10 Management Truths for the Web Age. The DigitalDeca by Lisa Welchman
Oct 17, 2014
10 Management Truths for the Web Age.
The DigitalDecaby Lisa Welchman
The science of understanding an organization’s strengths and weaknesses
by examining their Web presence.
Web Phrenology:
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Meet Wendell Wallace Webb
he is the voice of your organization. he talks online, non-stop 24x7, globally, whether you like it or not.
hallo Welt,
Hello worldを
Hello, World!
Hola mundo
Hello, World!
Ciao mondohola, mundo
Bonjour tout le monde a Hello World!
ملاعلا يف ابحرم
你好世界
привет мир в
hallå världen Witaj świecie
hello world를
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and, you might be surprised what he says to your
customers citizens
students employees
members
patients
shareholders
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“This organization is messed up. They might not have credible information. They’re wasteful. They can’t collaborate.
And they might not be able to thrive in the Web age.”
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The Good Old 20th Century
So, maybe your organization was always messed up, didn’t have credible
information, was wasteful and unable to collaborate. But it didn’t matter as long as
your storefront to the world looked good.
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“But now, you broadcast your company’s dysfunction to the whole wide
world with the instant, digital, global communications channel that
is the www.”
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“And, before Web 2.0 you didn’t have an instant, digital, global communications channels like Twitter, f lickr, facebook, et al,
that your customers could use to tell everyone how dysfunctional
you are…”
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equals
Web sites are usually developed by subjective taste and organizational power, instead of by understanding customer needs.
This makes bad Web sites which can communicate surprising things to your customers.
The Organizational Dynamic Behind Bad Web Sites
amount of offline MoneyPower clout
access to senior Leadership
amount of online content
Dataapplications
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“I need to know everything about my disease, not just what one group says.
i don’t know what to do. i’m trying to make a life deci-sion. i’m scared and you’re
confusing me (click).”
“You don’t care how long i have to look to find information. You’re wast-
ing my time (click).”
“I just spent 5 minutes filling out a form just like this.
You’re wasting my time... again. (click and Tweet).”
Bad Search“@!*@&! (click)!”
“Is this the same company (clickity, clickity, click)?”
“Is 404 their area code? Where’s the rest of the phone
number (click).”
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How Organizational Dysfunction Affects Your Web Site
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Your customers use the Web to find information, shop and manage themselves in a crisis, and based on their experience on your Web site they form an opinion about
your business, your brand, your competence, relevance and viability. if that opinion isn’t great, they move on to the
next possibility, unconstrained by geography or time— until their needs are satisfied.
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eLeven
“Wait! Don’t leave. You haven’t visited all 25 of
my content silos!”
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TWeLve
Most organizations address low Web quality by redesigning their Web site or installing expensive
infrastructure technology. The real reason your Web site keeps falling into disrepair is because your
organization’s management practices don’t align with the 21st century business dynamic.
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What Happened to Your Business when the Web Happened
The Web changed the rules, not just for the way you communicate with your customers, partners, employees or process transactions or disseminate data…but for your entire business.
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The Web speeds up and intensifies the pace of business and puts customers in a greater
position of power.
now, your customers have a platform from which to announce, loudly and clearly, their likes
and dislikes about how you do business.
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unfortunately, many executives have allowed their organization’s Web presence to be managed in a
reactionary, non-strategic way…riding the wave of the latest technologies and delegating strategic business
decisions to junior resources…underestimating the impact of the internet on business, or reluctant to
shift a successful legacy business model to a new un-proven Web paradigm.
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right now, it’s just your Web site that is failing but as younger or more nimble companies leverage the
Web and better engage your customer base, you may find that it’s also your business that’s failing.
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The 21st century business world consists of both a physical and digital hemisphere with the organization’s digital presence magnifying the management efficiencies and inefficiencies of the physical presence.
Because of the all-ecompassing, omni-di-rectional, democratic nature of the World Wide Web, organizations must manage with precision and coherence in order to remain viable and maintain control of their brand.
Coherence means:
• clear articulation of an organization’s objectives and values.
• a direct link between organizational objectives and values and the governance of your organization’s information supply chain.
• sound and rapid execution.
• Persistent measurement of performance.
some organizations try to heed these com-mon tenets while others are less culturally inclined to manage this way. But for most who are able to manage this way, it is only for the physical hemisphere, not the digital.
