worldwide, information sharing and collaboration platform.

Google has moved power from vendors to customers forever. Not fully realised yet, but well on the way.

There are more shifts to come.

These shifts create disruption on the surface of our society. They impact our regions. They shake our industry sectors uncomfortably. They come knocking on the door of businesses and demand change.

Organisations typically respond by trying to maintain the status quo.

At the macro level, North Korea, China, Iran, Egypt, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and others have moved towards varying levels of internet control.

The NSA, GCHQ, ASIO and every spook agency in the world rubbed their hands in glee at this remarkable, new access to data and information, but didn't understand that connection, sharing and collaboration can work both ways.

A lot of the incumbent big players in the digital revolution failed to adapt and go with the flow and have lost share and influence to smaller, cheaper and more agile competitors. Forever.

The regulatory and legislative bodies around the world still haven't understood the full implications of what is happening and can only tinker around the edges with local and national laws and international agreements.

And in the thick of it, businesses and other organisations try to work out what to do and how to do it, not always recognising that some major disruptions are completely out of their direct control, and threaten the very existence of their whole business model.

So how do you do strategy in this new world?

For what worked well in a stable 20th century operating environment doesn't work so well today.

Racehorses are finely tuned to perform on the flat, on a surface without holes, bumps or obstructions. Take them up into the mountains and their natural advantages become disadvantages.

When conditions change, it is imperative to be able to change with them. And not just to change for the sake of change, but to adapt to meet the new condition flexibly and consistently.

That takes vision (20-20), decision and then leadership.

Today in most organisations the windows to this new world are closed and shuttered.

Every department is preoccupied with sales objectives, directives, tasks, hourly, daily, weekly and quarterly targets and no time to consider, imagine or dream (in the good sense). And it's not their job anyway.

Head down, bum up, for the working day and much of the weekend doesn't leave time to do anything else. Like, think.

How far up the organisation this condition extends varies slightly across organisations, but that has traditionally been the model for success.

The blame sits on the top floor, where the windows are wide open and the job is not just to consider what happens at every internal level of activity, but also to look far and wide at new activities, opportunities and threats.

Outside of Google, GE, Amazon, Apple and possibly Microsoft there isn't a lot of looking going on.

A few years ago in Canberra, I met with a number of Federal Government departments, and I asked which department, if any, was responsible for the overall strategic, digital vision for Australia. A somewhat naive question, but prompted by honest interest at the time.

They all laughed. Then they said, AGIMO and laughed again. Then, Office of the Prime Minister and laughed again.

And nothing much has changed on that front since.

So if vision doesn't happen at that level - steering and leading our nation towards a prime position for the digital future - it is easy to understand why it doesn't happen in "C" suites and in board rooms in Australia and across the planet.

All boards should have a futurist at the table if they can find one. It is criminal not to. Lawyers, accountants and traditional business leaders will tell you about the past. Somebody has to spell out the options regarding "full steam ahead".

Response?

No time. Not core business. Not our immediate problem. Not important. Nobody is interested.

I've heard them all. Many from people who subsequently found themselves unexpectedly in trouble. Well duh!

Meanwhile digital disruption continues. Every day, ever more connection, more collaboration and more integration.

We are heading into a completely joined up, international digital economy anyway, like it or not. Where shared value offers the only way of influencing destiny.

It would be nice to know that at some level, somebody in Australia has their hands on the wheel.

- John Sheridan, November 2013.

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.

http://www.db-insights.com/

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