Get on and do it - but get on and do it right!

When you really need to move fast, being handed the keys to a fast car is much more welcome than being passed the plans to build a car factory.
Here in April 2020 we have an exceptional need to move fast - so. for many, strategy is just extra paperwork right now.
There are many benefits to just 'getting on and doing it'. But there is always the counter that you may just be heading fast in the wrong direction. The solution is to think in terms of a rapidly rolled out framework. It should give you something you can start on right now, that gets you results fast, but in being started on also provides solid foundations to build a sustainable future on.
For me that looks somewhat like this:

1. WORK TO VALUE, AT PACE: (AKA, get on and do it). Choose a problem - pull together a small team - call the output of their labours 'the product' and start. Stand that up with access to insight, clarity of constrains and appropriate process and tools for ideation, concept development and prototyping. Allow decision making to stay within the team - and you'll get to a solution fast. You can do that tomorrow. It's a first and important step and can be done without any of the other three foundations laid. Go!

2. TECHNICAL BASICS: In step 1 you can get a long way just working on paper, with the insight you have and with the tools that may already be readily available. But in the rapid solutioning of WORK TO VALUE AT PACE you are also likely to start identifying additional basic data and technology needs. These will form your TECHNICAL BASICS. These can be captured as a backlog through repeating step 1, but you can get ahead of them by a rapid review vs need. Deploy step 2 early and fast and you'll be speeding up and scaling up your iterative capacity. So while step 1 will get you started, step two will enhance both your capabilities and your capacity.

3. NETWORK LEADERSHIP: By following step 1, and preparing to scale its activities with step 2, you will already been seeing the benefits of distributed leadership. You will likely be wanting more. To achieve that requires changes to governance, roles and responsibilities. By selecting to make this part of your framework you can unleash the network potential of the organisation - taking what you have learned from doing, to make it the way that you work across the enterprise. Change management, coaching and mentoring are essential value adds in step 3.

4. CULTURE TO SUSTAIN: Steps 1 to 3 will have taught you a lot about solving problems at speed and with accuracy. You will have achieved amazing things. It's great. You will enjoy it. But it can't go on for ever unless you appreciate that, like individuals, organisations exist in a society and on a planet on which our success depends. Steps 1-3 give you the tools to create value at speed - step 4 recognises that your continued success depends on that of people and planet. There's no profit without them. In this step governance and value generation build in a balanced approach to allow you to sustain your success.

Avoiding the holes in your future

"Planning involves conjectures about the future and hypothetical cases. They are so busy with actual cases that they are reluctant to take on theoretical ones."

Henry Kissinger was talking about US Government policy makers when he wrote the above - in his doctoral thesis. The insight is equally valid for businesses today.

When 'planning' what is often conducted is an exercise in reactive tactic making - trying to solve the problems facing you right now, usually in the order they appear to be impacting. It is planning in the rear-view mirror.

The result is a drag on future capability, with resource allocation skewed toward problems that have already happened versus preparation to take advantage of emerging opportunity.

Kissinger advises you must create the time to lift your eyes and look as far ahead as you can see.

Words like 'hypothetical' and 'theoretical' are too often dismissed in the daily challenge of dealing with what's right in front of you (by which we usually mean, what is immediately behind us).

So for those who are still more concerned about their to-do list (let's call it our 'should've already done list'), here's a real-world example from the world of advanced motorcycle riding: The further ahead you look, the faster you can go.

Looking further ahead when riding allows you to:

a) Identify risks, and plan to deal with them
b) Get a long view of the road ahead and plan your best position not just for the first bend you can see, but for a series of twists and turns.

The opposite leads to 'target fixation'. This is a known phenomena beyond motorcycling.

From Wikipedia: Target fixation is an attentional phenomenon observed in humans in which an individual becomes so focused on an observed object (be it a target or hazard) that they inadvertently increase their risk of colliding with the object.

Simply: You End Up Going Where You Look.

If you focus too much on the pothole in front of you, you are more likely to end up riding straight into it.

Look away from the danger and towards your opportunities and you are better able to make a plan to avoid the hole in your future.

