Rapid Technological Evolution And The Long Term Strategists: Be Flexible And Listen To Your Market
The rate of technological innovation is so fast that the function of strategists and planners is at best relegated to educated guesswork. In many business sectors that rely on being at the leading edge of technological innovation, not least the digital industry, among the big issues facing strategists and planners is the rate of change renders any true mid to long term planning at the mercy of chance.
This isn't to say that business ought to throw up their hands in the air or bury their heads in the sand, aghast at the fruitlessness of any long term management, but more a necessity to understand there isn't any hard and fast way to rapid development, no pause button which will enable for the collective capturing of commercial breath.
Really, the best advice to those who like to ride the technological wave is to realize that this is the way it's, to be adaptable and to recognise. Of course, this isn't to recommend a universally cavalier attitude to any planning component. However, one particularly relevant case study is business or brand use of social networking, as a medium that always pushes the envelope and puts itself firmly in the crest of the innovation wave.
Perhaps the clearest case study of achievement could be Facebook itself, in this is a brand new business (and it is worth remembering that , it's only a couple of years old) that has been hauled out of the bedroom; in nature to make an online yearbook of Harvard students.
Now, just a couple decades later, that bedroom job is without question the largest personal and commercial social medium the world has seen. Back then Harvard bedroom a couple of years back, if you'd asked Mark Zuckerburg if this was his strategy, even in his most optimistic he would definitely not have predicted the degree of success.
There are of course a lot of reasons behind that achievement, but one crucial element is that Facebook has listened to customer demand and reacted accordingly. Not precisely rocket-science but the embracement of the laissez-faire approach and ability to tailor the business to customer demand is one of the important reasons that the social network now has over 800million users throughout the planet.
Brands and businesses using the platform itself would be wise to heed the Facebook approach in building their customer acquisition, engagement and mobilisation. Surely, it does no harm to have a strong brand presence behind you, but it's primarily through listening and aligning the response so that brands will attain the best resonance with consumers.
From a strategic perspective, Facebook itself has introduced a number of technical components (i.e. the EdgeRank algorithm) to make sure brands and businesses are giving customers what they want. Whilst Facebook itself hasn't been precisely overt in flagging the debut of EdgeRank (no doubt succeeds to answer tough questions from brands which had spent not insubstantial amounts in advertising to draw fans who were being turned away in their millions), it's difficult to fault the aim of the algorithm.
In a nutshell, it was a clarion call for significance. If brands can ensure they were relevant to their customers (by listening and then providing the content that consumers were requesting for), users were more likely to interact with that content - mostly by liking, commenting or sharing.
In cases like this, EdgeRank would recognise that the content was relevant and continue to supply it to all those users. The flip side of this is that if articles interactions are minimal, then EdgeRank will turn off brand content . That's a rather clear message: listen and be applicable.
From a long term planning perspective, the strategy of just listening and tailoring activities in an ad hoc manner is very likely to cause numerous marketing directors and in turn shareholders quite a few sleepless nights. However, they'd do well to have a little faith and in the end, listen to what the customer market is asking of them now.
The Technological Evolution in Digital Camera Photo Sharing
Digital camera photo sharing has empowered the average individual to make their own pictures. With technology rapidly changing, choices now exist to maintain the photography printing at home instead of having to wait months and sometimes even months to receive their precious pictures.
The drawback with digital camera photo sharing is that photo labs are having to change their approaches to keep up with the new need. 1 demand being put on labs would be to offer you a fast photo printer. These new photo printers are simple to use, and the sort of media which may be used to publish images is greatly varied.
With digital cameras, typically a kind of a memory card is required to store images on. However, if somebody doesn't need to take their memory card into a shop, than they could make copies on a CD and bring it to the photo printer and immediately have images printed.
Before printing, the image will be previewed, and dimensions and images can be selected at that time. The prints will be more costly than what one would normally cover if the laboratory printed their pictures. Digital camera photo sharing technology has made the photo lab personnel dramatically decrease. Since the demand for laboratory printed images is less, the demand for laboratory photo personnel is virtually non-existent.
However, employees are still needed to help man the new photography printing machines. Another reason that employees are required is for offering photography suggestions to customers. Some of the top tips will come from a photo lab associate because they have experience with several distinct forms of photography.
1 reason that digital camera photo sharing has become so popular is the internet. If an individual has a digital camera and a computer, not only can they print their own images, but they could also send images easily to family and friends.
Then that person can burn a CD and take it to their community photo lab. Or if this isn't an option, someone could send the images to most photo labs through the internet, and then they may be picked up. The choices are endless when it comes to digital photos. Digital camera photo sharing is a excellent technological revolution to be in the middle of.
By having the ability to print pictures at home, consumers are having to make less trips to their regional Wal-Mart photo lab. This is the reason for the photo partners to have to come with inventive ways to secure their own jobs. By studying new technology, they could provide consumers photo tips and help with operating the new machines that can print their photos from their CD's or memory cards.