Nobody disagrees that to be digitally ready or digitally enabled is an imperative in today’s work. Digital technologies touch virtually all facets of our lives, so no enterprise, public or private, can ignore the opportunities afforded by the vast array of digital technologies:
The huge (and growing) gap between rich and poor was the subject of a recent Oxfam report. It points out the staggering fact that the 62 richest people in the world own as much wealth as the poorer half. Put in a different way, 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
The benign view of well functioning markets cannot possibly explain this inequity. Adam Smith's central premise that our pursuit of self-interest in free, competitive markets, advances the interest of society as a whole, seems to be incongruent with what is actually happening in the world.
Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller in their book “Phishing for Phools” explain that the pursuit of profit while producing products that may enrich our lives, more often that not involves manipulation and deception. Producers often rely and exploit our psychological weaknesses and ignorance. As a result, we tend to buy too much, buy the wrong things, and overpay, making us “phools”…while the “phishers” laugh all the way to the bank!
Most organizations are using digital technologies to improve operating efficiency as well as the customer experience. Although these are very important levers in organizational development, they are no longer enough. Achieving differentiation requires a strategy that uses digital competencies to truly transform the business, not just achieve incremental improvements.
There are several technology disruptions that organizations need to master as they grapple with how they gain and deploy knowledge and how they can turn those capabilities into a competitive advantage. While each of these forces is significant in it’s own right, taken together they can be truly transformational. They can simply re-define the very nature of an organization’s business and its ability to compete successfully.
Your internet business model or your web site is the No.1 place that your prospective customers will entrust or simply drop down your product and services. It does not really matter which industry you serve or how big your company is. The principles are the same. I have been an internet consultant in many organizations for the last 23 years and I have customers that enjoy success regardless of how big they are and other customers that simply have a web site…