That's planning.

The value of not knowing the right way

I watched a young band play in a pub garden recently. As they went through their covers routine it struck me that when I had been playing in bands at that age(ish) I'd gone straight past the covers phase, direct to playing my own material.
Guess why? I didn't actually know the right way to play other people's songs - so I wrote my own.
That lack of knowing the right way forced me to find a new way.
 In fact I'd go further. There appears to me to be an increased risk of not being able to discover new ways if you are too keen on learning the 'right' way.
Be happy if you don't know the way things have always been done. Yours is the road to the new.

Customer collaboration shifting from products to business strategy

There are still those who think the customer is a thing to be done to. Then there are also those who think that if a customer is to be listened to at all it is only to take part in a vote on stuff you've already decided to make or do.

And there are others still who are Open Business enough to consider allowing customers to shape products and services. This is the staple of the open door social media offers to business.

But business strategy? Surely that's one step beyond.

No. Not for a vast chunk of CEOs at the  highest performing businesses.

IBM's Customer Activated Enterprize report reveals that: "More than half of CxOs expect to open up their enterprises – bringing down barriers to extend collaboration inside and outside. 

Their most radical shift may be a new view on what it means to collaborate with customers."

The report is the result of interviews with  4,000 CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, CIOs a similar leaders from 70 countries and across 20 industries.  It reveals 60 per cent of CEOs plan to directly engage their customers and proactively apply what they learn to set their business agendas in the next three to five years.

Already 43 percent of CEOs include customers in the development of business strategies. 

And it's not just any old companies. IBM says there is a key correlation between the companies that succeed and their levels of external collaboration. Outperforming companies are 54 percent more likely to collaborate extensively with customers.

IBM's own story of collaboration features in my book, The 10 Principles of Open Business, available for pre-order today.

Thatcher's legacy? Getting away with it is not a strategy

Had the Labour Government that preceded Margaret Thatcher’s first election win had access to accurate data they would never have needed to go cap in hand to the IMF, to devalue the pound and accept swingeing cuts demanded of them for getting the loan. They were operating on a false premise – that the economy was in a far more parlous state than it actually was. This miscalculation changed the way Britain was governed. 

Mrs Thatcher was lucky. She got away with it.

Had a few more Argentine bombs been correctly fused, a few more Exocet missiles supplied, a few less brave men acted a little less heroicly, The US been less generous with its clandestine support, Britain would have slumped to ignoble defeat in The Falklands. It was very touch and go.

Mrs Thatcher was lucky. She got away with it.

Had the technology and the will to access and surface Britain’s biggest ever bag of gold – black gold from the North Sea – not coincided with her Premiership  she would not have been able to tilt the electoral playing field with the massive privatisation share price give-away that the oil funded, or the cut-price transfer of council housing to private ownership that followed.

Many got lucky, cashed in, took the money and ran. And thought they’d got away with it.

But far from her dream of giving more people a stake in a capitalist economy, she’d succeeded only in creating a society ever more fixated on and dominated by consumerism. Mrs T thought we aspired to prudent stewardship through ownership - but what she actually created were the conditions for rampant consumerism.

Still she believed she was right – and kept ploughing on with unpopular cut after unpopular policy because..? She kept on getting away with it.

What did we learn? Belief is important. But in the end it won’t out run the truth.

Getting away with it is not a strategy. Lucky generals don’t always win.

Gather the evidence. Act on the data.

Make a better fit with reality.

I'm a big believer in belief - but never at the cost of reality.

The cost of sharing and the risk of the wrong rewards

Some rewards really aren't good for you 

While at iStrategy in Amsterdam last week I saw a ‘top tweet’ that suggested that those fixated on the viral campaign (that stuff we were writing about in 2007) should expect to spend 20% on making the viral and 80% on promoting it.

And I thought... what business do these folk think they are in? When you’re stuck spending more on promoting the thing than you did on making it there’s a problem.

It means you haven’t made it with the people for whom it was intended in the first place.

