A digital manifesto from BCG

BCG has a nice article on how digital will shape both countries and companies. Some titbits that you may find interesting:

• By 2016, 3 billion consumers, or 45 percent of the world’s population, will use the Internet.Wow.
• Indonesia has the second-largest number of Facebook users. This is especially interesting since Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.
• In emerging markets, customers have leapt past email, portals etc. straight to social.
• Burberry, a British fashion house founded in 1856 that allocates 60 percent of its marketing budget to digital initiatives

Personally, I think there a few fundamental flaws with the way that companies are thinking about digital:

• Companies are moving way to slowly – It shouldn’t take six months to launch a new service portal. Most of the blame here typically falls on IT.
• Companies are not being bold – Most digital initiatives are “me too” plays that copy what a competitor is doing and (if truth be told) could have been done years ago.
• Companies are not tying the pieces together – Most digital initiatives are not connected with one another (i.e. the customer service site in support is not connected with the marketing research site).

What do you think?

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