Last week I presented on a keynote panel with Duane Forrester from Microsoft and Daina Middleton, CEO at Performics at Search Engine Strategies SF. There’s a quick wrap up of our session on Search Engine Watch if you want to get an overview of the discussion.
I’ve been thinking about one of the audience questions I responded to and wanted to share with this community as I think it’s an interesting issue. The question was, simplified:
I work for a multi-billion dollar company and our leadership is (still) reticent to make the necessary technology investments to modernize our processes and marketing. We’re really starting to fall behind competitors. What can I do to get them to make the appropriate investments for the future?
This question brought me back to my consulting days. I found the most effective way to make my case to technology-backwards executives was to share data and insights in easily digestible bits, speak the language of the C-suite, project results / revenue impact and have a clear roadmap for modernization.
But what about those who, even after being persuaded again and again to update are fearful or unwilling to change their dated practices? I actually think bolder action is now necessary. Fast. There should be pressure here: none of this stuff is new, and as we continue to see, and common sense dictates, clinging to the past is not a strategy. Those ignoring technology or failing to adapt to change due to personal or political reasons are doing their stakeholders and teams a huge disservice.
Simply put, it’s time for anyone in a leadership role not actively embracing (or closed off to) modern tools, ideas and channels to step down. They’re holding their organizations back. Yes change may be painful for some, but there are plenty of talented consultancies, practitioners and programs to help even the organizations that are farthest behind catch-up. It is never too late and there aren’t any legitimate excuses at this juncture.
The good news? The dinosaurs are less and less. I see fewer each day, and in fact it has been my experience nearly all relevant brands with technology/marketing-literate leadership understand change is constant and it is a requisite to adapt quickly. I’m aware being at a technology company my view may be somewhat skewed, but even in my final days on the consulting-side I was pleasantly surprised by how open most executives were.
With that said if you’re someone in an organization not moving as quickly as you want you can always do what I did in this situation. Ask forgiveness, not permission and make the decision to bring your team into the future. I have been rewarded basically 100% of the time for this when I did what I knew was right (and had the data to back it up). If you’re punished or let go for something forward-thinking that team isn’t worth working for anyway. Never have fear, there is plenty of demand for talented digital professionals: do the right thing, wait to get fired.