The answer of course is to push the ‘customer’ deeper and deeper into the process until they are alongside you as a partner from the word go – a partner in making the better thing, the better outcome, that you all want. Then they’ll share it. With people who want it. Because they want to. Because it matters to them. The guts of Open Business is right there – people want to make your stuff better because it matters to them.

Your job is to have something that matters.

Reminds me of some thoughts I had about the ‘social media awards’ which break out like Swine Flu at this time of year.

They have a horrible tendency to reinforce the ‘spend 80% on promoting it’ status quo. (Image courtesy (Glen McBethlaw via Flickr)

Perhaps instead of asking how well targeted (laser, usually) the ‘campaign’ was or how great its ‘reach’ (and mine will always extend your grasp, thank you), judges could consider criteria such as: How has this project improved the lives of those involved?

Rocket science it is not, 2012 it nearly is... no, really, it is.

I will be sharing video from the Open Business Workshop Ninety10Group presented at iStrategy as soon as an edit is available, of course.

Related articles

• The Viral Marketing Cheat Sheet (kissmetrics.com)
• The Social Media "Not-To-Do" List (convonix.com)
• Open Innovation for Small Business (serve4impact.com)

Strategies of the positive

Picture from (and linked to) motorcyclenews.com

When I learned to ride motorcycles I was taught that you go where you look.
This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
It’s a good thing when where you are looking is a happy place.
It is a bad thing when what you are fixated on is a disaster waiting to happen.

Gather information, note the problem but then look elsewhere, around it, beyond it – if you want to steer around it. Keep staring at it and you’ll hit it and end up on your butt. They call it target fixation.

Keep your eyes on the positive. Focus on the beyond – that’s how individuals and organisations get to where they want to be - rather than in A&E.



We all know companies that got that wrong. Perhaps we are at risk of entire economies going the same way?

Related articles

• 5 Temptations Every Leader Faces (geoffreywebb.wordpress.com)

The two kinds of social media 'strategy'

There are two kinds of social media 'strategy'. And they service two kinds of orgs; the ones which see social media as a channel through which to sell stuff and the ones who realise that social media offers a bigger opportunity to become an Open Business - with all the benefits that apply.

There's a simpler way of putting that: There are the orgs that are prepared to change, and those who are not.

Social Media Strategy 1. 
This requires the gathering of evidence from which to derive org/brand-specific insights. The evidence is gathered in a structured way, from all stakeholders, across operational axis - creating a living and live strategic framework for best-fit delivery of not just discovery and engagement of relevant customers and potential customers, but also of methods with which to deliver products and services with those for whom they are intended. It is the framework which keeps on giving - a platform for social media excellence to apply across the org now and into the long run.
This first kind of strategic approach is the one taken by organisations who, 'get strategy'. They appreciate that any project is far likelier to fail than succeed if the evidence and insight phases are absent. They have learned that much energy, time and cash is wasted in wild goose chases driven by ego or gut instinct.
They seek to remove risk by increasing knowledge.

Social Media 'Strategy' 2:
And then there's the other kind of 'strategy'.
These are the orgs that ask for 'a social media strategy' but mean - 'please, let's go straight to tactics'. They rely on the experience of an expert - the gut of their judgement. And as the small print always says - past performance is no guarantee of future results. The only possible outcome is a generic 'strategy' since no evidence has been gathered and no insight derived to make it an org-specific plan. And one thing I'm damn sure of in the world of the web - one size most certainly does not fit all.

Those who tend to select this approach are likely to see social media as just another channel through which to sell stuff to people. And they want to know how where and when.
This approach delivers short-term campaign-style results. It's cheaper. But, of necessity, more prone to failure.
It's quite quick and easy to get to that 'know the channel' stuff. What's harder is making the org ready to connect with its consumers in this open way. The two-way flow is typically not something they have been used to.

They have yet to establish what is required of them from their customers, what needs to change within the guidelines, governance, roles, job descriptions and so much more to make the most of the participation coming their way.
And when their rush-to-tactics delivers poor results who and what will they blame?

I'm counting the days until we collectively wise up enough not to describe that second kind as 'strategy' at all.
That's going to require some honesty from both sides.

