Rowan's blog

IBM on Brand

What is IBM's brand strategy? IBM's Jon Iwata explains it in two minutes:

“IBM on Brand” by Jon Iwata from VSA Partners on Vimeo.

 

I think the logic applies well to 'branding' a career too, i.e. a career is not defined by the various roles you have been in, but by your character - the values, beliefs and skill sets that make you unique.

 

The digital skills gap

One of the big challenges I encounter in my efforts to enable the Integrated Planning System is that existing staff often do not have the skills required to implement the steps.

Even if there was budget for agency resources, many of the tasks involved cannot be effectively delegated to an agency, because that generally adds to the silo effect (as opposed to having one integrated team focussed on the client experience for each constituency segment). This becomes troublesome if:

1. the agency is not an integrated part of the team throughout the process of planning, implementation and iteration, or
2. multiple agencies are competing for budget by recommending engagement tactics that fit into their capability areas (rather than contributing to a neutral planning process based on Steps 1 & 2 of the Integrated Planning System).

 

My experience is that this digital skills gap is pervasive around the world. At IBM, this is something we work to address internally as we have many internal experts. I recently met with Patty Keegan from Digital Chameleon, which helps
companies mainstream digital knowledge & skills across their business. It was interesting and validating to learn that many organisations in Australia are going through the same challenges I have been working to address through the internal Digital Strategy Enablement program at IBM.

Patty was recently interviewed on Sky News about the digital skills gaps in Australia. I thought you may find this interesting.

View on YouTube (incl. full screen option)

Speaking at the FUNNEL Sydney event

I was very honoured to speak at the FUNNEL B2B Marketing and Sales event in Sydney on the 19th Nov. It was the first time this event had been run in Australia (it is well known in the UK). 280 delegates attended, from around Australia.

I enjoyed many of the other speakers' presentations and met interesting people - most of whom were there to discuss and learn about the impact of technology; digital, big data and analytics on the profession. 

The tweets flowed and a lot of great points were shared with the hashtag #funnel12. A few quotes that stood out to me from the day:

• "Inbound converts 300% more than outbound at SAP, which is why we're focussed on pull marketing" ~ Ray Kloss, SAP
• "Digital comms are about relevancy, not reach" ~ Benoit Droulez, Traction Digital
• "Begin with the customer experience & work back toward the technology" ~ Quote from Steve Jobs, used in a presentation
• "Stories are 6-7 more times likely to be remembered than traditional corp. messages" ~ Joanne Jacobs, 1000 Heads
• "I wouldn't call it social media - I'd call it digital relationships" ~ Ray Kloss, SAP
• And my favorite...?! "Lightbulb moment listening to @RoHetherington re Constituencies vs Audiences!" ~ Bronwyn Cook

Thanks to @greenhatmktg and @SocialSammy for taking these photos of my presentation:

I will share my presentation in the next post.

Many thanks to Brad Langton and the FUNNEL team for creating an enjoyable and valuable event.

 

The need for insight into digital landscapes

I just read an article titled "Why Apple Needs Reminding We Don’t All Live In The United States", about the recent iPad WiFi+4G issues. Basically, Australians (among many others) have decided that Apple calling the new iPad ’4G’ is inaccurate, considering 4G LTE technology either doesn’t exist yet locally, or is not compatible with the iPad’s chosen LTE bands.

Either Apple did not have insight into the digital landscape of the markets it launched the iPad 4G into, or they chose to call it 4G anyway (which also demonstrates a lack of insight - into their digital consumers in those markets). Customers are none too happy to find, after they paid for the new device, that they don't get faster speeds. They are now causing a digital uproar which has extended to traditional media.

The article suggests that this is an issue that relates to Apple being a 'huge company' and 'being less agile'. I disagree. An organisation of any size can use a rigourous planning process, including gathering insight into all relevant local markets. It seems clear that basing plans on local insight would improve the user experience and perceived local relevance. So why do so few multinationals consider the local digital landscape of each relevant market?

I would have thought Apple, with its focus on user experience would have been at the leading edge of this practice.

The Integrated Digital Plan

I have been noodling with Integrated Digital Planning approaches for around three years. I lead the digital planning effort for IBM Marketing and Communications globally which involves the ongoing creation and cross-functional coordination of methods, development of guidance and learning materials with stakeholders incl. discipline planning and skills leaders and the Talent and Learning organization.

