"increased competition, rapidly shifting technologies, and emerging disruptive business models — are the forces that are reshaping many parts of the global economy. " - Scott Anthony, talking on Harvard Business Online, talking about the impact of the new norm on the global Magazine industry. He then continues on to use the phrase "Constant Transformation is the new normal". I liked it. I'm not overly fond of the "new normal" (used by McKinsey, the Economist, and an obscure album by an Australian prog rock band called Cog), or the "new norm" (used by MCA, ourselves and others) ... in fact I'm still searching for a term that effectively describes the new all connected, IT-enabled world in which we will all inhabit.

Constant Transformation is a nice way to describe it. I've talked about "impending chaos", "accelerated decision making", "extreme collaboration" and more, but Constant Transformation more effectively describes the environment in which we and our clients will be operating in. It echoes the need to always follow the accelerated and urgent business need, the new technological possibilities and the new cultural transformation (GenX & GenY, with Gen Z soon to hit) that is now on us all - a perfect storm.

Earlier in the decade, our marketing team coined the phrase "Clarity from Complexity". It was an effective term for translating the complexity of IT requirements, applications and services into some simplified sense and order that both the business and the users of the system or services could exploit. It was effective at the time - IT contracts had grown too large, too complex, too prone to failure. The model has now changed - the contracts are smaller, one size no longer fits all. But the transformational need is ever present - just needed faster. Now we need to drive "Clarity during Constant Transformation".
What do we mean?

Organisations are striving to generate more value from their customers. Focus traditionally is on up-sell, high spenders and account management, with KPIs such as product penetration and profit-per-customer being commonplace. But what is really meant by "Value" and how do you create it? Customer management is a well understood activity within our organisations. The technology and tools used to drive it are mature and a level of consolidation and commoditisation is occurring (e.g. Oracle and Salesforce.com). The processes are well established and a reasonable level of maturity is commonplace within most B2C and B2B organisation.

So what next? How can you drive more value from your customers?

The key question is how to generate value with your customers rather than optimising and simplifying the operations of customer management. Consider these examples:

- 'gold, silver, bronzing', your customer base may focus attention - but does it really drive value?
- optimising the handling processes makes life easier and cheaper - but can it really create value?
- having a nice website may enthrall customers and increase new sales leads - but will it really create value?

So what do we mean by 'Value'?

Lowering cost or promoting product is no longer sufficient to drive true value. You need to establish and solve two simultaneous equations:

Value to the Organisation = Delivering revenue and profit growth,*whilst *lowering the risks of losing future revenue streams, through exciting and retaining your customers
Vs.
Value to the Customer = minimal contact to deliver the most appropriate and fresh product, at the right price, using my preferred channel whilst exceeding my expectations with every interaction.

Is corporate history bunk? Corporate memory is collective memory of things the organisation has got right or wrong in the past, encapsulating the things it is good or bad at is a very efficient way of remembering and sharing the values of the organisation. - We can never sell in China - look what happened in 1998 - We should focus on current markets - look at the success of Snibbo - We work better in a divisional structure - remember the disastrous reorganisation of '07 All of these are examples of stories of the past, avidly swallowed up by...

more >

No-one in the world could escape the global phenomenon of mobile technologies that have been rolled out over the past 15 years. From the early days of GSM, right the way through to emerging technologies such as WiMax and HSDPA, there can be no doubt that we are all feeling ever more liberated from our office PC. But where is the mobile application space heading, and what challenges does this propose? It is clear that one of the main drivers, and opportunities, is the fact that internet access from mobile devices has become ubiquitous. From IT professionals through to general...

more >

"Show and Tell" for those of you who have not attended class 5c of a primary school in the last 20 years and whose senior moments are becoming an everyday occurrence, is the opportunity that a seven year old has to "Show" a special item to the rest of the class and "Tell" them a story of particular interest. Usually, the more extraordinary the item and far-fetched the story, the more interest will be shown and questions asked to check out if Oscar is telling another porky pie! My son was in tears and agony earlier this year when stung...

more >

Both of Mark Young's parents were journalists and he sometimes wonders if, after starting adult life with a PhD in low temperature physics, he is now in the same profession of understanding the impact of new technology on the way people share information.

Mark has spent most of his life helping businesses to get benefits such as shorter time to market, reduced global manufacturing cost and greater business agility from the way they manage information using new technology such as PCs, LANs, e-mail, documuents with pictures, groupware and now web 2.0. His father who was in BBC Radio in the 70s had a similar change management challenge when more mature listeners objected to the then controversial idea of news bulletins 'interrupted' by reports from correspondents, brought about by then new satellite communications.

Having worked with senior management on innovation and information for over 30 years, Mark finds that one advantage of having run a science lab in industry is that you know what 'GCMS' means when the labteks talk geeky in between Who tracks in CSI. He has already owned up to being a closet railway enthusiast on another blog, so has no hesitation in recommending Pat Hammond's books on the Triang and Hornby as a superb study of market driven innovation and LTC Rolt's 'Red For Danger' as the exemplary book about the people, process and technology aspects of knowlegde management.