being undigital

‘What is digital?’ It’s surprising just how often that question still gets asked.

These days almost everything is digital… products, services, processes, even relationships. In everything we do, buy, say and think, there’s often a technological influence at play somewhere… an assumption that the way things work is somehow enabled by the internet-era technologies that shape our expectations of today and our aspirations for the future, whether that future is next week, next month, next year or next century.

It’s almost easier to describe things that aren’t digital than things that are. In the technology industry, so many organisations offer to be your ‘digital transformation’ partner that sometimes even they have forgotten what they mean… other than rebadging what they’ve always done.

Your competitors might have deeper pockets and shinier toys than you, so it might just be better not to even play them at that game.

But of course people and organisations aren’t really doing what they’ve always done… not only is the the way they function today substantially different from the way they worked 25 years ago, it is often almost as unrecognisable to the way they worked five or even three years ago. So how can the seizmic shift in the way people and organisations work, create, build, share and grow have somehow gone unnoticed?

How can the seemingly ‘out of nowhere and gone just as quick’ gaming phenomenon of Pokemon Go, suddenly mean every ‘just gets’ augmented reality? How can the sudden arrival of the Amazon Echo mean that everyone now ‘just gets’ voice interfaces, despite Siri, Cortana and OK Google getting it ‘not quite right’ for several years?

In the competitive world of IT and business services, the challenge is often having to demonstrate how much more ‘digital’ you are than your rival. More often than not, this isn’t worth the effort. Your competitors might have deeper pockets and shinier toys than you, so it might just be better not to even play them at that game.

Invest in people who can envangelise, engage and empower and leave your rivals to the race to have the slickest and most up-to-date tech… it’s a race that can’t be won.

Increasingly, when having to create pitching strategies to support go-to-market solutions and propositions I’m tending towards the analogue and away from the digital ‘show and tell’. Tell you story and tell it well, without having to rely on an app or animation to tell it for you (unless you are selling an app or an animation of course… and even then…!!). Know your product and the benefits it will bring to your client and create a warm and meaningful narrative which will immerse them in a world where they can’t imagine living without the thing you are about to do for them.

Rely on tricks and gadgets and run the risk of distracting your customer from the decision they need to make for their business and for their customers. Invest in people who can envangelise, engage and empower and leave your rivals to the race to have the slickest and most up-to-date tech… it’s a race that can’t be won.

image: cc wikipedia