Dancing the Digital Tune - Book Outline

This presentation contains an outline of the 5 strategic principles covered in the book.

Dancing the Digital Tune 2

To preview the book, visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P7SKMQ2/ To read more about the 5 principles, visit www.manishgrover.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P7SKMQ2/



http://www.manishgrover.com/

No longer is it enough to be an efficient, well-oiled machine delivering to fulfill the demand, because the very sources of that demand are being disrupted.


Dancing the Digital Tune

When was the last time we posed for a lasting Kodak Moment? Or heard the melodious Nokia ring tone?



Customer engagement is no longer a way to think about engaging customers with our current products and services. Instead it’s really about determining which new products and services to launch in order to engage our customers and target market.



The traditional model tries to decipher how a business can target customers better and sell to them as a single firm, often competing against the rest of the world. That model divides us into brands and products.




The most business-friendly social networks for the next generation may not be the online platforms we use today, but the communities based on motivations and dreams.


This book “Dancing the Digital Tune: The 5 Principles of Competing in a Digital World” provides a systematic framework for thinking about our strategy, how we go to market and how we engage with customers.



The Principle of External Reinforcement

The Principle of External Reinforcement is about customer partnership - it’s about marketing and engaging as demanded by the new interconnected digital age. It builds towards joint decision making with customers. It’s about expanding our outreach dramatically to meet unexpressed customer questions, or answers they don’t expect from us.

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What is a customer conversation?

What validations are customers looking

for?

How to acquiring the right customers in

the right way?




Simply put, external reinforcement is validation of fit, choice, applicability and value. Customers look for external reinforcement, either in person, in their online social networks, online communities or through other sources. And once we lose control of the conversation, sources of external reinforcement may or may not work out in our favor.



Relying on customer constraints to make a sale is not a great idea as it may lead to continuous re-evaluation of choice, which may be detrimental for referral sales, not to mention low repeat sales, high cost of retention, and increased post sales service costs if applicable.

2 The Principle of Customer

Interaction The Principle of Customer Interaction brings together the emotional and fulfillment (physical) ends of the customer interaction spectrum. Interaction patterns are different for different types of products. We must develop our ability to engage and interact so that both ends of the customer interaction spectrum are active and aligned with each other.


Our ability to engage and interact is inherently much stronger when the fulfillment (physical) and emotional ends of the interaction spectrum are connected.



The Principle of Customer Interaction

Where is your company in this landscape?

How do you determine your position? How do you plan your roadmap to

move to the top right hand corner?


3 The Principle of Un-

Commoditization

Creating points of un-commoditization allows us to establish relationships that build on that proposition, and that drives our entire product, corporate and marketing strategy. Un-commoditization is not an add-on.


Note that I am not calling it differentiation because the word differentiation is so often used that it has become a product focused subject, and doesn’t drive home the dire consequences of missing the bus on customer engagement in today’s digital world.


The Principle of Un-Commoditization

Un-commoditization is imperative because it helps the customers to: 1. Defend their choice 2. Promote their choice 3. Feel good about their

choice



If we were to ask what un-commoditization means,

here’s a simple checklist to fill out:

There is a clear link to how it benefits or relates to

the target customer segments

It can be executed and sustained well by the

organization’s operational processes (aligned to

purpose and DNA)

It’s easy to convey to the target segment (marketing

and sales)

Not many others can claim the same because we

can constantly build on it to raise barriers

(uniqueness)

It won’t limit future plans on product line or

geography expansions (growth and evolution)

It links all our products together so that value

propositions are integrated (aligned to purpose)



Un-commoditization is not an add-on. It’s not about marketing and how we advertise. Rather, it’s about our philosophy and our purpose. It then percolates down to almost all aspects of our value chain.



In order to really differentiate, organizational culture in all quarters must be aligned. For that alignment to come true, the passion for the cause must be kindled. And passion doesn’t come through window dressing, just as culture doesn’t change through slogans. Unless it is clear to the leaders how they want to play, our value proposition will appear disjointed and broken to our customers. It’s crucial that the un-commoditization platform be defined and navigated throughout the organization.



4 The Principle of Presenting The Principle of Presenting provides the framework for an organization to adhere to its purpose, stitching together a product portfolio in a way that in its entirety, logically meets the customer’s needs.


Remember the five blind men and the elephant? The same is true of how we view our businesses and our customers. In fact, how our customers view us also follows the same pattern. And that’s precisely the gap that the Principle of Presenting attempts to resolve.


The Principle of Presenting

The scenario is akin to a marketplace. We show case all our products, we extoll the virtues of them at different stalls, and leave the selection, evaluation and buying of products to customers.



How the channels need to evolve



The Principle of Completion Instead of analyzing actions and deriving correlations, we now analyze needs and create an appropriate experience based on the wholeness of our customers’ identities. In short, we redefine customer centricity.

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The spectrum of customer needs far exceeds what one organization can offer. Customer needs are not limited by an organization and its products.


The Principle of Completion

A customer centric view implies that we must look at our organization outside-in through our customers’ eyes.



The principle of Completing oneself, doesn’t reverse the trend of a supermarket, but brings that trend back 180 degrees, or halfway back.



The entire digital revolution that has laid traditional business obsolete is based on this principle. There is still a long way to go for the focus to shift to the customer needs. Today, we are still only taking advantage of the technology capabilities to upgrade existing business models. It’s a significant jump, but only an incremental one when viewed from the vantage point of the Principle of Completion.



The Principle of Completion is about anticipating industry disruptions and evolving to meet the linked and related needs of the customers. In short it’s about bringing industry players together to collaborate on meeting customer needs.



As the customer engagement fabric is being built in the marketplace, we should define and build in entry points to our own businesses. The five principles are interlinked in many different ways and feed into each other.



The biggest risk is in not formulating a strategy in response to the rapidly innovating digital world.



We all have ideas, and I myself have taken the liberty of imagining fantastic customer experience scenarios in this book. Some of them may appear to be far-fetched, but the only person really in-charge of that decision is the customer. And sometimes customers need to be shown the possibilities before they come on board.



The five principles together provide a sound framework and a systematic process for assessing how to best compete in a digital world.



Dancing the Digital Tune: The 5 Principles of Competing in a

Modern World


To preview the book, visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P7SKMQ2/ To read more about the 5 principles, visit www.manishgrover.com



http://www.manishgrover.com/

Good luck.



Dancing the Digital Tune - Book Outline

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