Digital Directors.... via @carolmote
Source of thought: http://www.bus-ex.com/article/digital-footprints. This is an article by Carol Mote in which she presents the idea for a Digital Director based on the Forrester Jeremiah Owyang dilemma….. personal digital footprints of employees and the links to a company Brand, what happens when they walk.
There is more on this topic at HR magazine article
Carol presents the idea of a digital director as someone who owns the digital agenda for the company. My struggle with the idea or notion is that of control. Old business thinking supports the concept of centralised controls, all things in control and a process for everything. The corporate is all powerful and you will have no reputation without the corporate.
I read, way back in 1991, a book called Strategies and Styles by Goold and Campbell which set out the three types of styles a company had based on research which were financial, strategic and process. In this old world the ideal of a digital director made sense, however, today I see that the three digital styles are somewhat different….
- Closed (Apple) : we know best, use us and it is beautiful, UI/ UX and own capability over 3rd party interoperability
- Open (Google) : we provide the tools, you sort it out.
- Standards (Microsoft) : it is good enough and everything works with everything (ish) but not intuitively
When I think about a digital director in light of these three approaches, I feel that we are individually responsible and it is the remit of control is far more complex that the company assuming it has control as that position will make it untenable for it most highly social employees.
Outcome: another change to your employment terms and conditions coming.