Opinions, Insight, Ideas

Thought & Curation by Brian McKinney

Gone Digital-My Hybrid Roots

Talent that is born digital versus those who go digital often pursue different roles and trajectories. 

"Executives who are digital natives often hold roles that call for deep expertise and are more singularly focused (they dive deep into one project). Born digital executives tend to be motivated more by independence (working without imposed constraints) while going digital executives are more often motivated by challenges (learning, growing, and pushing themselves).

In contrast, going digital executives rank higher in people-oriented competencies, such as interpersonal savvy, collaboration, managing conflict, building teams, communication, persuasion, and inspiring and developing talent.

These leaders tend to be strong in building relationships and influencing others— critical capabilities, given the scope of most digitization strategies.

In comparing these groups, going-digital executives are 28% more likely to score high in building collaborative relationships than their born-digital counterparts; born-digital executives are 20% more likely to score high in being flexible and adaptable in comparison to their counterparts.”

Korn Ferry Institute

 

I see myself as a hybrid of both—Gone Digital

 

Another article, “How Digital Transformation is Shifting Talent and Hiring”, highlights the broad scope of my experience.

“Business rapidly changes course with the advents of new technology. Virtually every type of industry worldwide has transformed their business practices in the face of new breakthroughs in connectivity and how people work.

Hiring practices have changed drastically, and a new type of talent is in high-demand. I like to call them generalists.While generalists may have had traditionally accepted roles in the workplace, there has been a huge shift in terms of what traits are desirable in the modern hiring process. Agile, adaptable, and quick-learning employees are crucial for businesses that want to adapt at the pace of the rest of the business world.

A good generalist will familiarize quickly with new tech and business models while knowing where to find the best information available today. Sifting through the mind-boggling amount of available information today may seem like an impossible task–impossible for the person who doesn’t know where to look, and that’s where generalists come in.

Human resource professionals want talent who know where to find what they need to adapt at the breakneck pace of change.”

Daniel Newman CEO, Broadstreet Media Group

 

Interactivist Manifesto

Interactivist Manifesto
By Brian McKinney in June of 1998

  1. Today, it's all about the customer experience.
  2. This is true for your customers and your customers' customers.The closer your enterprise comes to manifesting a real-time neural presence, the more its ability to deploy hyper-focused customer experiences and, with them, a sharper competitive edge.
  3. All the technology-driven neural/digital intelligence in the world means nothing without an overlay of face-to-face interaction and regular personal communication with key decision-makers.
  4. Key decision-makers gravitate to thought leadership, making thought leadership the critical element required to initiate and nurture new and existing business relationships.
  5. Well-executed business relationships driven by thought leadership drive sales and marketing efforts that yield the highest chance of nurturing loyal customers who publicly affirm that they have had a uniquely valuable and rewarding customer experience.
  6. The growth of an abundant and proven labor force outside the United States offers high-quality code at far less cost and twice the speed of some domestic resources. Businesses that arbitrage this emerging resource (still a complicated process) will reap its benefits. Those that remain status quo will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
  7. Now, more than ever before, there is a growing demand for technologically literate marketing communications professionals qualified to monitor and direct the confluence of creative work, programming activities, production processes, and technology-driven disciplines required to ride "The Global Digital Wave."
  8. The term "Interactivist" denotes professionals with the strategic know-how and digital industry experience required to supply the high-level perspective and expertise needed to function as both a cross-discipline interlocutor and a customer-focused (relationship-building) source of deal-closing thought leadership.
  9. Interactivists drive thought leadership, craft and execute sophisticated approach strategies, nurture emerging customer relationships, mitigate risk, develop content opportunities, and are often bellwethers of what's around the next bend on the ever-flowing digital river.
  10. Interactivists ensure that a stakeholders and their customers remain true to original requirements, project guidelines, resource allocations, accountability structures, and the on-time delivery of high-quality customer experience.
  11. Firms that understand the critical importance and profit-generating role of the interactivist will always fare better than those that don't.