BusinessDay 07 Nov 2017

32 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556 Tuesday 07 November 2017
BUSINESS DAY
T R A I N I N G
A HUMAN CAPITAL AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COMPANY
BusinessInsights
ADVISOR
BRIAN REUBEN
KEYNOTE SPEAKER AUTHOR
Andrew Carnegie is famed
as the ‘King of Steel’ because
he mastered the 2nd
industrial revolution and
used it to his advantage.
Andrew Carnegie arrived in the US in
1848 with barely a dollar in his pocket.
By 1901, he was the head of a steel empire
and the richest man in the world.
How was that possible? A lot of factors
but the summary is that he mastered
the principles of business success of
the second industrial revolution. He
engaged the technology of his time
to his ultimate advantage.
A new revolution has dawned
upon us today and has ushered us into
a period of unprecedented change.
It has overthrown age long business
models, sapped power from business
leaders and handed it over to the
consumers. It has brought new possibilities
to improve business processes,
provide more value and improve customer
experience based on the digital
technologies that has been unleased
upon us and which would be much
more unleased.
Leading organisations are today
leveraging the possibilities of digital
technologies to out perform their
competition. For these digital masters,
these new technologies are not
goals to attain or signals to send to
investors. Instead, the technologies
are tools that can be combined to get
closer to customers. Mastering digital
technology goes well beyond websites
and mobile apps to truly transform the
customer experience and how you
steer customers effortlessly through
it. Effectively delivered, an engaging
customer experience creates value
for both customers and the company.
Runner Rewards Program is a
loyalty management program of
coffee giant, Starbucks. The program
was a result of a suggestion made by
a member of the company’s social
media community to make it easier
for customers to manage multiple
orders—especially useful for people
going on midday Starbucks runs for
their coworkers. In less than a month,
Top Innovation - October 2017
Sonic Soak
Sonic Soak is set to usher in a new
standard in dirt removal including
grime, and bacteria. This new innovation
is an ultrasonic cleaning tool
that promises to clean deeply, all while
Starbucks introduced its Runner Reward
program. The program provides
runners with a convenient form to
manage orders and offers them a fifth
drink (their own drink) free of charge.
That’s an example of how companies
that has attained digital mastery uses
digital technology to fuel customerdriven
innovation
Starbucks has a leading presence
in social media. As at October 2017,
the company has 37, 144 982 Facebook
fans on its US page alone, 11.9
million Twitter followers, and 15.6
million followers on Instagram earning
Starbucks a number one ranking
among socially engaged companies.
In 2008 Starbucks launched its
crowdsourcing platform called My
Starbucks Idea, which at the time may
have been viewed as something of a
novelty. The result is some of the most
successful products the company has
launched, including ‘Runner Rewards’.
At the tme Starbucks launched
My Starbucks Idea, the company was
in pretty bad shape, announcing it
would be closing 600 stores across
the US alone. This was the challenge
that created ‘My Starbucks Idea’, an
initiative driven by digital technology.
In fact My Starbucks Idea was the
company’s first social media venture,
with the platform launching before
even their corporate Facebook page,
or Twitter feed.
Through the platform Starbucks
gives its customers the chance to co
create value with them. The customers
get to tell the company exactly what
they want from them. Starbucks has
collected over 150,000 customersubmitted
ideas since 2008 to improve
its products, customer experience,
and corporate initiatives. Once an
idea has been submitted, the site’s
customer community can vote the
idea up or down, helping Starbucks
identify and implement the best ideas.
The company closes the loop with its
‘Ideas in Action’ blog, where employees
respond to ideas personally, and lets
customers know when they can expect
to see their ideas realized in stores
Starbucks like other firms that
has attained digital mastery do not
just invest smartly in technology and
channels. They maximize these investments
by optimizing their marketing
media mix. They don’t focus on digital
technologies per say, rather they focus
on the fundamental drivers of business
growth. The idea is not to have
a website or be in the clouds, rather
IDEAS THAT POWERS HIGHT PERFORMANCE
Co-creating with your customers:
The Starbucks example
saving time, water, and energy. The
palm-sized device can be conveniently
carried anywhere to clean just about
anything. All you do is place it in a bowl
of water, alongside whatever needs to
be sanitized, and the rest will be history.
Using modulated ultrasonic waves,
the Sonic Soak promises to “disintegrate
dirt and bacteria at a microscopic
level.” Sonic Soak sends 50,000 modulated
ultrasonic waves per second into
its surrounding liquid environment,
it’s rethinking your service model,
recreating your customer experience,
evaluating your value proposition.
Adam Brotman, Starbuck’s chief
digital officer puts it this way, ‘Everything
we are doing in digital is about
enhancing and strengthening those
connections [with our customers] in
only the way that digital can and only
the way that Starbucks can.’
creating microscopic cavitation bubbles.
These bubbles hit the surface of
what needs to be cleaned (your glasses,
your clothes, or even a piece of fruit or a
vegetable), and implode. The resulting
pressure is said to wash out dirt, grime,
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oil, and bacteria.
The Sonic Soak’s inventors have
already surpassed its original $10,000
goal by upwards of $400,000 — and
there’s still a month left to contribute.
Source: Internet sources.