We look at the ways that Sir Alex Ferguson’s soccer strategies can be transferred to winning in business

DJ Francis discusses the ways in which companies should be utilising content strategy to drive success

George Hill talks to Forbes SVP Digital Advertising Strategy, Mark Howard about the company’s strategy and it’s digital success

Forbes Online Strategy

Content is King Sir Alex’s Business Strategy

3 Business Strategy Lessons from Sir Alex Ferguson

9 Stategic Innovation Through Collaboration

14 Is Technology or Strategy leading us forward?

17 An interview with Olivier Ysewijn, Chief Strategy Officer at Mobistar

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Contents

22 How can companies utilise content strategy?

Letter From the EditorWelcome to this issue of Chief Strategy Officer.

This issue tackles several of the important areas.

We look at how Sir Alex Ferguson’s views on strategies on soccer fields could be transferred to business thinking.

Jay Deragon investigates the ways in which collaboration between companies can harvest significant strategic success.

DJ Francis looks through the reasons that content strategies are currently growing in popularity and how to properly utilise this growing trend.

Discussing the role of technology within strategy, Kevin Rooney asks which leads change.

I hope you enjoy reading this magazine and if you are interested in finding out more or having any feedback, please get in contact at

ghill@theiegroup.com

George HillChief Editor

29 George Hill discusses Forbes’ digital strategy with Mark Howard

Sir Alex FergusonThe Strategy LessonsGeorge Hill, Editor

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The end of the Barclays Premier League season has seen the retirement of the most successful football manager in the history of the game, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Strategically on the soccer field he has managed to confound his opponents for the last 27 years, winning 49 trophies and countless awards in the process. His deployment of players in certain positions and the ways in which he makes them think like him are not the only strategy that he has been incredibly effective at though.

As businesses, there are several important les-sons that we can learn from the leadership of Ferguson:

"I've never played for a draw in my life"

One of the most important aspects of Sir Alex's reign at Manchester United was his dedication to winning. This has taken many forms, not always in ways that have been ap-preciated by managers and referees but the results that he has from this mentality are undeniable.

Arguably his most famous victory, that over Bayern Mu-nich in the 1999 Champions League final, is testament to this. In the 90th minute of

the match Teddy Shering-ham equalised and then in the 2nd minute of injury time, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer scored the winner. This dedication to the win has as much to do with mental drive than any kind of physical attribute and this demonstrates that mentality perfectly.

Business Lessons to Learn:

Winning breeds winning, get on a role and don't underesti-mate the importance of small gains to reel in those big wins

Efecreata Photography / Shutterstock.com

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"One of my players has been sent off several times. He will do something if he gets the

chance – even in training. Can I take it out of him? No. Would I want to take it out of him?

No. If you take the aggression out of him, he is not himself. So you have to accept that there is a certain flaw that is counterbalanced by

all the great things he can do."

Although often seen as be-ing in ultimate control of everything revolving around Manchester United, Fergu-son understood the impor-tance of individuality within his organisation, regardless of whether this took negative forms or not.

Despite job descriptions, the likelihood is that nobody in your organisation will fit any role perfectly. Slight imper-fections however are not

something that should be criticised or made to change. These could be their biggest asset if properly utilised and focussed.

Business Lessons to learn:

When looking at sticking points within an individu-als role, rather than thinking how they should change to fit the role, would it be more beneficial to change the role to fit them?

melis / Shutterstock.com

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"There is no room for criticism on the training field. For a player – and for any human being

– there is nothing better than hearing 'well done'. Those are the two best words ever invented in sports. You don't need to use

superlatives."

Despite Ferguson's fa-mous hairdryer treatment during half time team talks, generally speaking he does not criticise on the training ground. It has been proven countless times that positive rein-forcement has a signifi-cant impact on mentality towards a task. Avoiding criticism is as important

in a work environment as it is on a football field.

Business Lessons to learn:

Take the time to say well done and try to avoid crit-icism, be that of individu-als, teams or products.

Sportsphotographer.eu / Shutterstock.com

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The link between success in sports and success in business is undeniable and given Sir Alex Ferguson's track record on the pitch there are clearly business lessons to be learned from his man-agement techniques.

We can see similarities between the way he ran Manchester United and the way in which Steve Jobs ran Apple and made the behemoth that it is today. With a ruthless control of the way that the company/club runs their affairs both internally and externally with a focus on the future whilst making sure that there is success in the present.

