Digital adaptation skill in turbulent times
Digital adaptation skill in turbulent times
This meme has been going around quite a bit lately. It's gone viral I guess (pun intended). I would argue that it's fun because, at least in part, there is some truth to it. We are currently living in a time of unusual urgency. This urgency manifests itself in the tricky question of where to cut in the face of diminishing demand. Typically the two areas cut first are marketing and IT. But at the same time a significant amount of companies are pushed to make decisive leaps in precisely these two areas in order to move where demand has gone, i.e. primarily online.
This leads us to an interesting question. Will this be a crisis that forces some fundamental development in digitalisation of service delivery, marketing, sales to compensate for a near complete lack of face to face sales, marketing and in some industries the very consumption of the product or service. Assuming the current situation is indeed pushing companies to make changes, it begs the question whether we can expect any of this forced development to be successful or sustainable, rather than simply acting as band-aid. Interestingly enough, there are plenty of examples highlighting that we should.
Safi Bahcall, the author of Loonshots, provides a lot of examples on how necessity can be a good force of change as long as we act rather than honker down. One example close to us based in the Nordics is IKEA. Bahcall argues IKEA didn't set out to be a disruptive and innovative company. The circumstances forced them to. Their cost saving needs led to flat-packed furniture, post order catalogues helped as they were shut out of trade shows by incumbents, building an in-house team of designers was a response to established players in the market forbidding designers to work with IKEA and self-service warehouses were a necessity as they didn't have resources to serve customers.
Arguably, acting out of necessity can lead to remarkable results with long-term value. Surely this isn't easy. Nor are many companies geared towards adapting. Understanding the situation and riding the wave rather than diving under it takes skill, mindset and experience coupled with a strong commercial concept (see the hedgehog concept from Jim Collins’ book Good to great). Few companies will have the power to attract the world class change leaders they would need on their own. Likewise, turning to conventional consultancy can help you tremendously, but might not provide teams with the executive capability, cohesion and speed that is needed right now, even if the midterm benefits will surely bee valuable. Rather, taking on experienced interim consultants, ready to roll up their sleeves and employ their skill and experience to mobilise your existing team might just be what can help you harness the agility in the face of challenge IKEA demonstrated.
What are your thoughts and priorities right now?
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