The Emperor's New Digital Clothes

Nine out of ten brands are merely scratching the surface of "being" versus "doing" digital.

"E-Commerce and Digital are probably experiencing the same things.I believe you have captured very succinctly the experiences of many.The key for me is in your first sentence - being vs. doing.This highlights for me that this is both a strategic choice and one that requires a cultural shift both by individuals and organisations."

Dean McElwee - European E-Commerce Leader | CPG | The Kellogg Company.

A simple trick is to remove 'digital' from your vocabulary then get back to the business of putting your customer at the forefront of everything you do. Whether that's figuring out how to build ship market sell or re-sell a better widget; your organisation will become natively digital faster and you'll save millions in the process.

Why? Because every aspect of our professional and personal lives are already influenced dependent powered inspired disrupted interrupted enhanced repressed exposed or unleashed by 'digital' every minute of every day.

Companies 'focusing' to the point of near blindness on becoming 'digital' are so distracted that their businesses are being damaged in the process. Big companies seem perplexed and in many cases paralyzed by 'digital'.

"It would seem that the traditional behemoths were caught off guard when digitization first came knocking. Ultimately the pace of change left the biggest players scampering to equip themselves to remain competitive. The urgency with which they have responded has resulted in fragmented tech infrastructure and processes that constantly need to be redefined. They see digital as 'investing ahead' but in reality they are already behind the curve."

David Morrison Global Key Account Manager ChannelSight.

There are epic turf wars being played out in many board rooms across the globe because of digital. Everybody is scrambling to own digital. Instead focus on being better at everything you do on behalf of the customer. It's that simple and complex in equal measure. Digital will without doubt be present and heavily influence in one form or another eitherway but in a far less distracting way.

Have a digital mindset

Truth is a layer of your organisation is already natively digital.All of that young talent walking around the building sitting across the table from you in a meeting or that you have recently asked to do some low-value mind-numbing manual and/or repetitive tasks for you are already natively digital. They have to dumb themselves down to survive in versus thrive in many large organisations or more often than not they simply leave.

"Innovation & Communication need to change. What is difficult for Brand Managers or Senior Leaders is to let go and accept the fact that they are not in charge any longer."

Francesco Pagano - Vice President Head of Brand & Marketing EMEA at Fossil Group Inc.

They are trying to work in a natively digital way but the 'old guard' are frantically trying to cling onto work practices which include old slow complex boring hierarchical ways of running a business which is simply not productive nor effective in the age of the knowledge worker.

That very same talent which is screaming to be unleashed like a positive virus across your organisation is coming from a place of "Click Click Drag Drop Done. (IFTTT Zapier)" or farm the boring bits out to Automation Ai Machine Learning Freelancers Amazon Turk Virtual Assistants in order that they can focus on doing higher-value work for you and your organisation while at the same time maintaining a work-life balance.

"The Brand belongs to the young kids that talk about it continuously on social media whether they are employed by you or just out there. Mindset change more than Digital disruption is the true battlefield. "

Francesco Pagano - Vice President Head of Brand & Marketing EMEA at Fossil Group Inc.

It has always crushed people since time began to be working with people who get in the way of making great things happen or simply act as a drag on getting the job done. Traditionally in large slow-moving bureaucratic organisations peopledidn't have the confidence tooling latitude or backing to call itout and fix it.

Digital Cultural Shift

"The focus we have should be on our customers but realize that transformation requires a culture shift.In this we need to deal with what happens when change happens; fear anxiety stonewalling.The younger generation is used to being more pliable and adaptable using them as a catalyst for the change can be a positive driving force"

Dean McElwee - European E-Commerce Leader | CPG | The Kellogg Company

How has your experience been? Whether you're from a small or big company would love to hear your feedback. Doesn't matter if you know everything or nothing about digital. You could easily replace 'Digital' with 'E-Commerce' these days.

Ready to make a change?

ChannelSight has worked with a number of brands to drive digital success. Read our recent case study on tado � a smart home company that embarked on a journey to transform their online strategy with ChannelSight's. ChannelSight's eCommerce Solution can help you achieve your goals. Book a demo today with our team to see how our 'Where to Buy' solution could work for you. Contact us today to learn about how our eCommerce solutions can help you and your brand today. In other words what are you waiting for?

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