The latest iteration of the 'Integrated Digital Plan' chart:

(View full size on SlideShare)

Some explanatory points:

• Listening, content, media selection, metrics and analytics are core pillars of digital marketing and communications.
• Other pillars listed (social engagement through to virtual events) to be selected as part of the Engagement Plan based on relevance to the Objectives, selected Constituents and their local digital usage behaviour (Insights). This list is not exhaustive, for example you could run a Digital Jam or use Collaborative Software. Technologies will emerge over time that facilitate engagement in new ways.
• Frequency of iterations to be decided (loop in orange along the base of chart). The more frequent the iterations, the faster the plan will become optimized.
• The Engagement Plan is required in order to define the Management Plan – and vice versa. Think of them as two sides of a coin.
• If resources are sufficient, more than one Business Priority (Input) could be addressed at one time.

 

First, thank you to George Gallate (Global Chairman Euro RSCG 4D) for tweaking my pencil drawing, turning it into the pretty colored chart shown above and creating a full sized billboard (for use at the Digital Strategy Workshops):

Second, I'd like input on this approach. Is anyone else out there attempting to operationalize this kind of planning process within a large enterprise / organization? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

IBMers can access the latest version of the Integrated Digital Plan here.

Many of my recent posts relate to this approach, including:

• a conversation with Tony Zambito
• my post on Building Constituency: A communications approach for open leaders which overlays the Constituents, Listening, Engagement Plan, Measurement, Analytics and Iteration portions of the Integrated Digital Plan, but through the lens of building relationship (rapport) and co-creating value with Constituents.

Other posts describe the business transformation challenges involved in implementing this kind of approach including my latest ramble, on the parallels between:

• the internal transformation organizations must go through to keep pace with the external technology revolution we are all experiencing with digital/social communications and
• the outstanding strategic change plan Major James Gant outlined in 'One Tribe at a Time'.

I'm sure my thoughts on this topic will continue to evolve, as the transformation within IBM gathers further momentum and results - and as I learn more from others.

Input welcome via the comments section below.

 

Advertisers swarm over Julia (and Kevin)

I got on a plane yesterday and 14 hrs later turned on my phone to see a message from my husband saying Australia now has a lady Prime Minister. Amazing what can happen in the world during a plane ride!

Some of the specially created ads that came out hours after Julia Gillard became PM are below. I'm told Jetstar was the first to fly into print with an ad in the mX afternoon edition, featuring a photo of Kevin Rudd and the headline "Taking a break?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Ads sent to me via Clare - thanks Clare!)

The new marketing sea change: It's all about the audience

This morning I was in the mood for some Seth. My choice boiled down to Seth's blog vs 'Meatball Sundae' (which I was part of the way through). After reading the latest blog posts I settled in for some meatball sundae.

I feel compelled to share the end of page 64 with you:

"Here's the sea change: You have the chance to go from finding customers for your products (the meatball way) to a new way - finding products for your customers. The simplest example of this is the difference between a book publisher (who always seeks new readers for his new writers) and a magazine publisher (who commissions articles for his existing readers). A magazine makes far more money than a typical book publisher because of this difference."

Oh Seth, you are the King of Marketing - and writing and presenting... (which all, by the way, now start with "Know your audience").

Alignment to audience is a fundamental shift underway in marketing. Easy for small companies, not so easy for large ones. This is one of the reasons I find change management in marketing so fascinating.

A couple weeks back I had a dream: I was getting a lift in a friend's car on a road trip. When I got in to the back seat I found myself sitting next to Seth Godin (a one on one audience with Seth)! I was trying to work out what I should ask him, that he might enjoy talking about, to get the most out of a few hours in his company. Then I woke up.

What would you ask Seth?

Managing change in the digital environment

I don't often talk about my work on this blog, but initiatives at work over the past few months have renewed my interest in managing change, which I do want to talk about - and request your support with!

At work, my role is Digital Strategist / Leader for IBM, Growth Markets (officially within 'Brand System', working closely with Demand Programs and Market Management, which all sit within IBM Marketing and Communications). Back in June 2009 I started to work on overarching digital strategy guidance for the Growth Markets - and the business process management around it.

