Adopting a digital mindset—a note from Mod Op Strategic Consulting’s CEO
Dear dBrief subscriber,
We hope you’ve been enjoying our weekly e-newsletter, which offers original insights from Mod Op Strategic Consulting’s top consultants along with a compilation of headlines from the best thinking across the digital landscape.
As the new year kicks off, I wanted to share my thoughts about what makes Mod Op Strategic Consulting unique in the world of strategic and technology consulting.
Who is Mod Op Strategic Consulting, and what do we do?
Mod Op Strategic Consulting is a boutique consultancy with the unique advantage of being run by people with significant operating experience as executive leaders in each and every aspect of running digital operations. When it comes to understanding your challenges as a leader of a business or nonprofit enterprise, we’ve “been there, done that”— in organizations large and small.
We’ve served over 30 clients since our start in early 2014. We help organizations already savvy to today’s digital demands to grow their capabilities. And for clients for whom digital is not yet part of their DNA, we help effect their digital transformation.
What is digital (no, really)?
“Digital” today is such a broad term; it means more than just zeroes and ones. It’s an entire mindset for how organizations must plan and operate to succeed in today’s economy. Success today is measured by an organization’s ability to innovate in a swift, customer-centric way. Truly digital organizations have fundamentally changed their DNA so that each and every functional group operates in alignment with its data-driven strategic goals.
Here is how I organize the functions and capabilities of a truly digital organization:
Execution
. It is about GSD—Getting Stuff Done. Digital organizations work in agile, iterative cycles. While long-term goals and objectives are defined, day-to-day operations value rapid experimentation, step-by-step progress and frequent delivery of small results. Traditional PMO (Project Management Office) approaches lack flexibility and are prone to bloated budgets.
Data
. Data is, as we always say, the oil of the digital economy—all functions in a digital organization require data as well as a thorough understanding of how to read and utilize it. Many organizations require a “data factory,” a methodical approach to gathering, cleansing and organizing data with daily or real-time production. Analysis and data science are rapidly developing competencies.
Strategy
. As a concept, the digital economy has been around for a decade or two. Still, it has afforded us myriad new ways to look for potential opportunities and paths to achieve them. Innovation and vision around new markets and market dynamics are core to this new strategy.
Technology
. It’s not easy to change an organization’s perception of technology from a back-office burden to a front-office critical function. Technological capabilities now require many different and function-specific solutions. The architecture of technology platforms needs to be data-centric and focus on interoperability among key functions. It is no longer about big, monolithic solutions that serve mainly administrative purposes.
Product Management.
All digital products and services should be centered around customer needs—the jobs people need to do every day to get along in their work and personal lives. Identifying your customer personas and their needs requires in-depth work. Once products are launched, continuous customer feedback loops, monitored by data analytics, are core.
Content
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Each piece of content your organization produces should have a job to do. Content takes many forms (video, audio, infographics etc.) and channels (websites, social media, blogs, others), but must always result in an action that leads to the purchase or consumption of your organization’s products or services.
Marketing
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Data, education-based marketing (Content Marketing) and in-bound marketing are key capabilities, engaging the prospects and helping them to easily purchase. It isn’t as much about selling as helping prospects to buy.
Why do we do digital?
The Mod Op Strategic Consulting team has passion. Passion to help organizations thrive in the digital economy. We have done this in leading companies, and each and every one of us has been recognized as innovative, forward-thinking and focused on delivering real value for clients. While we have been successful in our careers in creating digital organizations, products and services, we also have experience making and recovering from the inevitable mistakes inherent in any effort to improve.
Our passion is to leverage all of that experience in ways that help others thrive in this ever-changing digital economy. Get in touch if you’d like to hear more:
[email protected]
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