The Onlinification Hub

If your organisation has passed its start-up phase, it’s most likely structured and optimised to achieve efficiency. Like the vast majority of mature companies you almost certainly also have a hierarchical structure for decision making, run by managerial processes such as planning, budgeting, measuring and problem-solving. All necessary to make things work on a day-to-day basis—without them, things will be chaotic and almost impossible to manage. However, that which makes organisations efficient and easy to manage is often also what makes them rigid and reluctant to change once a need or an opportunity presents itself.

On the 21st of November, Professor Philip Kotler and Christian von Koenigsegg visited Stockholm to give a symposium on the topic ‘Welcome to the future’. Despite coming from entirely different backgrounds, the two gentlemen still ended up with the same conclusion - Innovation is the future. But how does this impact marketing, and relate to buzzwords like digital transformation and Industry 4.0?

Sometimes I hear that change in a company can be supported by the concept of internal heroes, role models, or promoters. You elevate an individual that has the sought after behaviour and turn that person into an internal hero. The idea is that others will follow. Can this be a fruitful method for companies going digital, in this case meaning transformation of the way they handle customers with an improved online presence? Let’s look at a couple of cases and discuss a few pros and cons with this concept.

Changing people’s habits and behaviours doesn’t come easy. Changing how a whole company does things is an even greater challenge. To succeed you need to create a feeling of urgency within the organisation that is strong enough to break through and get people’s attention. 

But how do you get a large number of people in your organisation to see and feel the need for change that you already see?

Have you ever been approached by an IS/IT-company that claims it can make your business more efficient and effective?Of course, you are tempted to listen to them since ‘digitalisation’ is the buzzword of today. You are convinced and start a project, but will it really turn out to be as effortless and simple as promised? Well, it could if you do it in the right way and order.

Here are some suggestions for how to do just that.

Swedish marketing managers don’t think digital media helps them to sell, according to Resumé, a Swedish business magazine about the communications industry. This heading attracted my interest since I have been working as a marketing manager for many years. Let me share a few of my insights with you.

Different times call for different measures. You have heard it before. But, are the times really that different? Or, are they actually the same—meaning that an old school marketing method like ‘pay, spray, pray’ still does the trick? Let’s make a quick journey through society to see if we can find anything that suggests that different measures in marketing are needed.

A while back we had the opportunity sit down and listen to Marcus Sheridan, Founder and President of The Sales Lion and long-time Inbound evangelist. The presentation focused on Marcus’ thoughts on how to get Inbound buy-in and participation from an organisation. This post is a paraphrasing of Marcus’ thoughts combined with my own thinking on the subject.

Why do some companies fail with Inbound?  What are the most common pitfalls and what are the tell-tale signs to look out for when you are embarking on an Inbound path?

Advancing technology and globalisation has evened out the playing field in most industries. There are now new ways to fund start-up investment, technology and knowledge is accessible for the masses, and reaching a global audience has never been easier (if you have done your homework right). So why is it so difficult for most large companies to take advantage of this brave new world?

Quote by Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO

“The way I think about culture is that modern humans have radically changed the way that they work and the way that they live. Companies need to change the way they manage and lead to match the way that modern humans actually work and live. We’re trying to re-craft culture in a way that really matches that. I think that 99% of companies are kind of stuck in the ‘90s when it comes to their culture.”