Lesson 10 From Disrupting Digital Business - Segment By Digital Proficiency Not Age

Get All 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

As with the beginning of every revolution, those in the midst of it can feel it, sense it, and realize that something big is happening. Yet it’s hard to quantify the shift. The data isn’t clear. It’s hard to measure. Pace of change is accelerating. Old rules seem not to apply.

Sometimes when you are in the thick of it, it’s hard to describe what’s happening.  In the case of digital business, these models have progressed over the past 20 years.  However, non-traditional competitors have each exploited a few patterns with massive success. However, as the models evolved, winners realize there are more than a handful of patterns.

Lesson 1 – Transform Business Models And Engagement

Lesson 2 – Keep The Brand Promise

Lesson 3 – Sell The Smallest Unit You Can

Lesson 4 – Know That Data Is The Foundation Of Digital Business

Lesson 5 – Build For Insight Streams

Lesson 6 – Win With Network Economies

Lesson 7 – Humanize Digital With Digital Artisans

Lesson 8 – Democratize Distribution With P2P Networks

Lesson 9 – Deliver Intention Driven, Mass Personalization At Scale

Lesson 10 – Segment by Digital Proficiency Not Age

In fact, the impact is significant and now quantifiable with 52% of the Fortune 500 gone since 2000 and the average age of the S&P 500 company in 1960 is down from 60 years to a little more than 12 projected in 2020.  That is a 500% compression that has changed the market landscape forever in almost every industry.

Over the course of the next 10 weeks, I’ll be sharing one lesson per week.  For traditional businesses to succeed, they will have to apply all 10 lessons from Disrupting Digital Business in order to not only survive, but also relearn how to thrive.

Segment By Digital Proficiency Not Age

Age is not the deciding factor in five generations of customers, workers, suppliers, vendors, people.  When discussing the future of work, most folks immediately jump to the discussion of millennials, generation Y, generation X, baby boomers, post war, etc.  However, the shift to digital business finds a different type of five generations.  This segmentation describes how digitally proficient people are with digital technologies and culture.  In the intersection of comfort level with technology and likelihood to apply the technology, we see five generations (see Figure 1):

1. Digital natives – people who grew up with the internet, comfortable in engaging in all digital channels.
2. Digital immigrants – people who have crossed the chasm to the digital world, forced into engagement in digital channels.
3. Digital voyeurs – people who recognize the shift to digital, observing from an arms length distance.
4. Digital holdouts – people who resist the shift to digital, ignoring the impact.
5. Digital disengaged – people who give up on digital, obsessed with erasing digital exhaust.

Figure 1. Five Generations Of People With Different Digital Expectations And Values

Homework

In normal segmentation models, most leaders use age as a primary attribute.  Take the time to apply a behavioral model first and the stratify by age.  See if you can identify any trends or patterns that buck the age related stats.  Use digital proficiency in helping with change management as well as persona design.

The Complete 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

For those attending the full keynotes and book tours, you’ll get the complete session and in many cases a copied of a signed booked.   For those following virtually, I’ve provided the slimmed down slide share deck for your use.

You now have the 10 lessons learned to disrupt digital business in your hands. You can take this information and change the world in front of you or choose to sit on the knowledge as the world passes you by and digital darwinism consumes your organization.

I trust you will do the right thing. And when you want some company, come join us as a client at Constellation Research where we’re not afraid of the future and the art of the possible.

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