Secure digital assets
Many companies are concerned about the effects of the new privacy legislation. The so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes it mandatory for organisations from May 2018 to proceed more conscientiously with the data they store from citizens (such as applicants, customers and followers). What does the GDPR mean for directors and business owners that use data to promptly make adjustments or develop new business models? What does the legislation mean for the digital assets of an organisation?
Impact on the digital assets
One of the implications of the GDPR is that citizens can be removed from an organisation’s system. He or she has ‘the right to be forgotten’. For example, organisations collect data about someone’s digital behaviour (website visit, what he or she likes on Facebook, etc.), to get a richer customer profile. This optimises the relationship with the follower, fan or potential customer and this leads to achieving more commercial objectives, and to achieve these faster.
When you have developed a relationship with a follower, customer or fan, and he decides that he would rather be removed from your system, this has serious implications for your business. This means that you no longer know how you can please the consumer and you no longer have data about the way in which the consumer can best be reached or seduced. We established above that the engine of the relationship economy runs on data. If you cannot generate and use data from followers, fans and customers, your engine ceases to run. That is why there are a number of important things to realise, if you wish to survive in the relationship economy.
- Offer added value in the digital ecosystem;
- Distinguish yourself by a good user experience;
- Offer relevant content, tailored to every (buyer)person;
- Cherish your fans, followers and customers;
- Make use of chat bots that can assist them in real-time;
- Be where your fans, followers and customers are. Develop apps or mobile websites, for example.
The GDPR highlights the importance of a good, sustainable relationship with followers, fans and customers. From May 2018 they can be removed even quicker from the systems of organisations, which further challenges organisations to be relevant in their lives. If you do not focus on this relationship, the GDPR can have dramatic consequences for your business. An organisation can lose their entire digital assets that it has invested in during its existence in one fell swoop. It can literally evaporate. As an organisation you have to comply with the GDPR to secure your business model and digital assets in the long term.
Anticipate new data legislation
The Business Acceleration Framework is the only solution for directors and business owners who wish to thrive in the relationship economy. An economy which is increasingly becoming an automatic process. And where changes need to be made faster and more automatically when negative deviations from the predetermined goals and objectives occur.
Organisations that wish to make the difference must be smarter than their competitors. They have to manage and immediately respond when a deviation is detected. But they also have to be able to develop new business models to get ahead of the competition. Maybe even ones that can disrupt their industry. In any case it is the shortcut to direct contact with the fan or customer.
Direct contact is essential if you want your organisation to survive in the relationship economy. That is why you as a director or business owner must anticipate the changes that the GDPR brings, so that in the future you can also communicate in a smarter and faster way with your potential customers and secure your digital assets. Otherwise your competitors will and you will be left behind.
- This post is a pre-read of Part 4 — Chapter 3 of my new book ‘Digital Assets’ the translation of the Dutch publication ‘Digitaal Vermogen’.
- Also read the publication ‘EDM and the Digital Domain’
