That’s Not My Digital Strategy

Those readers who have read with their children may well be familiar with the “That’s not my…” series of books. 

For those who have not had this privilege, the repeated concept of every book is a series of pages that all say what something is not, in an effort to explain what something actually is.

e.g. “That’s not my Dog…(to a sheep)... it is too fluffy” or “That’s not my car…(to a space ship) it is too shiny”.

Given I have spent a fair amount of time on this blog, consulting and in other ways attempting to explain what Digital Strategy is and how to correctly implement it… I thought I’d adopt a different (and slightly more childish) approach and explain what Digital Strategy is not.

A New Website:

That’s not my Digital Strategy, because it is just the implementation of a customer-facing front end to your organisation.

A Business Transformation:
That’s not my Digital Strategy, because a business transformation programme has responsibilities beyond the implementation of the projects or work streams that deliver a digital strategy.

A Digital Platform:
That’s not my Digital Strategy, because although a Digital Platform can have the capability to provide online functionality across your organisation… it is not the thought & business case preparation beforehand nor the subsequent use and commercial measurement of that activity.

A Digital Marketing Strategy:
That’s not my Digital Strategy, because it is just focused around the acquisition and retention of online customers, not the whole concept around the delivery of useful features such as self-serve functionality.

Who Digitally Mentors Your Board?

I see a growing trend in many organisations (both large & small), where an increasing number of staff are becoming digitally savvy and utilising their online knowledge in their daily roles. But who is providing the necessary board-level guidance to a company? Who is equipping your senior team with the skills and advice necessary to drive forward the digital change?

It's not just a case of showing your CEO how to Tweet (her teenage daughter has probably already shown her how to do that) . It's a case of making sure the board and other executives have the capabilities & understanding to be able to seize the power that digital change can deliver.

In my experience & opinion there are four different approaches to providing these skills and experience directly into your C-Suite (A Chief Digital Officer, A Digital Non-Exec, A Change Director or External Consultancy). However each situation is different and in reality your solution to this may be a combination of two or all of them.

Whatever route is chosen, this injection of senior level capability typically has to help the company leaders through a fast-paced delivery of new products, services, processes and technologies.