Related articles

• C-Suite perspectives on social media (they get it, sort of) (nevillehobson.com)
• Number of Corporate Social Media Accounts On Rise: Risk of "Social Media Help Desk" " Web ... (seome.me)
• Implementing a Stakeholder Strategy (blogs.hbr.org)
• Leadership Hall Of Fame: W. Chan Kim And Renée Mauborgne, Authors Of "Blue Ocean Strategy" (fastcompany.com)

10 Reasons Why Your Social Media Strategy Will Fail

I compiled this for a presentation - with the real-time help of @vero @andrewspong @picklejar - and thought it might be useful to share here. By all means add to it by making comments on this post.

Your Social + Media Strategy Will Fail If:

1. You think of yourselves as owners rather than as an enabling platform
2. You don’t place social + media at the heart of what you do (it can’t be layered on)
3. You fail to listen – and join in
4. You don’t go where your communities are
5. Your message doesn’t match your actions (authenticity)
6. You try to use peer-to-peer for push/broadcast (you can't use it, you can participate in it)
7. You set yourselves up as a ‘brand’ or ‘corporation’ rather than as a human - and speak like a brochure.
8. You approach it as a purely comms medium and make it just one department’s responsibility.
9. You fail to think (honestly) about what’s in it for the user
10. You don’t give it enough time (don’t do campaigns, do relationships)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social + Media = Change (fasterfuture.blogspot.com)
• GetMoot.com - Collaborate With Your Team (killerstartups.com)

Brando-Digital: What, How, Why?

Many of you will by now know I work for Brando-Digital. And when our site goes live (in a few short days now) you'll find more defining, and refining, the following there.

But in the meantime, I'd be really greatful if you'd take a look at this slidedeck (just five slides in total - and just three key ones), and let me know what you think.

Brando Digital: What we do

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: media digital)

What I've tried to do in this deck is really simplify what we're about. Collectively we've been working on our service offering (we're a full service social media outfit with everything from simple online PR to board-level strategic advice on offer and pretty much all stations in between; viral, blogger outreach, engagement strategies etc).

That's the strategic 'What' side covered.

We've also got the tactical stuff nailed (the How).

But the way we've arrived at both is by discovering our 'Why' first. Most businesses either forget or never bother working out for themselves why they are in business - other than 'to make money'. A shame, because it's more important than strategy. It's what defines your strategy.

What gets you out of bed in the morning, what do you want to do to change the world, what's wrong and needs fixing? These are the kind of questions that can tease out your 'Why'.

It's what gives a business its purpose.

Mark Earls always likes to dig this out of people and organisations and I follow his lead in this. In fact what I'm working towards is a combination of Mark's Herd thinking and my own communities of purpose. A double-purpose whammy!

I hope the result is compelling. I believe in it.

Our purpose is to bring people together around things they care about - in communities of purpose. We want to do that because communities of purpose create great value for everyone involved. They find each other, talk to each other and act together to create change that matters to them.

And because we believe that's important, we think that makes us better at delivering our tactics and creating our strategy - because all of it grows from our Why, to our Purpose. There is a reason we do everything we do - and it goes beyond money.

So, maybe now go take another look at that slidedeck? Tell me what you think?

Over the coming weeks, through our Brando-Digital website, you'll come to discover the rest of the team, their take on all this (the above is entirely my own interpretation, not an official nailed down, it shall-be-for-all-time mission statement or similar) and our approach to opening silos and sharing - to engaging the power of the network in the way we work and in who we are.

BONUS LINK: The Social Media Play Book.

FasterFuture Consulting

FasterFutureConsulting believes:

• The internet is for connecting people; People who share common purposes, passions and values.
• The fact groups can form at next-to-no cost disrupts every traditional value chain and business model. It is why so many are in turmoil and why so many more will follow.
• We are going through the greatest revolution since the printing press. This revolution is not technological - it is human-powered.
• The more we connect people who share purpose, the more value we create.
• This is not rocket science – everyone can adapt to survive. We know how.
  

