Digital Transformation Strategy - Not a Tamagotchi or a Transformer Toy.
In years gone by the most popular things may have been Tamagotchis, Transformers, Sylvanian Families or Nintendo Swtiches. Not this year though, it’s all about Digital Transformation - which may lead to a slightly disappointing Christmas present for the kids!
I’m going to have a rant. Now I understand why this is happening, and I really sympathise and hope it works out, but it’s not looking good for lots of you based on the seeming endless calls I’m getting from friends in very different industries.
Anyone reading this who works in “Digital” knows what I’m talking about, it usually starts with a WhatsApp from a friend along the lines of:
“hey, fancy a quick chat? Ok if I give you a call”
Which would be lovely, but really how often do friends WhatsApp you to check if they can have a chat, especially about 11:32 on a Tuesday morning?
So you reply “yeah sure”.
They reply immediately “ok, call you now”
The call then starts with the usual chit chat, but then moves on to the inevitable
“so, while I am on furlough I’ve been given a project” or “my boss has asked me to look into something”
And what is that something? Essentially your poor friend who has no relevant experience whatsoever, except maybe a bit of photo editing (being able to add funny ears to a photo on their iPhone) has been asked to:
a) Build a better website
b) Sort out marketing the companies website - something about Facebook, or Google???
c) Get the website to the top of Google
or in the extreme, your friend explains that basically the boss has said this to them:
d) “We don’t have a website or any sort of online business, we need one because the world has gone to sh*t! Dave I know you usually work in the shop, but you know all that stuff, sort that all out yeah?”
This is not ideal. It can also go only a few ways:
The friend may not think this is at all feasible, but their job is on the line and needs to do something.
This is usually the case where they have a really bad boss. Your friend is in a tough place, you can give them pointers, but this is not likely to turn in to a world leading online business! Or you can have a good moan about what a cr*p situation they are in, and is there really no way they can explain this is not going to work.
The friend may think this is doable and just need to check a few things with you.
In some ways this is the worst, they are basically saying - yeah you know that thing you do and have spent a large part of your life becoming highly skilled at - well I reckon I can do that after a 30 minute chat.. Again pointers may help them along, but you may really need to let them down gently and explain it is maybe more complicated than they have given you credit for.
There is always the chance that you don’t know either - You have to explain that you have no knowledge of the burgeoning North Korean social media scene and cannot give them useful advice in this case.
Basically, the only way out is either: to offer your friend a whole lot of free work, which given how many times this has come up is not possible, or the company looking to “go digital” really needs to treat this as what it is, a really significant step where time, talent and considered choices will pay off in the long term.
Unfortunately the days of just cobbling together a website and making your fortune passed about 20 years ago, Digital Transformation is hard, but with the right advice and expertise it can pay off fantastically. It’s never too late to do, in fact you need to do it, but it has to be done very well.
So, obviously, Tale Digital can help! (though not just on a 10 minute chat. Just like some of those transformer toys as a kid, the transformation can be really hard to work out and do you remember what happened to your Tamagotchi when you didn’t give it enough care and attention?).