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At Carpe Diem we have implemented 6 rules by which all members of the team follow.
By keeping these rules in mind, we believe that we can provide a service second to none.
- Look before you leap
- Being first isn't key to success - its about being first with an excellent service
- Meet your customers demands is more important than being digital
- New Media isn't about technology, its about using technologies with new ideas
- Adaptation to your environment is key
- Evolve
Don't rush blindly into a new technology environment. Considering all the consequences and opportunities it offers your company. Your business is more likely to succeed by considering all your opportunities.
The only way to achieve success in the new business environment is to acknowledge that there are no short cuts - there is no "secret-recipe" for success. If you want to be successful, you must develop a comprehensive strategy that has depth.
The market place has changed greatly over the past 10 years. It used to be that if you were the first to make a product you near guarantee success. You were then also assured that your company would be held in high regard as to the quality of the product.
In the new environment, that's changed. It's easy to think of one business after another where the innovator company launched the first product or service in a sector, only to be beaten by the competitor who distributed it more aggressively and communicated it more effectively.
Know your competitors will have copied your product or service the moment it is released, or often before it has even been released. They will also be prepared to undercut you on cost to achieve greater market share and employ any tactic to make their product seem better than yours. Look at Hoover and Dyson.
The need to ensure that customers understand your product's strengths versus its competitors is now key to success.
If your competitor communicates its product better, if they distribute their product in more channels, and if they introduce new features faster, your competitor will win - regardless of your initial innovation. That is why, with such transient consumer loyalty, it is good to be first, it's better to be good and it's best to be both.
Most people still purchase the majority of their goods from traditional retail and mail order processes, rather than digital ones. Most people still get their news and entertainment from devices that are not connected. Over time this will change as digital platforms become ubiquitous. It's the right balance of analogue and digital processes combined with relevance to the customer that results in success.
When technology empowers the consumer to do more, there is of course less need for human intervention. The customer expects that web sites, e-shops, interactive TV channels and digital devices are more intelligent, more capable, more personable and more relevant to their needs.
This is all irrelevant if you neglect to meet your customers needs.
A new business buzzword, a new technology or software product is released everyday. Making idle promise that if you implement their technology, your consumers will be more delighted, or if you install another technology, the costs of running your business will reduce. Often these products do not deliver when it comes to implementation. Organisations are finding that they are de-installing the technology almost as soon as it has been implemented. What's missing from these technologies is a well-thought out strategy that considers the impact and the opportunities it provides.
We believe that the importance of planning can never be underestimated and that everything is in the final execution. Consumers don't want to read an instruction manual when they visit a web site. Consumers don't want to wait for the technology to meet their expectations. Often the User Experience becomes more, not less complicated as new technologies are introduced. It is the innovative application and execution of a new technology that ensures success and customer indispensability, not the technology itself.
Think creatively, its the ideas that make the difference.
If you are using new technology to do the same things that you did in the old world, it's time to rethink your e-commerce strategy. The number of transactions made over the Internet will continue to increase. Yet few businesses have fundamentally changed the way that they carry out the processes to support these transactions. Many businesses still rely on the postal system to confirm an order from the customer. If a customer wants to alter an order or if the delivery is going to be late, too many businesses rely on a manual process to manage these changes.
Companies that try to do business the way it's been done in the past won't be as responsive or as efficient as those who use technology to embrace new approaches and create new ideas. The challenge for many businesses is to introduce completely digital end-to-end solutions that remove the need for any manual process. The Internet is set to become the backbone of industry and the only way to take advantage of it is to form new ideas, processes and applications that never before existed.
Even once you have success its not enough. What is hot today - is cold tomorrow.
Evolve stay at the forefront of today's technologies, but remember that you can often learn from others mistakes.
- Don't be first - be wise.
- Don't be blinded by science.
- Listen to your customers and evolve with their needs.
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