Got a Minute?
How much did anyone get done in a minute, an hour or a day in
1953? 1973? 1983? 1993? 2003? For those that have been around a while, we’ve certainly
witnessed the increased velocity with which today’s business operates in 2013.
And when we find ourselves catching our breath some days, we can understand that June and Ward Cleaver didn’t have a Smartphone in their pocket allowing Wally and the Beaver a slower lifestyle and larger global unknown world. Maybe the Beaver wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble if June had been tracking him via his cell phone GPS.
I won’t wane on nostalgically (too much) about the “good ‘ol days”
in fictitious suburbia when we actually waited for the US mail to deliver our
packages and correspondence or we had to be in an office or find a payphone to
make a call outside of the home. 
As the
world has evolved due to the rapid speed of communications, it has become a much
smaller place – or at least our perception of the world has shrunk to fit in
our shirt pocket.
Given the right timing, there are no barriers to easily asking a
colleague across the world in Australia, Japan, India, or France a quick
question to clarify something that would have taken days or even weeks decades
ago. We are living in a new technology-based world with “Digital
Darwinism” in full force. Those new employees joining your ranks that
were born with a computer in their hands, the “Digital Natives” or “Born
Digital” as they are known are arriving with new expectations for the
integration of their work and personal lives. They are social beings and are
arriving having become accustomed to multiple tools for instantaneous
communications, intuitive collaboration at all hours; a different perspective
on what is public vs. private and the expectation that the digital tools that
they will use in their employment will be just as easy to use as those in their
personal lives. They also bring to the workplace the growing expectation that
everything in life is social, can be done while mobile, and ultimately, come
from the cloud…
Today’s customer expects to engage with your brand and the community surrounding it in an interactive and social way. Customers expect a lot for their online customer experience.
They expect it to be personal:
• Accessible: - Regardless of my device – Mobile or not - Via my existing online identities
•Relevant: Content that interests me
•Customized: To be able to tailor my online experience
They expect is to be engaging:
•Social: So I can share content with my social networks
•Intuitive: To easily find what I need
•Interactive: So I can interact with online communities
And they expect it to be consistent across the online experience.
Interestingly enough, the business priorities of decades ago are still at play today. Do you need to Lower Costs? Increase Sales? Raise Productivity? Foster Innovation? Deliver a product or a service faster, better and cheaper? At least some things haven’t changed, but the tools by which we accomplish these goals are constantly changing and improving, providing the experience to increase engagement of your employees, customers and partners. Got a Minute? Take a look at how much happens in just 60 seconds and how your organization compares.
