What is Digital Disruption?
Think about when, if at all, you last spoke to a travel agent. I’d guess not for some time.
Many of us now search the Internet looking at travel portals and price comparison web sites with the intention of booking flights and holidays directly or even communicating with homeowners who have rooms to spare.
Digital technology adoption by organisations has seen extra value being passed on to the consumer in terms of lower prices and convenience. Often seen as a negative force digital disruption can reap benefits for organisations who chose to embrace it. The travel industry offers great examples of how developing technologies and business models are transforming the way we arrange our holidays.
The Start Up: Zero to a million in 19 minutes
In this digital age, you can share your idea with a global audience. Never before have aspiring entrepreneurs had this reach at their fingertips. For some, their success has been documented as a “zero to a million dollars overnight” story.
According to Kickstarter, a crowdfunding website, their record for the fastest project to reach one million dollars in pledges took only 19 minutes.
Their idea: a board-game.
And then there was also that digital-game involving slicing and dicing fruit with your finger. Fruit Ninja earnt the founding pair a combined fortune of $284 million dollars.
The incumbent: the relentless pace of change
The pace at which everything moves in the “digital age” can seem daunting. Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric said,
“If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to wake up this morning as a software and analytics company.”
If you had invested $1,000 in Netflix ten years ago, it would be worth almost $52,000. In order to stay in business established organisations (incumbents) need to access and make use of the customer and market intelligence they have.
As this is something new start ups don’t have. Incumbents also need to address organisational culture. Staff buy-in is a key factor in keeping organisations agile and innovative. Thus change management is as important as technology management.
Digital Marketing: where do you start?
Marketing communications has seen a fundamental shift of power between the organisation and the buyer. The buyer now has all the information on products, marketplace and competitors at his or her fingertips.
Rather that interrupting the buyer with messages that the organisation believes important they need to draw the buyer in with engaging content. Relationships need to be built by giving the customer value i.e. a useful e-book or a timely update – depending on where the customer is on his or her buying journey. All marketing communications should have two criteria in mind:
Global Leaders Faculty the era of Digital Disruption
“The buyer now has all the information on products, marketplace and competitors at his or her fingertips.”
Mr Thom Kennon Chief Strategy Officer, MN&P
