Thinking Digitally

"I find myself out of place, often!" Thomas Said the last time we met. His wrinkled face tells us about the illustrious and long journey of his career. Thomas is one of those professionals overwhelmed with the "digital" buzzword. Digitalscape looks confusing if you view it through its technical languages and versions. However, if you explore it to do something meaningful, you can make it. For example, today's cars have evolved technologically, and there is no way you can learn how to make or fix the car, but you are still in the driving seat. You can choose where you want to go with it.

My digital journey started as a "fun project" in 2000 with online yellow pages. The idea was simple, how can we make all the information available on yellow pages online so that everyone could use it. As far as I can recall, back in the days, the internet was slow (56kpbs), and its penetration was limited, so we dropped the idea of pitching it to an investor, but we were young. People of my generation were still getting accustomed to online chat rooms and configuring official email- Netscape.

To be a digital thinker, you don't need to know any of its languages like JAVA, C++, HTML, PYTHON or understand the various configurations of a server and its operating system. What matters is your understanding of why and where to use digital technology? Like any other technology, digital technologies are applied to do three things,

1. Solve a problem - just like my idea of online yellow pages.
2. To reduce human effort- make it easier, like online shopping.
3. To deliver an experience - like the OTT platforms.

If you notice our world, it gives a fair idea about how digital technologies have enabled us. Digital technologies will continue to play a pivoting role in the future, so "digital thinking and thinkers" will be valuable. Imagine what would have happened if we didn't have digital conferencing solutions. The Pandemic not only accelerated the digital transformation, and it has guided us to discover gaps- "problem statements".

One such unique gap we discovered through one of our consulting projects at Creative Factor. Our client overtly relayed on one-to-one sales meetings to drive their sales funnel. With lockdowns imposed across the country and world, business meetings came to an abrupt halt. Many organisations found their sales team largely ineffective. It was an excellent opportunity for us. Our eureka moment happened when we realised that the company website is a valuable real estate and has visitors. So we began thinking about how to integrate online marketing, video conferencing, and sales presentation. And that is precisely what we did. We hosted several thought leadership webinars, social and online advertising to drive more traffic to the website. We changed the communication style to conversational. We also included sales videos for every category as if the sales team is right there. It featured their sales team for authenticity and human touch. We added new tools that schedule meetings with the sales team from the website and even have video conferencing with just a button click.

My understanding of the digital world is theoretical, and I have invested my time learning about these technologies. I focus on how digital technologies are deployed or what more can we expect from these platforms. I believe that our career had begun with skills, we've grown with our knowledge, and now is the time to excel with 'digital' wisdom.