What happened at MediaCom’s Transformation Week 2018?

DSC_15535 days

24 presentations

21 partners‎

35 presenters

1,400 attendees

Our first transformation week at MediaCom happened as our English summer transformed into baking heat.

Charles Darwin said “it’s not the strongest or the most intelligent that survive, but those most responsive to change”.  Stephen Hawking said: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

Change is unavoidable, changes are accelerating, but we need to make sure that the pace of change is appropriate and focussed.

Our transformation week agenda was focussed around our clients’ priorities from the turn of year questionnaire.  We invited the nation’s best media owners to partner with us in addressing them.

From the rich territory of these priorities one week’s transformation festival was created.  (The topics are: Agility; AI; Voice; Creativity; Data; Diversity; GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft); Millennials/GenZ; Purpose/Meaning; Ecommerce).

5 key trends for 2018/19 were clear.

Trend 1: If you stand still, you go backwards.

85% business leaders state that innovation is crucial, but delivering effective innovation is tough.  11 years ago there was a step change year for tech.  2007 was a year of real traction for fb, iphone, Amazon Web Services, big data and open source coding.  Pundits predict that a similar year of step change is imminent in terms of frictionless tech development adoption.  The disruptors are coming in every market.  No-one can think that they’re exempt.  Standing still is not an option.

The customer is in charge.

I know you’ve heard that the customer is king, and queen, (and the grand of duke of York for that matter!) before.  This time it’s different.  This time the customer isn’t standing for sub-standard service, unsubstantiated spin, or shoddy standards.  User Experience is inextricable from the Brand.  Businesses must take care to swerve the traps of path dependence and dabbling.  Ruthless focus about what to trial will separate the winners from the also ran.  Those brands that offer the customer what they want, when they want it and how they want it will triumph over the rest of the category.  They’ll almost inevitably create more data for their business in the process.  Which leads me to the third trend.

Trend 3: Be data informed not a data junkie.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  Our speakers emphasised that whilst there are lots of data sources that can be vital intelligence to progress, and that algorithms can help to build better relationships with customers, there’s a danger that once you start looking at data feeds you mistake them for knowledge.  Data might be the new oil, to quote CDDO Ben Rickard, but only in the sense that its toxic unless you refine it.

Trend 4: Agile ways of working drive results.

A shift to more adaptive ways of working can reap impressive rewards in terms of productivity.  A shift in mindset from planning for perfect to planning to deliver a minimum viable product in the least amount of time that you can then beta test and learn from can take days or even weeks of people hours costs out of projects. An approach of build, measure, learn, adapt, measure, learn means brilliant never stops.

Our final trend is about the surprising truth about creativity. Exclusivity gives way to empowerment.  An open access approach to working with all kinds of people and partners creates power and energy for brands.

With enormous thanks to all our speakers, partners and delegates.  The transformation continues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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