The control that Ferguson had over the club is exemplified when he said:

Given the role that footballers have, the need to perform both on and off the pitch is vital. Performances on the pitch need to have an element of self expression and the ability to think for themselves, but at the same time be-ing controlled by the overall strategy laid out by Sir Alex.

We can transfer this over to business, when we consider that micromanagement is something that neither the manager or the people being managed enjoy. Allowing people to express themselves in ways that benefit the company whilst also maintaining the overall company strategy is something that every single leader should aspire to and perhaps looking to an in-spirational sporting leader should be the way forward.

"You can't ever lose control – not when you are deal-ing with 30 top professionals who are all millionaires. If they misbehave, we fine them, but we keep it indoors.

And if anyone steps out of my control, that's them dead."

melis / Shutterstock.com

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Got Something to give?

We are always looking for new contributors or cutting edge ideas.

Contact George Hill for more detailsghill@theiegroup.com

Strategic Innovation Comes FromCollaboration

The dynamics of the 21st Century marketplace are creating a new economic dynamics that are based on collaboration, an element of intangible cap ital. Understanding how intangible capital can be used to add strategic value is the key to understanding how business can create strategic value in the 21st Century.The industrial era was about finite tangible assets. I win, you lose. Competitive Strategy was the only way to go.

Jay Deragon, Digital Strategist

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Today, our new era is about in-tangible assets that aren’t so fi-nite. I win, you can win too. The collaboration economy has aris-en because value creation has shifted from machines to tech-nology to minds.

To take advantage of this trend, you have to make the shift from concepts of competitive strategy to collaborative strategy and un-derstand the complex interaction between communica-tion and collaboration as a system of intangi-ble capital

Kevin Kelly writes in his book “New Rules for The New Econo-my: “Communication – which in the end is what the dig-ital technology and media are all about – is not just a sector of the economy. Communication IS the economy.”

Digital technologies have created the possibility of mass collabora-

tion. The Collaborative Economy is about value creation through open source, peer-to-peer, con-nected networks were ideas flow without boundaries and shared objectives are united by a com-mon purpose. Mass collabora-tion has been accelerated as a result of the digital revolution where “free” structural capital, in the form of access to commu-nication networks, collaboration tools, media platforms and the

ability to create and share knowl-edge, one to one and to millions, at the click of a mouse.

The data on the uptake of these technologies is clear. What’s not yet clear is how to use these

technologies to create strategic value. Using technology that enables collaboration doesn’t mean you can reap the strategic benefits of collaboration. Consid-er the markets current behavior relevant to use of technology to engage human capital inside and outside the organi-zations “walls”:

1. 37% expect social media to be used regu-larly across their entire business. 9% expect it to

37% expect social media to be used regularly across their entire business. 9% expect it to be fully

integrated

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be fully integrated. -- AIIM Report 2012.

2. 79% of companies use, or are imminently planning to use, social media. Nearly half of the companies who were rated as effective in social media said it was inte-gral to their firms’ strategy. -- Harvard Business Review Analytics Services.

3. 59% of companies use social media to engage with customers, 49% to ad-vertise, and 35% to research customers. 30% use social media to research competi-tors and new products. Half, however, collect no data from social media. -- Stan-ford Business 2012 Social Media Survey.

4. 46% of companies globally planned to increase their investment in social media this year. However, only 22% of middle manag-ers felt prepared to proper-ly incorporate social media into their work. -- IBM 2012 Social Business Study.

5. 52% of executives say that social business is im-portant to their companies today. 86% says it will be vital in three years. 28% of CEOs say social business is vital to their organizations,

about twice the rate of CFOs and CIOs. -- MIT Sloan Man-agement Review 2012 Social Business Global Executive Study.

6. Social workforce pro-jects generally engaged less than half of their workforce,

and 96% of external and in-ternal social efforts were not connected, despite evidence of high ROI there. -- Social Business Council 2012 En-gagement Study.

7. 27% of companies now have someone dedicated to social media in their compa-ny. Those that have dedicat-ed departments, 83% are staffed with 3 or fewer peo-ple. Ragan Communications

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and NASDAQ OMX Survey.

The above findings seem to scream the obvious. Digi-tal technologies are being used to extend old business practices to reach the many in an attempt to create new results without a change in thinking or a change in the value creation process. This doesn’t reflect the mindset of a Collaborative Econ-omy. These are old worn out strategies based on the mental models of the past.

A New [Intangible] Mindset

The 20th Century mind-set views the Collaborative Economy as being driv-en by technology. The 21st Century mindset views the Collaborative Economy as being driven by the intan-gible nature of the human network enabled, unleashed and free to create, connect and collaborate on a global scale. Technology is merely the tool. The intangible as-sets of the human network represent the untapped im-measurable wealth of the 21st century.

