Your company may not yet employ a product incubation manager, solution finder or journey mapper, but those roles and others may soon be appearing on the corporate organisation chart.
That’s just one of the predictions made by Scott Snyder, partner for digital and innovation with executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, who has studied companies on the “disruption journey” and what they can do to meet the challenges and opportunities the fast-changing business environment now presents.
The main theme of Snyder’s recent book, Goliath’s Revenge, which he co-wrote with Todd Hewlin, is to explain how and where established companies need to adapt and, by doing so, can turn the tables on the start-ups and digital disruptors coming into their industries.
He shows that these businesses — and the career professionals who work for them — should stop focusing on the perceived threat to their positions. Instead, they should take a closer look at the unique advantages they possess and fully capitalise on them by incorporating essential aspects of the latest technology and thinking.
“The Goliaths that learn how to use the Davids’ playbook will come out ahead,” said Philadelphia-based Snyder during a recent visit to Hong Kong. “They are playing the long game and can learn a lot from the Davids, sometimes partnering with them, or by taking innovation from outside and applying it with their larger customer base.”
For example, he noted how Disney, with its extensive back catalogue, is now fighting back against digital streaming companies like Netflix, which have to invest heavily to acquire or create content. And, with electric cars, where Tesla raised the bar and changed the paradigm, the likes of BMW and GM have now changed gear and learned how to “run that playbook”.
To help others reset corporate and management strategies in similar fashion, the book lays out six new rules of innovation. These include defining market-shaping digital outcomes; unlocking the latent value in existing data assets; and accelerating innovation through external networks.
Equally important, though, whether for companies or individuals, is to build the digital skills needed to keep adapting. That’s where new roles and different responsibilities come in, and why leaders should be thinking about the type of positions they will need to fill.
“In a changing world, companies have to create a critical mass of digital talent, including design and development people, data scientists, and engineers who can create software products,” Snyder said. “There are, though, six up-and-coming roles to fill if they want to become digital disruptors, or compete effectively with those who are.”
Specifically, there will be demand for product incubation managers who can combine the skills of something more than typical project management with an understanding of the unique triggers of the digital generation. Behaviour scientists will be hired to bring a mix of consulting experience and market economics, and to create personalised “nudges” which change employee attitudes and customer behaviour.
“We can use data to understand how people are ‘wired’, what motivates employees to be more productive or what kind of reward a client would want,” Snyder said. “In that way, we can drive better outcomes.”
Linked to that, journey mappers would apply a scientific approach to understanding these options and constructing suitable user journeys. This would be done by creating profiles of users, which can then shape and inform the services or experiences the company wants to provide in future.
And close by will be business modellers, using experimentation to challenge existing models and assumptions and find better ways of operating in a complex, fast-changing environment.
“Most finance people, for instance, travel in very linear ways,” Snyder said. “But in a time of rapid innovation you need business modelling that can deal with major changes. That means lean modelling, where you start with imperfect information and broad assumptions, build something raw and non-linear, take small steps, test, and then go from there.”
Another new role will be for solution finders. Their main job will be to cultivate innovation networks so that untried inventions can be translated into fully formed solutions which meet a defined need. Today, many companies want to do everything themselves and are reluctant to collaborate with outside innovators. The way forward, though, is to accelerate innovation through networks and partnerships and make it easier for others to try out their ideas on your platform.
“In banking right now, you see a shift from regarding fintech as the enemy to putting that innovation in place on top of existing platforms,” Snyder said.
Also coming is increased demand for emerging technology specialists. Dealing with advances in areas like AI, blockchain, VR, cloud and IoT (the internet of things), they will be needed to track, test and translate the latest technologies and identify the positive impact they can have on different aspects of a company’s operations.
“All this emerging technology can seem very intimidating to a non-tech person, so you need ‘translators’ to explain the data and algorithms,” Snyder said. “Machine learning can help an HR team with candidate selection or a legal department with NDAs [non-disclosure agreements]. There are huge opportunities, but you need people with “tech-speak” to help others understand what AI can do for different functions and in legacy businesses.”
He added that these up-and-coming roles will usher in new ways of working, but emphasised that companies should still value talent over technology.
“We need to understand where humans and machines work together in every industry and find the sweet spot,” he said. “Everyone has been rushing to deploy AI in their business, but if you don’t recognise the things humans are really good at — the instinct, the emotional part — you get into trouble. Every organisation has to determine what digital means for them, to figure out their narrative and what they need to be. By tapping into the advantages and having the right people in place, they can make a bigger impact on markets, society, and the planet.”
