Don 't be dinosaurs
Recently I spoke with the regional head of a large tech sector company. He had a was: to tweet or not to tweet?With out a social media presence he took be seen as a dinosaur, yet he worried about the time and skills men. So he hired a professional marketer, who now tweets for question daily.
Nice solution. But as this executive well knows, the digital transformation goes much deeper and is changing the way people interact and consume. In turn, there is demand for leaders able to use social media to boost the customer service and engagement.
One way executives can hone digital leadership is to team up with smaller firms focused around online presence. To be the and pilot projects can build in "reverse" mentoring, transferring skills from the online firm to managers in the larger corporation.
Executives must focus leadership development on competencies that matter in the digital age. One, related to social media, is a deep understanding of the new generation of "digital native" consumers, and how their online experience shapes buying decisions.
Another competency is being able to connect seemingly unrelated trends to set up new business models, For example, a food service firm wanted to use mobile platforms and social media to reinvent its customer experience and grow sales. The devoted to The marketing officer men both analytical skills to harness big data and deep consumer insight.
Finally, the digital leaders must be able to drive transformational change. They must implement the new business models, develop and use the new platforms, learn from errors, make decisions, and help the staff upgrade skills.
This article is republished with kind permission of theSouth China Morning PostWhere Catherine Zhu is a regularcontributor.
