Feb 2009 Revolution – Digital’s Biggest Brains – Strategic Thinking
Was asked to write a piece for Revolution – which has always been one of my favorite interactive industry magazines. Ironically the article isn't available online, so I've put up images of the scans below and pulled out my piece. Great to get iris Digital in great company and see other names that have been in the UK biz for a while. Though adding the ages seems a little unfair — since I met a good few of them 10 years ago I now know they were in fact 12 when they started. Just dug up some of my original comments as well. It is too bad the last question didn't make the magazine — although I should say Kim Benjamin did a great job. Here it is:
Digital is not famous for having people in positions of power, making hard-nosed business decisions. How do you see this changing?
Digital is still a relatively young specialism so it isn’t surprising that high profile digital leaders aren’t in the headline grabbing positions of power — unless you are talking about digital businesses like eBay, Amazon, Yahoo!, Facebook or Google. That said these leaders’ decisions get quite a bit of attention and impact both the digital and traditional business significantly. Things will change as the current generation of business leaders moves on. Today we’re in the position where every business says “digital is important” and “digital is at the heart of our business” but like their advertising it is just a claim. Very soon we will see a new generation of leaders that understand like Google it isn’t what you say, but what you do. Or that like eBay network effects are very significant and not just a buzz word. And that the functionality on your website — a software development challenge — can make your business like Amazon. It is so much more then understanding how to make computers do interesting things, it is understanding a new approach to marketing and communication.
