Where are companies at in their digital transformation efforts? This was the question I set out to answer in, “The 2014 State of Digital Transformation” report. After two years, it was time to check-in on the digital transformation landscape again to learn how companies are changing, what challenges they’re facing now and what opportunities they’ve uncovered. Recently, I hosted a webcast on behalf of Altimeter and Prophet to share the findings from the latest “State of Digital Transformation” report. Over…
Innovation in Customer Experience Starts with a Shift in Perspective
While traveling Europe this year, I met Silvia Hänig who was writing a story for Haufe.de about customer experience. She followed up our initial conversation with the questions below. Instead of shooting back quick answers, I took the time, maybe too much time, to thoughtfully reply as if I were going to share the exchange with everyone. And, that’s what I’m doing here. I hope it helps you… Mister Solis, why is it so difficult to create Customer Experience (CX) for…
Innovation is a gift worth getting: Competing for the future starts with letting go of the past
Change happens to you or because of you.
Connected Customer Experiences Are at the Heart of Digital Transformation
The word “digital” can be misleading. Digital transformation is about how people and their behaviors, expectations, and preferences are changing. Customer experience (CX) is one of the most important trends in business today as it brings companies closer to customers and customers closer to brands. But CX is also so much more. The work toward creating more relevant, meaningful and productive customer experiences also places your company and employees on a path toward business transformation. But this isn’t change for…
Digital Transformation is Still Largely Technology-First, People-Second
Digital transformation has officially become a ubiquitous term that describes any company’s investment in digital infrastructure regardless of ultimate vision and intention. But, unless digital transformation takes a technology-second and a customer/employee first approach, investments will be unaligned with market evolution and more importantly, human behaviors, preferences and expectations. Technology is just a means to power business transformation. But technology can only get part of the job done. You need people. And, like technology, people are changing. Each time I…
5 Tips for Reimagining Yourself in an Era of Digital Darwinism
Learning to do things differently will have a positive impact on your business. Recently, I had the chance to talk with Deep Patel for Entrepreneur to discuss the challenges and opportunities surrounding digital Darwinism. In the conversation, I shared some of my work and observations about how living in an era of great disruption will ultimately humanize business (at least I hope). Following is a summary of our conversation and five prescriptions for surviving and thriving an era of digital Darwinism… 1. Reimagine yourself in an era…
Human-centered CX: Uniting stakeholders across the enterprise
Customer experience is said to be a top business priority for most companies around the world. Many experts agree that investing in CX establishes a competitive advantage against companies that choose to solely prioritise the bottom line. While customer experience is a noble and important catalyst for business transformation, becoming truly customer-centric requires an introspective approach. This takes stepping back to define what customer experience really means from the customer’s perspective – what they truly value and also what’s primed,…
The Human on the Other Side of the Screen
I was in New York recently meeting with the IBM Watson team. While there, I had the the opportunity to sit with Robert Schwartz in the company’s Astor Place studio to record a podcast for a new series, “THINK Leaders,” which provides insights and advice on data-driven leadership for the C-suite. The conversation and the topics were quite provocative and eye-opening. So much so, that I wanted to share it with you here so that it may help, in some way,…
Why I Study Disruptive Technology AND People
Sometimes I struggle with trying to stay present and relevant. There are so many thought leaders and personalities with exceptional marketing behind them. All I can do is share my work and hope it finds and helps you in your work. Every now and then, I open my door to personal interviews. I did just that for Kimberly McSweeney. I wanted to share that discussion with you here… Why do you study technology and its impact on society? What first sparked your…
Building a Brand Through Experience Design
Recently, I had the good fortune of conducting a joint interview with Don Schuerman, chief technology officer and vice president of product marketing at Pegasystems on the topic of customer experience. Don brought an intriguing perspective to the table from more than 20 years on the technology side, working directly with companies to operationalize digital initiatives. You can listen to the interview here, but I also wanted to share some highlights from the conversation: The market is changing, whether we like it or not: Customer expectations…