Companies, organisations and individuals who embrace these simple rules will prosper in the emerging networked world. Those that don’t, won’t. If you aren’t prepared to change, please don’t engage me.

EMAIL NOW

Services:

Keynote Speaking

David Cushman scores highly for his visionary presentations at conferences throughout the globe; in London, New York, Berlin, Cannes, Cork, Amsterdam in the last year.

His subjects have included:

• What next for marketing and advertising?
• Why traditional ad models don’t work in social networks (and what will)
• The Power of the Network – and why we must do more than witness it
• We’re all Publishers Now (and advertisers, too)
• The User is the Destination: The emerging Eighth Mass Media
• Multiple digital identities and the economics of the long tail

His expertise and insights drawn from 20+ years in media both traditional and digital make him an inspiring combination of realist and visionary

Conferences
FasterFutureConsulting has advised on conferences in London and New York. Now, together with 6Consulting, we will be offering residential two-day conferences in the historic University city of Cambridge, UK.

Workshops
FasterFutureConsulting can organise workshops for you; and/or contribute external expertise for your own internal exercises. We’ll work to come up with the best fit for your needs and experience.

Strategic advice
I have a proven track record as a digital visionary which can be applied to your business today for a brighter tomorrow.

Measurement
FasterFuture Consulting is part of a network which includes 6Consulting; offering the best in social media measurement.

World's largest Full-Service Social Media agency
My day job is at Brando-Digital. Contact us for the best in forward thinking full-service agency work



Testimonials

David was one of our top experts in a co-creation session in Amsterdam for a high profile international client on the future of content interaction. David was invited, because of his strong future vision on the developments in new digital media.
During the session itself David not only impressed our client by his extensive knowledge on the subject, but also because he was a pleasure to work with. David was a real team player with original ideas others could build on.
Our company and our client were very much impressed by David’s expertise and contribution. I would recommend David to everyone who is looking for a true digital visionary.
Ivo De Mas A u b e r o n - Growth Strategy Consultants, Amsterdam.

"David is one of the most perceptive observers of the social web today, and his insights are especially relevant for companies trying to discern a path through the seeming chaos to a solid footing."

Stowe Boyd, global authority on social applications and their impact on business, media, and society.

“Your presentation on Social networks provided great clarity on the cultural-socio-economic changes that will impact on my business.
“Your facilitation of and contribution to the subsequent discussion amongst my team was very helpful in enabling them to get a handle on what is a paradigm shift in their view of the world in which they operate.
“I am optimistic that I can achieve a rapid and effective organisational change from today's starting point.”
John Chillcott Chief Executive, Anglia Co-operative Society Limited, UK

"David and I collaborated on putting a panel together for Widget Web Expo in NYC and generally connect almost daily over the internet. David has a fantastic grasp over the evolution of the internet and is a pleasure to collaborate with. I highly recommend working with him."
David Armano VP Creative/Design Evangelist, Critical Mass, US

"I first came across David via his blog, FasterFuture.blogspot.com . Several of his posts really struck a chord with what I felt was happening in the publishing and wider media world. However, David was clearly far better at explaining them than I ever could.
I started following David's thoughts and Twitter posts and, when Incisive launched our e-publishing innovation forum, David was the first person we asked to speak. His presentation rocked and was one of the highest rated of the conference.
Since then I have stayed in contact with David. His advice is always welcome and his posts regularly inspire."
Rory Brown, Managing Director, Incisive Media, UK

"I have known David Cushman for several years in the digital media convergence space. David and I have collaborated on conferences, blogs, the Forum Oxford expert community, various writing and speaking opportunities etc. I have also delivered consulting work for David at his company. David is very warmly trusted in the industry as a forward thinker in the innovation space. He is also a hard worker, extremely productive, totally reliable and beyond all that, also a sheer delight to work with, always maintaining a positive outlook and great sense of humour. We are now collaborating on a course for Oxford University around the 7th Mass Media concept. I can most warmly recommend David for anything in the digital convergence media space."
Tomi T Ahonen, Best-selling Hi-Tech Author and consultant, Hong Kong

