Whilst a large cohort of the team at Cambridge Analytica were in New York mingling with world business and political leaders at the Concordia Summit this week, one of our consultants spent her day amongst top UK business leaders at the Ignite Summit, hosted by Nimbus Ninety – leaders who are shaking up the economy and on the lookout for new partners to compete in the increasingly hyper-connected, digital and uncertain world of 2016.
There were over 220+ senior leaders, representing a broad range of service industries across the UK; from Coca Cola to Sainsbury’s. Their fear is that many of the largest companies in the world today did not exist 10 years ago and 70% of fortune 100 companies in 2004 do not exist today. These disruptive startups have digitally disrupted the traditional healthcare insurance (Fitbit), banking (Bitcoin), media (Twitter), entertainment (Netflix), and telecoms (Whatsapp) sectors; and no company (nor country) is immune to the ‘internet of things’ or the digitization of the global business. Today, to compete and to grow, business leaders have to innovate, collaborate and stay relevant. Novices, too, can consume from other organisations and scale up fast using existing APIs. The playing field is not yet level, but that’s where the opportunity lies.
Top UK business leaders gathered together to discuss, share ideas and connect on the topic of the ‘digital ecosystem’ and how to thrive in the world of ‘Big Data’. In essence, the ‘digital ecosystem’ is a new business paradigm whereby a network of companies, individual contributors, institutions and consumers interact and create mutual value. It is transforming industries at all levels.
The Head of Pinterest UK, Adele Cooper, arguably one of largest data collectors of ideas in the fashion world, spoke about the value of collaborating to keep up with the pace of technology, to grow in scale and reduce inefficiencies in businesses today. They have over 50 billion pieces of data, including user’s details, their interests and their time spent browsing different subjects. Adele argued that customers today crave personalized spaces, especially online.
Another keynote speaker, Simon Torrance, a specialist in disruptive growth strategies and an advisor to the World Economic Forum explained that the concept of digital ecosystem management is a digital platform with a network of effects. He argued that social and economic infrastructure of companies (and indeed countries) are now digital and in order to connect with your customers, you have to constantly provide them incentives to return to your product, for example Amazon is a digital marketplace with vast selection and choices. Amazon is entering regions such as MENA, where shoppers traditionally like to go to shopping malls, because the trend suggests that consumers in the region are shopping online, due to the vastness in choice and the ability to compare prices. Hence, servicing your customers means knowing what they want, providing them the choices and making it easy for them to search, select, purchase, order and receive using this digital platform.
The digital native today expects personalization of online and offline products to be tailored. The Uber vision of chauffeur for all, the Airbnb sharing economy and Quiqup’s delivery of anything, ‘anywhere’ concepts all require collaboration within a digital ecosystem – they are all dependent on data from platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google maps, and strategically targeted marketing ads on these platforms.
In the digital era, the digital ecosystem is the new norm for doing business. Customers expect a high-level of experience and service. A person’s online environment is an extension of their home, work and social space – it reflects their values, interests and taste. Companies need to understand this digital footprint at an ever increasing level of detail to remain competitive.
Experts at Cambridge Analytica can help you plan, design, build and execute your digital strategy putting your data at the focus.