The indistinct amalgam of beauty

and beast called Digital Strategy

www.MadeMen.com.auFabian Di Marco, Strategy Director

...and why every Australian company

needs to rethink the way they do it!

The Australian economy is going well...

AAA Rating

Thanks largely to our neighbors in Asia.

But not all good things last forever right?

So how adaptable is your digital strategy for

the inevitability of change?

Can it handle change in Macroeconomics + an Internet Minute

A great strategy must make pieces of a puzzle !t to tell one

“cohesive story”.

But in an unpredictable environment, is your digital

strategy looking for (measuring) the right patterns?

How well does it consider Return on Investment?

Is it built to handle change?

Too many strategies are built 'in luxury'. So called strategists are bloating budgets and overspending in

low returning channels. 

Even worst, they have built their strategies on the frame that everything will remain as is.

HOW WE

NEED TO

(re)THINK ABOUT

STRATEGY

A digital strategy requires both analysis (insights) and

decisions (execution).

Analysis (data) and Decision making (action) are like partners dancing.

The dance is always moving and the partners must work

together to execute the moves.

But sometimes the dance doesn’t go as planned.

THE NEW RULES TO ACCEPT!

1. Strategies must be lean.

“Strategy is an iterative process that relies on the cycle of analysis

and agile decision making for when things don’t go to plan and

the dance must change. “

Strategy is now 80% agile decision making and 20%

analysis.

Be prepared to pause or drop a plan(e.g. blogger outreach)

from the strategy at any moment, and let that be ‘OK’.

2. Each touchpoint in the strategy must consider Return on Investment.

What are you investing? Time? Money? Creativity?

How are you measuring your return?Sales? Productivity? Engagement?Awareness?

Ask yourself these questions?

&How does this ladder up to the

business objective?

Are your touch-points optimised for performance?

If you could get a better ROI out of Google PPC than Yahoo, then you would invest

more in Google right?

Well...make sure you’ve considered the ROI at a touch-point vs touch-point level where the goal

is the same.

3. The whole team must ‘get-it’ and have the ability to ‘do it’.

If a strategy can’t be executed then it’s useless.

To execute a cohesive strategy, you must have a cohesive team.

True Success is in Collaboration!“The right people, with a uni!ed vision

that have the ability to make agile decisions as one entity”

Consider:When building the team

What skills are required?Who has those skills?

Are the people available?Do they have the power to make decisions

(empowerment)?

What experience do they have?

Consider: Nimble Frameworks

•What’s the process required to make changes? •Are regulatory bodies involved? •What’s the turnaround time to get a green light?

Internal Process Considerations

Consider: Nimble Frameworks

Knowledge Share

•Does everybody involved know the strategy and know their role in that strategy? •Are you keeping documents and !les in a place all required team members can access and share?

Consider: Nimble Frameworks

Communication

How often do you meet/communicate? Keep people accountable and clear. However, If you meet too

often, you don’t make enough decisions. If you don’t meet often enough, you’ll make the wrong decisions.

4. You can change the plan, not the goal.

Contingency PlanningWhat’s your reaction plan? How are you being proactive?

The risks: Identify as many as you can, work in your teams and user their expertise to list them, then rank the risk by impact.

+ Find at least one alternative solution to every risk!

Contingency PlanningWhat’s your reaction plan? How are you being proactive?

The Merlin:Go two years ahead from today, look back and ask yourself what could’ve you done

different?

E.g. What mistakes did you make?What decision didn’t you take?

Summary

You can’t plan for everything, a part of being agile means to acknowledge you can’t predict the future but are

prepared to accept whatever happens as a means to a new opportunity.

SummaryTruths:

The great Australian economy won’t last forever and when things sour, without the new rules applied you can expect...

•Strategies that aren’t nimble will resist change. These will fail your objectives.•You will be forced to make decisions, but won’t know what’s working and what isn’t.•You will have to cut costs but won’t know it’s impact on your return until it’s too late.

One word, CHAOS!

Summary

However,by having:1. A lean strategy.2.ROI Performance considered at each touchpoint and is measured correctly.3. A cohesive team with empowered people.4.Contingency plans.

You will be able to make better decisions with less process i.e. more agility.

And each decision will be accountable, measurable, and performance optimisable!

Thank you

Fabian Di MarcoStrategy DirectoryFabian@MadeMen.com.au

W:http://www.mademen.com.au Ln:http://www.linkedin.com/company/made-men

Tw:https://twitter.com/MadeMenAU