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"Tesla is the fastest-growing stock in the automotive industry, has the safest car ever tested, and is run by a software engineer. Apple's profit-per-employee is 2.5 times higher than Microsoft’s. The five-year-old start-up AirBnB is threatening the hospitality industry. Centuries-old educational institutions are moving to Coursera, a massive open online course platform. Square is upending the multi-billion-dollar point-of-sale industry. Amazon's market cap is 3 times Target's in spite of the fact that Amazon operates at a loss. Something is Up."
Team PromoJam was at the recent Branding and Digital Marketing Pop-Up School hosted by 99U and Behance in New York and came away inspired by the master class lead by Undercurrent CEO Aaron Dignan on how to create and run the next Amazon, Tesla or digital upstart to challenge traditional corporations. Read on for some of the key takeaways from his masterclass, and check out Undercurrent's website to learn more about their philosophy to transforming organizations into digital leaders.
Dignan proposes that the next wave of corporations that will survive the technological and social age are organizations that embrace an upgraded organizational operation system - predicated on 5 easy to remember P's. These are not your Marketing P's but larger organizational principles that will help inform and guide the developmental and growth trajectory of your organization in the digital age. These prinicples have been culled from years of experience working with digital leaders and studying successful organizations that are changing the way we live, work and interact.
(This post references and takes from Dignan's post on "The Operation Model That is Eating the World")
1) PURPOSE - Why are we doing this?
Your raison d'etre, your mission statement and vision - defining your purpose is critical to providing a 'true north' for your organization. A clearly defined purpose provides a sense of purpose for you and your team and helps guide your organization's development and growth.
Stick to your vision and you will soon realize that it becomes easier to make the important decisions such as future product developments, the people to hire and knowing the right message to send.
2) PROCESS - How will we do this?
In the digital age where change in inevitable and a constant, it is important for digital leaders to adapt and constantly evolve. Defining your process requires an understanding of such complexities and an awareness that processes put into place need to be fluid structures that can adapt quickly with the changing times.
"Processes that are adopted within Digital OS cultures tend to be focused on experimentation, autonomy, and speed". In other words, don't focus solely on instituting rigid processes and systems take will age your organization and slow down your ability to evolve iteratively with the ever-changing needs of the market.
3) PEOPLE - Who will do this?
"The achievements of an organization are the results of the combied effort of each individual" - that couldn't be truer in Digital OS Cultures. Creating the perfect team that will help achieve your organizational purpose is a big chunk of your success formula. Where Dignan makes the distinction about people is recognizing a shift away from Managers to Makers. In the digital age, organizations need thought leaders, forward thinking individuals that not only have the vision but the skills to make that vision a reality.
In Dignan's view, managers slow down the process of being agile in the marketplace; replacing valuable production time with hours of planning and meetings. When creating your dream team of "A Players", be sure to take into consideration the fine balance between managers and makers and how that team dynamic can affect your ability to react and create in the digital age.
4) PRODUCT - What are we doing?
It seems odd that product would be placed fourth in this schema, but for Dignan, it is important to get the foundational core in place before you even think of the final end product or service. Having a well thought out and solid purpose and process helps shed light on the kind of product / service that you should be providing. It informs you on what is lacking and how you are then able to plug your organization into that market need.
It is also important to ackowledge and recognize that your product or service is not the be all and end all of your organization; that it is more of an evolving process than a static final product. In the digital age, focus on creating products built to evolve rather than products that last. Embrace the fact that reiterations and versioning will be part of your everyday modus operandi and never assume an end to your product mission.
5) PLATFORM - What are we doing that's bigger than us?
The last P of the Digital OS model is not so much about communications or promotions as it is about creating a product / service that serves a larger purpose in the community. In today's collaborative and open marketplace, it is about creating opportunities for innovation both intended and accidental that can help your product thrive outside of its initial ecosystem.
Opening up your product to the larger community brings about new possibilities and potential growth avenues for your organization that may have gone by unnoticed within your own schema of thought. Open APIs and crowdsourcing are just some examples of how your platform needs to be an innovation engine that world builds upon.
While the principles behind this new operating model may seem intuitive to some, it has great value in changing the way larger organizations interact with the digital age. It has the impact of evolving large behemoth corporations into organic organisms that are capable of change and adaptation at a faster rate. "A Digital OS can be applied at any level within an organization: an individual, a team, a department, or a division".
For more insights and strategy lessons gleamed from 99U's Pop-Up School of Branding and Digital Marketing, check out their recap article!