A Collaborative Economy represents a new under-standing of how companies

create value. You can’t make strategic advances by lever-aging technology to do the same things you’ve always done, the same way you al-

mitzy / Shutterstock.com

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ways done it, with the same assets that have created the same old value of the past.

These new dynamics are changing our mental models of business, redefining work, replacing the meaningless with meaning-ful and using collaboration to create abun-dance rather than a scarcity of probable solutions. Collaboration is an intangible strategic asset that keeps on creating and giving more strategic value to not only your stockholders but all your stakeholders as well.

Conclusion: The Bottom Line

Establishing an organizational structure and culture of collaboration can empower businesses to access and utilize the intelli-gence and ingenuity of the collective—the entire networked organization—not just a few identified talented leaders and employ-ees. This means everything has to change in

order for everyone to be enabled to create the most value.

The first thing that needs to change is our thinking about strategies. We are no longer fighting competitive wars for market share rather we are leveraging collaboration to expand markets. That requires a different mindset and one that understands that val-ue creation comes from the intangibles.

Jay Deragon is a Digital Strategist with 25 years experience as a Management Con-sultant. He is currently helping Smarter Companies discover the wealth of their In-tangible Capital.

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On-DemandBusiness Education

www.membership.theiegroup.com

Before taking on my current role as Chief Strategy Officer at American Access Casualty Company, I had been our CIO for four years. In many ways, it was great preparation for my current role.

Technology or Strategy:Who’s In The Driving Seat?Kevin Rooney, Chief Strategy Officer

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As CIO, I had a broad view of our overall operations and strong relationships with the other senior executives who were my customers. I also had a passion for technology as a business enabler, especially in industries such as insurance, where data and business in-telligence are so critical. At many CIO events, a com-mon question is how to align the business and IT. It drove me crazy then and it drives me even crazier today because the question itself is part of the problem. IT is no more sepa-rate from the business than fi-nance, sales, engineering, op-erations or human resources. All parts of the whole must be aligned, which in essence de-scribes what I attempt to do as CSO. What I had thought separated IT in this alignment question was its function as an enabler and change agent. CIO’s of-ten struggle with the balance of whether the strategy drives technology or the technology

should drive strategy. And, while the pace of change in IT is surely breath-taking, my perspective now is that every form of capital an organiza-tion has or wishes to acquire (human, technology, finan-cial, cultural, political and on) must be enablers and must be aligned under a common mis-sion and vision. So this strategy question is much bigger than just technol-ogy driven strategy. It is about capability driven strategy, or, even more empowering a thought, about possibility driv-en strategy. What things are suddenly possible today, or might be possible tomorrow, that can broaden our product and service offering, drive our strategy, and grow our organ-ization? And how do we bal-ance what’s possible with an overall strategy to drive max-imum value?To achieve this balance, we must be able to answer four critical things. First, what does the customer value? Second,

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what are your organization’s capa-bilities and possibilities? Third, where can your organization achieve its re-quired returns? Finally, where do those circles overlap?

This diagram illustrates the concept: Once these circles were arranged like this, some interesting concepts came to light for me. For example, what happens if your offerings are outside that core intersection? Second, what can you do to expand those circles and therefore increase the value of your organization?If you’re delivering a product that’s

not profitable but it’s valued, it’s a loss leader. You better be either fo-cusing on expanding your profita-bility circle through operational ef-ficiency or cut that offering quickly.If you’re delivering a product that’s not valued, you risk customer loyal-ty and brand reputation. You better quickly expand your value circle by convincing the market that your of-fering is valuable.If you’re delivering a product that isn’t really possible, you are over-promising and underdelivering. You better quickly expand your possibili-

ty circle through innovation.Finding that intersection between what’s valued, what’s possible, and what’s profitable is the role of all of us as business leaders. That’s the true balance. Expanding those cir-cles, though, is the exciting part of what we do, and what will sustain our organizations well into the fu-ture, whatever possibilities are on the horizon.

Finding that intersection between what’s valued, what’s possible, and what’s profitable is the role of

all of us as business leaders.

