Why Even The Best Leaders Fail At Digital
Forbes | November 19, 2016
This piece was coauthored with Megan Beck, Chief Insights Officer at OpenMatters
Technology is changing, the market is changing, business models are changing, customers and employees are changing, and yet leaders continue to do pretty much the same thing they have always done—producing lackluster results compared to digital elite such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Alphabet. The research confirms it. Only 1 in 4 leadership programs is successful and institutional trust is at an all-time low. Leaders need new strategies for the digital age, and this means unlearning old habits and building new skills and beliefs for the digital age.A twenty-year old leadership style will never be effective in this rapidly changing environment:
1. Tangible assets have lost sway to intangible assets. In 1973 tangible assets accounted for more than 80%, today they account for less than 20%. This suggests that the physical goods most firms focus on are now worth a lot less than intangibles such as IP, knowledge and relationships.
