Posted by arlene

When you redesign business for any reason it demands an understanding of multiple disciplines. The more radical the change, the more essential it is to have a comprehensive and deep cohesion between each element of the organization.

There is no time to be a Luddite. Technology is no longer an option, it is inherently wrapped up with the proposition and the service delivery. If you don’t understand it, if you have to wait for a game of technology vs business requirements ping-pong, then you continually run behind the best of the competition.

It is not unusual for good ideas to be delayed for months while business and IT try to understand each other. Each to some extent hiding behind their expertise (of their own area) and their ignorance (of the other person’s area).

There are some innovations that can only be created if all elements of the business mix are inside the same head of at least one person in the meeting. Because people do not tend to innovate in areas they do not understand. They often find it difficult to cope with the basic change needed in the system, let alone move ahead of the current level of thinking.

If your people do not know the way, then they cannot lead the e-customer through electronic channels. The guide must know the way. It doesn’t matter one jot whether you or your colleagues find this stuff interesting or not. Just think about your e-customers and not yourself! They need many guides to get the most out of a networked world that is surrounding them.

In a world where some people forget to take out hands-free sets from their phones and continue to talk, you are going to need a crash course to get your team up to date. Leaders must know where they are going so it is not enough for them to have used some of it. It is not acceptable for them to decide that they don’t personally like it.

Not everyone will be able to recruit people who inherently understand all the technology. And even if you could they would not necessarily understand the business in enough detail. What you need are people with a full grasp of the constraints but a belief that they are there to be overcome.

There are a lot of people who are doing a lot of talking without really understanding the issues. A lot of people pretend to know what they are talking about.

There are scared, obfuscating employees and managers and consultants who have learned the appropriate e-speak and potentially the technology but have failed to grasp the essentials. They have come to it late and try to make up for it by setting their mouths to Internet speed’ (make a mental note not to trust those who use the term). They think the internet was created in 1997 and only ever quote amazon.com as an example.

There are others who reject vital information that sounds like gibberish to them because they do not understand it. Sure, it’s pretty alien to the average business person. But when the extraterrestrials have landed its time to think alien thoughts. And a great time to learn alien languages.

Consider the experience of Times Warner, a $110-billion old media company, that realized it had to get involved in the new media future. Early attempts included a $100-million interactive television project that simply did not work, the failure to invest in yahoo.com and aol.com when they were fledgling companies and the disastrous 1994 launch of pathfinder (described as ‘a poster child for old media cluelessness’).

In 1997, an entertainment site, entertaindom.com that sought to be the centrepiece of web strategy linked to other hubs around it, was put forward. The success of yahoo.com led Times Warner to put one of its best people in charge, a man who had been described as a ‘genius’ at making money.

Unfortunately, Richard Bressler was now playing the money-making game in a language that he did not understand. The joke was that he would be deciding the digital strategy on the same day his secretary taught him to use e-mail. He did not understand firewalls, server farms, bandwidth constraints or hubs. He did not grasp the essential nature of this brave new world.

Result? They launched more than a year late. They lost key people. Their competitors had moved in. They had to merge with AOL. The smaller company will now take control. This failure occurred in large part because an intelligent man and the board above him did not speak gibberish fluently.

Times Warner are not alone. When speaking to groups of senior executives, I invariably ask questions about their personal knowledge of the services and technologies that surround the e-customer. Their answers reveal that only 20% have used an internet chat room, only 30% have used a web cam, only 16% have used a mobile internet phone, only 15% have used a an mp3 player, and a mere 25% have tried out shopping via interactive television.

Are you alarmed by those figures? If the leaders haven’t been there then how can they lead anyone else? If you don’t know what the technology can do then how can you move ahead of the competition? It is not possible to inspire the e-customer or the technology workers without a deep understanding of the components and the culture.

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