Digital: Strategic approach

An implementable strategy covering all Growth Markets would not produce optimal results, since the market conditions in countries such as China, India, Korea, Sth Africa, Russia, Poland etc are fundamentally dissimilar (incl. IBM prospect/clients use of digital tools, media and technologies). Also, local objectives are different in each country - in fact the breadth of IBM's offerings mean IBM's objectives are different for each audience within each country. So I created a 'Digital Planning Roadmap' which each country / Program team can follow to build a solid, locally relevant digital strategy & locally implementable plan.

The idea is that this digital plan should sit, embedded in the centre of the broader local marketing plan. Digital tools/tactics relevant to the audience in the market would be interwoven into the overall contact strategy for that audience. (I should add that this was already happening in many places, but a consistent approach had not been formulated.)

Digital: Business process management

Ideally, many parts of the business would be involved in the creation and implementation of a locally developed digital plan (because digital is relevant to many parts of the business). Therefore, the next step was to create a Cross-functional Digital Lead in each market. This person's role is to drive effective, coordinated use of digital in their market cross-function using the 'Digital Planning Roadmap' approach - and optimise their country's use of digital over time. Essentially, this person will be the 'Digital change agent' in their market.

A global 'Digital Community of Practice' has been set up to enable and support these individuals, utilising Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technologies (plus the good old conference call)! The objective of this de-centralised community is "to eliminate redundant efforts, to amplify learnings and best practices across IBM and to build the critical mass of talent and energy that will command more focus and funding".

The number of community members has passed 60 140 1,000 and is ever-growing - as is the wealth of experience, expertise and guidance the community members are able to share with one another. It has been very exciting to bring this to life and it is gratifying to watch the community start to develop its own momentum as community members use the forums to reach out to one another.

Why am I requesting support / information?

I just read Rawn Shah's article in Forbes: "Enterprise 2.0 Changes What Kind Of Leader You Need To Be". His article prompted me to write this post, because, while I think it is fair to say I meet his definition of "one of the new leaders" (not necessarily people with titles and management authority; rather ones who fuel group efforts to produce results), this is something I want to get better at. If you happen to be doing something similar, I would love to compare notes!

I am in my element when I:

• can work on a big game-changing opportunity (in this case, 'how do we embed Digital into the marketing mix to best effect, to meet our specific objectives')
• have the freedom to develop / sell the approach and 'rally the troops' (in this case, global as well as Growth Markets marketing teams)
• am facilitating the process (making things easy).

BUT I would not call myself an expert in large-scale organisational change management. I am hungry to learn more.

Long term, I'm keen to hone my leadership and change management skills so that I can make a larger impact with projects that involve digital (my area of specialty) and change management within IBM & the corporate world. I'd also like to be able to contribute in the area of animal protection (my other passion) / social issues.

I'm starting a Graduate Certificate in Change Management at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) in Sept. Meanwhile I found a wealth of information on the topics of digital and change management (shared below)*. If you share my passion for this area and/or know of people, organisations, blogs, initiatives etc that I might be interested in, please leave a comment / get in touch!

Many thanks.

*Resources on Digital and Change Management (in no particular order):

• Presentation - Managing change in the digital environment (IdeaGarden)
  
• Lots of presentations on Change Management on Slideshare
  
• Groups covering Digital and Change Management on LinkedIn
• Ashoka (Innovators for the public)
• Ashoka - article on Games for change
• Games for change
• Altimeter Group blog
• Groundswell blog
• Drink Digital - talks
• Heart of Change (book) site
• McKinsey Quarterly
• Social change group on Vimeo (I created the group, please add relevant videos)!
• 'Tribes' by Seth Godin

Note: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of my husband, my dog or any company including employers or clients.

'Join the revolution'

I stumbed across this (now old but still) interesting post about the Kazaa 'Join the revolution' campaign which I worked on in 2003.

Reading it brought back so many memories. I miss those days of optimism!

Shift happens 4.0

An educational video for teachers was created in the US in 2006. The objective was (and still is) to come up with a system of education for our children that prepares them for the 21st century.

The video (about the pace of change, focusing primarily on globalisation and the information age), became an internet hit in 2007. See my earlier post. As with its subject matter, it's changing rapidly.

Version 4.0 was recently released on YouTube. It's worth a look.

You can get involved via the Shift Happens Wiki.