When asked by CXOs about the future of business in the next few years — mobile
technologies, social business networks, social data analytics, artificial
intelligence, smart ecommerce — I find myself referring to innovations emerging
within IBM.
We can’t predict with any certainty what the future of business holds, but we
do know that adaptive businesses have a much higher likelihood of survival. We
also know that in order to be more adaptive businesses need to have a complete
picture of their employees, partners and customers. “Siloed data results in a
siloed customer experience. The best brands are using data to build a single,
integrated view of their customers <partners and employees> and building
highly segmented campaigns geared to a unique individual brand experience,”
IBM’s Tami Cannizaro told me. And from my point of view, that’s the
foundation for a winning strategy for the next 10 years.
Most of the business leaders I speak with feel apprehensive about the huge
technology shifts that have enabled their customers’ unprecedented power and
most executives feel unprepared to handle it. But after investigating all of the
new solutions coming out of IBM, I am convinced they are well ahead of the curve
and the company to watch for insights into how to prepare for a complex
future.
In each of the 10 areas below, IBM is either providing a direct solution or
is developing key aspects of them.
1. Serve Your Customers in Context
You walk into a large department store and head over to the women’s area, and
suddenly a message pops up from your phone from an influential fashion blogger
you follow who recommends a new pair of shoes to go with a dress you bought two
weeks ago. And if you buy it within 30 minutes, you’ll receive 10% off.
Incredibly, scenarios like these are not too far off, and you’ll be stunned by
the technology behind it.
Today, as IBM’s GM John Mesberg
described, IBM is developing tools that connect employees, suppliers and
partners, business processes to study and engage customers at the right place,
time and situation. Think of it as a type of offline and online behavioral and
predictive targeting for current and potential customers.
2. Effective Collaboration between Partners and Supplier brings Huge Competitive Advantages
Sticking with our future department store example, let’s go behind the scenes
to a social network of the department store’s employees, suppliers, partners and
fashion influencers that are using procurement and sales data to collaborate on
new sales opportunities. In this simplified example, let’s suppose that the data
show that a certain black dress was selling well but tended to be sold
individually and without accessories. On seeing this, a fashion influencer
popular with the store’s customers, recommends a pair of shoes she’s seen
recently – will go well with the dress. Grasping that connection, the store’s
procurement team sources the shoes from one of its suppliers, cuts a deal with
the influencer to help promote it, then delivers it in store and in context.
Today, according to a recent IBM study
of 1128 Chief Procurement Officers across 22 countries, the top performing
procurement organizations have very strong collaborative relationships with key
suppliers and partners. Most also report the use of procurement analytics for
systematic identification of savings opportunities and more favorable long term
contracts with suppliers because of increased demand forecasting efficacy. In
the near future, those are the companies that will be benefiting from examples
like above.
3. CrowdSourcing Innovation Will Dramatically Increase Profits
So let’s return one last time to our department store example. And while
we’re at it, let’s invite the crowd into a secure area of the store’s social
network to source ideas. There, the crowd is asked to create their own fashion
designs, or suggest outfits not currently found in the store, or suggest
entirely new product lines that match the store’s brand promise. The winners,
with crowd input, will be selected by the store and potentially developed for
sale at the store. That can all be done today – albeit most of the programs have
had limited success because of a lack of supply chain integration and internal
bureaucracy.
But tomorrow, partners and suppliers will be organized to act on the winning
designs and products and quickly bring them to market. In fact, most
organizations will offer winners the chance to participate in a profit sharing
program based on how well the products sell. The days where the store’s buyers
are the sole source for purchasing products to be sold in-store are coming to an
end.
4. The Fight for Talent is Key
I agree with Say
Lim, Vice President of IT at Fluor when he expressed to me, “To build a
company for the next 100 years you need to have talent. To attract this talent
you need to have the social tools that will attract and keep younger talent,
position the organization as innovative and progressive to clients and allows
the organization to think globally and act locally.”
Indeed the fight to keep the most talented and resourceful people will become
even more challenging in the future as these people will be presented with
myriad opportunities as a result of being well known online. If you don’t offer
these people the means to be successful and to build on their careers and
experience, expect them to leave your organization quickly. Furthermore, in
order to retain talented employees, IBM is developing its Retention Analytics
solution which provides a data-driven approach to understanding employee
attrition patterns within a business. For example, if an organization is seeing
employee turnover rates that are above average, it can quickly investigate and
correct the issue.
Clearly, we’re entering a new phase in the employer/employee dynamic, and the
most successful companies will prepare for it.
5. Companies Will Need To Focus On Building
Relationships Not Just Transactions.
Businesses are increasingly finding that the old traditional model of
advertising becomes less effective every year. Paid TV commercials, print ads,
radio spots are not as effective as they once were in and the efficacy continues
to dwindle. While ad spend has shifted to Google and billions are spent on SEO
services, in the future winning organizations will partner with industry
influencers, company advocates, subject matter experts and use data analytics to
intelligently target customers at each stage of their buying cycle.
So when an organization wants to launch a new product or promote an existing
one, they will first identify the right prospects using data analytics, then
turn to people that influence and have formed bonds with their target prospects
to help persuade them to purchase. For an example of how this will work in the
future of business, read my article on the Obama
reelection campaign.
By: Marc Fidelman
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