The Business Challenge of the Web
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The Web is the disruptive, operations optimizing, information disseminating, sales closing, feedback gathering technology of our time. if an organization can not
manage the Web, it will fail.
In order to remain competitive, executives must aggressively seek to integrate the management capabilities of the
Web into its overall business operations. The Web can not continue to be an operational silo, planned for as an
afterthought and dismissed by senior management as “technical” and Web teams can no longer be treated as an
organizational ghetto, underfunded, out of sight and out of mind of senior leaders.
The solution to maintaining or growing organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage lies
in the establishment of 10 core management principles. These are called the Digital Deca.
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10 Management Truths for the Web Age.
The DigitalDeca
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TruTH 1
Your Web presence is the digital manifestation of your organization.
an organization’s business strategy must address both the digital and traditional business arena. These
realms must be married and either may lead.
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TruTH 2
In a digitally transforming business environment, bold leadership is vital.
collaboration must be enabled from the top of the organization. if enabled from the bottom, power struggles will
compromise business objectives. Those power struggles will slow the pace of innovation, be clearly magnified in your digital presence and expose your internal weaknesses to your
competitors and customers.
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TruTH 3
Decision making must be based upon expertise, not power.
an organization must emplace mechanisms that promote rapid and sound decision making based on knowledge
and expertise, not perceived or real organizational political power. if decision making is guided by power,
collaboration will fail.
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TruTH 4
The business framework must be inclusive.
organizational policy must protect and enable both the organization’s physical and digital world presence.
if policy and operations are exclusively aligned to one or the other, risk is substantially increased.
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TruTH 5
Standards enable collaboration.
standards for business execution must be complete and enforceable or chaos will occur with growth; but
managed chaos can spawn innovation and lead to competitive advantage.
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TruTH 6
The Web is an asset.
organizations must understand and act on the potential of the Web to create efficiencies and
realize more revenue.
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TruTH 7
The organization owns the Web presence.
The whole organization is responsible for the quality and integrity of its digital presence – not just
Marketing/communications or the information Technology team.
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TruTH 8
Management should embrace impermanence.
in a world where knowledge flows freely and globally, organizations must realize the advantages of matrix management
and leverage expertise where it resides. clearly articulated performance indicators, standards-based execution, and
Web-based collaboration can resolve the chaos of the matrix.
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TruTH 9 Know your customer but
own your mission.
organizations must understand the subjective needs of their digital and physical world customers and make
mission-driven determinations about which needs will be met and which will not.
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TruTH 10
Measure twice, execute once.
organizations must use both quantitative and qualitative data to determine business success. and synthesize physical and digital business execution in
order to maintain competitive advantage.
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10 Management Truths for the Web Age. Truth 1 Your Web presence is the digital manifestation of your organization.
Truth 2 In a digitally transforming business environment, bold leadership is vital.
Truth 3 Decision-making must be based upon expertise, not power.
Truth 4 The business framework must be inclusive.
Truth 5 Standards enable collaboration.
Truth 6 The Web is an asset.
Truth 7 The organization owns the Web presence.
Truth 8 Management should embrace impermanence.
Truth 9 Know your customer but own your mission.
Truth 10 Measure twice, execute once.
The DigitalDeca
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When senior leaders step up to the plate and embrace the Digital Deca, organizations will
enter the Web age—an age of collaboration, innovation, and real reward. The Web presence will
reflect the values and intent of the business and the organizational workforce will operate in a zone
of empowerment—where both morale and profit are high.
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Lisa Welchman is the founding partner of WelchmanPierpoint. she has pio-neered the field of Web operations Management by distinguishing Web strat-egy, governance, execution and measurement as it pertains to large Web sites, and creating innovative, practical solutions for clients. Lisa wields a sharp ability to define and distinguish the over-arching principles of managing large Web sites and is a recognized thought leader in the area of Web governance.
Since 1999, Lisa has been leading consulting engagements with a combination of high-level strategic vision, clear understanding of the challenges of senior executives, and real-world problem solving. her clients include The World Bank, The us food and Drug administration, usa.gov, research in Motion, clorox, Wells fargo, the social security administration, and seattle Times interactive, among others.
Lisa Welchman twitter: @lwelchman [email protected] welchmanpierpoint.com 410.377.3012
Goodbye, World!Goodbye, World!
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