"David is one of the rare breed who continue to promote digital futures.
He is truly a thought-leader and universally respected by everyone he comes in contact with.
In my opinion he is one of the most valuable people at his company and I believe that every company needs a David Cushman.
"I cannot recommend him highly enough."
Jonathan Macdonald, Senior Consultant, OgilvyOne, UK

"Every company involved in digital development should have a 'Dave'. Passionate, inquisitive, knowledgeable and fearless in all aspects of how digital technology are changing life and business, but particularly their cultural impact. Dave is a fully paid-up member of the digerati and mixes with those whose focus is further ahead than the next quarter's results. The result is great knowledge, insight, some provocative opinions and a strategic perspective particularly on digital media."
Gus Swan, Head of Technology, Bauer Media, UK

"Few people I have met, have [1] a deep understanding of their existing business and [2] also possess a clear and detailed vision of where that business can go in the light of the significant challenges of the digital world.

"Also a first class communicator. I would unhesitatingly recommend David."

Alan Moore, CEO SMLXL, author Communities Dominate Brands

“Just a quick note to say thank you so much for speaking at the Digital Identity Forum.
“We've had terrific feedback on the event, and this reflects as much on the quality of your session as it does on our input.
“It was important to have a first session that established the "ground rules" for the event: real expertise, new ground and genuine debate.
“Well done.
“I hope you found it worthwhile as well and perhaps might be prepared to get involved again in next year's event.”

David Birch, Director, Consult Hyperion UK


“At WidgetWebExpo, David Cushman rocked the room... He seems to have something insightful and unique to say about almost every medium.”
Michael Leis VP Strategic Services Emerge Digital, US


“ One of the true long term, insightful bloggers I know”
AjitJaokar author and global telecoms consultant, UK

Comments after Mobinar
“I have not been to a more engaging, stimulating and relevant session in years.

“The quality of the speakers - who really got stuck in and involved with the project work we did - was superb.

“High calibre and sufficiently 'different' to make attendance a real pleasure.
“I came away enthused for opportunities in mobile…”.
Various attendees

Comments after Never Mind the Bloggers seminar and workshop with Alan Moore and Euan Semple

“Many thanks for yesterday's blogging summit - your speakers, and yourself, have opened my mind again to the possibilities of a good blog.”
Tim Street Website Editor, MATCH, UK

Drawing sketches and colouring in

My daughter asked me if I'd had a nice day at work. I said yes.
She asked if I'd been doing colouring in. I said I had. With lovely coloured pencils.
But that was a bit of a lie. Obviously.
Made me think about what a lovely view of the world children have (she's 3), that it's ALL about play. Wonderful - and informative.
I think what I do is draw the lines, for others to colour in. I'm not sure which is most fun.
I am going to try to do a bit of colouring-in shortly. And I'm going to do it by collaborating with a small group of people. And if we don't colour right up to the edges, that's alright. If our colourings go over the edges, that's ok, too. If the colours merge and create new shades. Great.
And if I end up drawing a new sketch for others to join me in filling in, that'll be fine, too.
Ideas are fuzzy edged. Why shouldn't every stage of the creative process be just as fuzzy?

Big ideas about ideas

I keep regular tabs on the musings of Doc Searls.
This recent work (Ten Ideas About Ideas) is an interesting take on how being open about your ideas will make them the best they can be.

The problem for the doc, I guess, is that the bottom-line is often shouting loudest with its 'keep it a secret' message. How else will you retain your competitive advantage, it will insist?

But that secrecy can be infectious. How many hold back on ideas within organisations, hoarding them to play their cards at the right moment, in order to score a competitive advantage politically/internally?

I'd like to think the company I work for is pretty open internally. But I also know it could be better. This blog is one of my responses to that.

Have a read of doc's ideas about ideas.

If it makes you feel just a few per cent more collaborative today, job done.

Killer application for 3G discovered. Media firms queue here.

