Is your Business Innovating Like Google?
Last week I had the opportunity to listen to Leonie Valentine from Google (who is Director of SME Customer Experience Asia Pacific) at the Bank of Melbourne ‘Access to Business Experts’ Lunch.
It was fantastic to listen to Leonie’s thoughts on a range of things. What grabbed my attention was her response to a question on how Google is going to stay ahead of the pack. Her response was that Google continues to innovate and has a team who are tasked to come up with ideas and who have full creative licence. There would be limited companies in the world where innovation is part of their culture once they have become hugely successful.
This led me to think about businesses today and how they are innovating and transforming from an analogue to digital business. Every business today is now a digital business. And if you aren’t one then your business will cease to exist before long.
Over the past ten, twenty years we have seen massive digital disruption. If your industry hasn’t been impacted yet, it is only a matter of time. From PCs to mobile, from the fragmentation of media to communication shifts, from banking to travel to Uber, to social media and big data, a digital transformation is occurring.
However, a digital business is more than IT which is still how some businesses are thinking. To date, digital disruption has been seen as a problem, something that needs to be fixed, however, in actual fact it is a huge opportunity and nothing actually needs to be fixed, other than our attitude and mindset.
What does your business need to do moving forward?
Create the Right Mindset
At the moment business is trying to solve new situations with old thinking. A paradigm shift needs to occur in terms of thinking and understanding. Business leaders have to think about technology differently as well as communication, media, marketing and so on. Society, business and individuals are all impacted. Leaders who understand the changes that are occurring and have the right mindset will lead their business to innovate.
Digital Strategy is a Must
Without a digital strategy a business will struggle to respond to the changing times, to their customers and their preferences, to the fragmentation of media channels, business models and so on. A digital approach allows business to respond to the opportunities and impacts.
Digital Disruption is not just IT
A successful digital organisation merges the skills and expertise of all departments not just IT. This is because the changes are not about technology, they are about business. Everything your business does, how it communicates, how it recruits and gains new talent, how it uses data, how it interacts with its customers will determine how your business grows, adapts and innovates.
The businesses that understands this will flourish the most.
Thanks for reading!
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