While sitting on a train a few months ago I overheard a statement that made me sit up and listen: “My business doesn’t need a digital strategy – it’s a traditional business with traditional values.”
That sentence has stuck in my mind ever since. I started wondering whether digital products and services really were at odds with traditional values.
I have always worked in the mobile industry or adjacent industries looking to develop mobile and digital product and services. I am also a wife, step mum and someone who considers herself to have traditional values; I actively support local businesses and I certainly don’t believe in technology for technology’s sake.
So…. I began to look at industries through a different lens. When Ofcom published its latest report recently, I thought now was as good a time as any to see if the stats backed up my viewpoint.
So just how “digital” are we?
In many ways, the stats simply do speak for themselves. Nearly 50% of the world’s population currently has access to the Internet. If we look at a developed market such as the UK, that figure jumps to 90% of households. Mobile Internet penetration globally is forecast to reach 71% by 2019 - a stat that would have been unfathomable ten years ago. And gone are the days of waiting ten minutes for some content to download onto your device; Ofcom reports that in the UK 90% of homes now have access to 4G services. Those 4G users are far more likely to be attached to their smartphones, do more data heavy activities and do them more often.
Going back to my man on the train then – can it be logically true that his business doesn’t need a digital strategy? And is it true that digital transformation is somehow at odds with traditional values?
Digital can be the saviour of small and local businesses
In a non-digital economy, local tradesmen and retailers find it increasingly difficult to compete with the big boys.
Technology puts them on a more even footing. You only have to think about how many new digital start-ups have seriously disrupted (or even destroyed) big corporates over the past ten years.
Netflix v. Blockbuster
Airbnb v. Hotel chains
….and many many more
Many consumers actively look to support local businesses and the device in the palm of their hand is the way they typically find them. How many businesses have you discovered recently through your friends on Facebook? I have personally found everything from a local ironing service to a bespoke furniture supplier. I have discovered (and actively frequent) businesses that I would never have come across ten years ago.
Every business in every industry needs a digital strategy
Before everyone tells me that that statement is madness, I certainly don’t mean that every business needs a mobile app. In fact, I get frustrated when so many businesses launch an app just for the sake of it – to convince themselves that they have then ticked off “sort digital strategy” from their to-do list. They try to shoe horn their traditional business into the aforementioned app, forget to update it and then dismiss digital as a waste of time. Successful businesses understand how their consumers have been changed by digital evolution and adapt their products and services accordingly. For some businesses, their digital strategy may only need to be a solid presence on social media and a mobile optimised website. For others, it may require a complete digital transformation of their businesses(something banks and retailers in particular are facing at the moment)
So don’t be scared by digital, embrace it!
Whatever industry you’re in and however small your business I would actively encourage you to leverage the power of digital. Use it to get closer to your customers, to delight them and to be rewarded with an introduction to their friends, neighbours, acquaintances and even their dog (yes, pets can have a Facebook page!)
Oh, and if you ever bump into that guy on the train – ask him to drop me a line, would you? I would love to digitally transform his business!