"Anyone in the media industries, or running an internet service - needs to know... if you are not on mobile, you won't be relevant soon... Any service, product, company, brand or entity needs a mobile phone based digital community presence."
Tomi T Ahonen

SMS has been the killer application of 2G mobile. It was only ever added as an after-thought so that you could be sent an alert when you got a voice mail. Now it's the biggest single data transfer process in the world. There are almost twice as many active users as there are of the internet. And it makes huge amounts of dosh.
So the challenge for experts in the 3G field has been finding the same surprise killer application lurking in what 3G can do/make available.
Tomi T Ahonen has been seeking it with the best brains in the field for years.
And now he thinks he's found it.

READ THE WHOLE THING HERE on Communities Dominate Brands (see recommended blogs).

It's a response to questions raised by CDB regulars (myself included) following on from Tomi's report on the staggering scale of revenues now being earned in Social Networking on mobiles.

Here's just some of the highlights:

"3G is looking for a killer application. It is hoping to discover the surprise hit, the kind of totally unpredictable upside surprise, that SMS text messaging was in the 2G world.

"Now I finally have it.

"Mobile Community Services will be the killer app for 3G. Call it Mobile Social Networks... Call it Digital Communities on 3G. Call it mobile blogging, moblogging. User generated content on mobile. But trust me, Communities Dominate.

"We now have found our first true killer application for the 3G space. And it is the digital community services.

"For the mainstream IT, telecoms and media world, interactive social networking - like blogging - is still a "black box" science, a voodoo mythical enigma, perhaps best left for the younger generations...

..."nearly 2.6 billion users with mobile phones, and close to 10% of them already using the high speed 3G phones. Anyone in the media industries, or running an internet service - needs to know this is the biggest pond, if you are not on mobile, you won't be relevant soon.

"This is the industry to be in. Any service, product, company, brand or entity needs a mobile phone based digital community presence.

"If you are not there, your competitors will be, and you will be crushed. If you are there, this is the place where finally, of internet services, you can earn money. You do not need to wait for some magical level of "eyeballs" to sell advertising.

"The mobile internet is inherently better than the traditional web, because of that very fact - every service is billable, every time your service is used, you get paid. Not to mention it's much bigger than the internet and more addictive and the clear choice of younger users.

"Understand that you can be part of the growth, when the 3.45 Billion turns to over 5 billion next year, and over 8 billion in 2008. Make your millions in it NOW!

"Do not for one moment think, that mobile will be "enough". NO. You HAVE to be multiplatform."


The need to move to social communities on mobile has been clear to me for some time (and focused for me by reading Communities Dominate Brands).

My worry is that media companies are shunting this into a bit of a ghetto, just like they did the internet in its infancy. This should be at the heart of our plans for real and rapid growth.

I believe there are HUGE growth opportunities even in what we think may be mature of declining markets - IF we understand how Generation-C intersects with them.

It's not enough to make old-style offerings on what you might regard as a Gen-C platform - and to a non Gen-C audience!

That is our most pressing challenge. Where is it placed in your strategy?

Strategies for growth - where to start your thinking?

Next time you're asked to come up with a strategy - large or small - read this first ( new thinking on Strategy, Marketing and Value Innovation from INSEAD)
It's a pdf hosted on the SMLXL site (see recommended links).
It's a great reminder of where we all, so often, go wrong.
It really takes significant effort to break yourself away from traditional 'me-too' benchmarking (focusing on the competition) - but a quick read of the document should demonstrate why it's at least worth the effort of trying.

If you really haven't got time to read it in its entirety; here it is in summary:

"Perhaps the best way to start is to ask what it takes to win the mass of buyers even without marketing?"
"When companies frame their strategic thinking in this way, the futility of benchmarking
the competition becomes clear.

"To create a compelling strategy for an organisation, one that achieves the financial
rewards of value innovation, achieving both exceptional value for buyers and low
costs for companies, begin by asking four questions:

1. What factors should be eliminated that an industry has taken for granted?
2. What factors should be reduced below the industry standard?
3. What factors should be raised above the standard?
4. What should be introduced that the industry has never offered?

Get those right and the company should be on the path to success."

Brilliant strategic thinkers (and the rest of us...) are welcome to shout it down or big it up below. (click on comments)