If I were to ask you, ‘How is digital strategy related to 6th Century BC Chinese philosophy’, what would you say?
Maybe you’re thinking:
- Nothing at all. We’re in a new age of advanced technology.
- Maybe it’s got something to do with early civilisation and maths (maybe they had it all figured out!)
- Who cares? Is he just showing off talking about Chinese philosophy?
All reasonable sounding answers, but probably based on a little knowledge, a lot more opinion, some past experience, and a heap of assumptions. Unless you’re an expert in Chinese philosophy (and I’m certainly not), you’d probably want to put some serious thought into it.
Indeed, that same rigorous thinking should still apply when a question is asked that is within our field of expertise. Each of our clients challenges us with a unique set of business problems and opportunities. So whilst previous experience and knowledge are fundamental, fresh thinking to explore the digital needs of their business and their customers is vital to producing a great strategy.
In practice, this means that developing a digital strategy is the art of listening to our clients and their customers and responding to their unique situation. This approach avoids common risks to a strategy such as a personally held set of beliefs, repeating what has worked for other clients in different situations, or making assumptions about what a group of people either ‘like’ or ‘want’. Quite the opposite, it means bring both our ‘expertise’, and our ‘ears’ to the table in equal measure when it comes to problem solving.
It also means being flexible enough to adapt and evolve a strategic vision based on listening to user feedback. Recently we uncovered an assumption that was central to a project and used this learning to modify the strategy and solution in development. Having an open attitude and accommodating change was key, and the result will be a far more powerful solution for our clients business and their customers.
For inspiration, I take a leaf from Sun Tzu’s book ‘The Art of War’.
Foreknowledge cannot be grasped from ghosts and spirits; Cannot be inferred from events; Cannot be projected from calculation. It must be grasped from people’s knowledge.
To put his wisdom in a digital strategy context, there comes a point where experience, industry data, third party research and expert views must be challenged in the context of a real-life end-user experience for our client's customer. What sounds great in the strategy phase should be tested early with users to validate any assumptions and evolve both the vision and the solution where necessary.
Chinese military strategy might not be an obvious source of inspiration for your digital strategy. But testing and refining your digital strategy to better meet the needs of your customers is a sign of strength, not weakness. Or as Sun Tzu might say, it’s about planning to win.