Courtesy of Mark Fidelman for Forbes Magazine.
According to Mark these “10 things” are at the forefront of an IBM strategy to succeed and lead over the coming decade. Although I must say I am always surprised to see any technological discussion have a continuum of anything longer the 3-5 years never mind 10.
1) Serving customers in context
2) Effective Collaboration between Partners and Supplier
3) CrowdSourcing Innovation
4) Fight for talent
5) Focus on building relationships not transactions
6) Sales people will “sell less” and engage more
7) Mobile business isn’t just for technology companies
8) Proficient social campaigns
9) SMCC’s make organizations more responsive & adaptive
10) Artificial Intelligence (at least the big data version)
Obviously being a predominantly technological article about a technology company most of the 10 points in the article refer the technological angle for a business strategy based on a hypothetical retail setting. So it will not surprise you to see the following technology/software mentioned:
- Mobile technologies
- Social business
- Social data analytics
- Big Data
- Artificial Intelligence
- eCommerce
However dig a little deeper and it becomes immediately evident that the following business components or elements are at the forefront and indeed the reason for the development and deployment of the technology:
- Customers
- Employees/Teams
- Vendors and Business Partners
- Brands
- Sales Trends
- Products and Procurement
- Pricing and Supply Chain
- Collaboration
- Existing and new business relationships
- Profit models
- HR and talent management
- Sales & Marketing
and so on and so on, I’m sure you read the article. What stands out though is the ubiquitous reach that a fairly small list of systems has on practically the entire business. In other words 5 or so systems affected 12 or more areas of the business.
The next “tip of the iceberg” standing out from this piece is the obvious impact the these strategies and systems would have on things like business culture i.e. now doing business in a way that has never been done before and therefore is found to be fairly daunting for any business let alone an old stalwart like IBM. You want to change the direction of a tanker best you steer early, carefully and often. Mark deals with the talent issue suggesting that in fact the current talent pool at IBM is undergoing pretty significant change. It is predicted that millennial generation will soon comprise 50% of the workforce. Well, they get most of this technology and indeed see it being taken further as the development speeds up. The old guard never had to deal with this. The attitude/culture “if it aint broken don’t fix it” still holds firm in many industries and businesses. Those days are gone in fact it is replaced with “if you are not changing you are going backwards”.
Then come the elements of collaboration and relationships. In most of the above points in the piece these two words or some aspect thereof pops up. But it is more than that it is becoming deeply personal. Understanding personas and buying habits and establishing new levels of trust. Having close and immediate contact with people you are selling to, buying from and sharing a market space with. Understanding your competitors becomes a relationship and collaboration thing. It is not uncommon today to hear about competitors collaborating in the same market space in the face of the same potential customers. 5-10 years ago this was not spoken of in any way let alone building strategies supported by technology.
What’s my point you ask? Well success in these matters is going to boil down, as it always has, to effective and strong and dynamic leadership. Yes Mr.CxO all of this sits on your plate and the organization will turn to you for the leadership and decision making to spend and change. Problem? This is all virgin territory for most C-level folks at both the enterprise level as well as the SME arena. Not only is this a different ball game in concept and discipline but also in the very nature of business. Young, hungry startup businesses led by a generation that has no fear of these matters are changing business overnight. Replacing old models with digital models and achieving success overnight. Creating a $100million business from scratch these days is not unusual. The technology segments have been the shinning lights in this case but it is happening across the board. C-Level folks are now facing innovation as a requirement not a luxury or the product of a clever team established by a dynamic leader.
The answer? Educate yourself. Plan and re-plan. Put the right skills and resources in place and empower them. Then jump in and swim. It is now or never and change is exciting.
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