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Digital Strategy Innovation Summit ie. Digital Strategy Innovation Summit

September

19-20San Francisco, 2013

Confirmed Speakers:

theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/digital-strategy-sanfrancisco

To request an invite please contact Rose at: rpalmer@theiegroup.com or +1 (310) 598 7733

Interview: Olivier YsewijnChief Strategy Officer Mobistar

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Olivier Ysewijn, Chief Strategy Officer

Olivier Ysewijn, Chief Strat-egy Officer of Mobistar is not afraid to admit that the company has had an eventful year. It’s been all hands on deck to prepare for the landslides awaiting the telecom world. ‘Con-sumers have no idea what is going to happen in the next few years,’ he says. This led to a conversation about the near and the (not so) distant future.

“Last year we had to take our foot off the accelerator a little, internally speaking,’ Olivier Ysewijn saysas he looks back on 2012. ‘Along with the coming into force of the new telecom law in-troduced on October 1, it was quite a turbulent year. The market for mobile te-lephony had been stable for years. This was much less the case this year, if only because of the fall in prices due to fierce compe-tition. At Mobistar, we need to focus particularly on our DNA—the Super Mobile— for the sake of Mobistar’s

future position. We can only do this with an excel-lent network, which means that we will invest more in it this year. This year we’re dealing with 1,000 sites—new ones, as well as exist-ing ones which are to be upgraded. Our old mobile radio sites will be replaced with hybrid sites that can handle 2G, 3G and 4G. 2G will certainly still be used for voice communication until after 2020.A combination of 2G for voice calls and 3G and 4G for data communication constitutes an efficient strategy.”

Obtaining permits remains an issue for new sites.

“Indeed. The fact that we are renewing or building 1,000 sites this year is pri-marily due to the fact that this is the maximum our suppliers can physically handle, but also has to do with building permits. The government wants per-fect coverage everywhere,

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but the authorisation needed from local authorities is hard to come by. You only have to take Brussels as an example, with its new, stringent emis-sion standards. To bring the quality back to the same level that it was prior to the strin-gent radiation regulations, approximately 120 sites would need to be added. When you consider the fact that it can take up to 24 months to ob-tain a licence, you re-alise that it may not be solved overnight. We started rolling out the 4G network last year. Despite the issue with permits, our objective is to have 4G coverage of 80% of the population by 2015— a very ambitious goal. Either way, we want to be the Bel-gian mobile telephone refer-ence network by 2015.”

With 4G as the cream of the crop, is this the new revolu-tion?

“4G is a technology that al-lows very fast broadband in-ternet to be used everywhere. In terms of download speed and latency, 4G almost ap-proaches the quality of wired

internet. Video will remain the main driver with consumers in the next few years. On the other hand, we need to be realistic. The use of smart-phones and tablets will mix 4G and wifi usage. There are also professional applications. Under tests car-ried out with ATV, a television channel in Antwerp, where we now have 45 4G sites, we demonstrated that journal-

ists can now broadcast their reports live.”

How long will it take for 4G to make a breakthrough?

“People do not buy technol-ogy—they buy services and experiences. So it’s all about the applications and the iP-hone has taught us that this can happen quickly. There is a tendency in the sector to overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term. I expect 4G to experi-ence a double acceleration,

People do not buy technology—they buy

services and experiences

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such as that of the iPhone, with more phones and contracts being sold, and a growing in-tensity in usage. We need to be ready with our network to take advantage of this double trend.”

Are great times ahead for tel-ecommunications companies?

“The transition to 4G creates a discontinuity in the market that provides an opportunity for mobile operators to repo-sition their brand, renew their price structure and generally revive their competitiveness in the market. It is an opportunity that generally only arises once every decade.There are certainly great times ahead for consumers. They re-ally have no idea how radically mobile technologies will impact on their daily lives. For example, there’s the importance of mo-bile telephony in road charging. Mobility in traffic is an ever-in-creasing problem. The issue of an ageing population and a shortage of affordable infra-structure to provide welfare for everyone, will lead to new technologies being developed in which mobile technologies will play an important role.”

Is Mobistar more than just an intermediary for providing those kinds of services?

“It’s true that we primarily en-sure connectivity between the hardware vendor and service provider. But we have an im-portant core competitive ad-vantage that you should not forget: throughout the years, we have had tremendous ex-perience in managing custom-er data for a very large group of clients. Consumers consider us to be a very reliable provid-er when it comes to personal data. This is a very important asset for future services.”

At a price? So there will be new business opportunities?

“If you downloaded a ring-tone five years ago, everyone thought it was quite normal to pay for that and that part of the charge went to the content provider and another part to the telecom company. Now you can download a video that re-quires a thousand times more capacity, without the content provider being charged. Obvi-ously, telecom operators can’t constantly invest in making that possible without being paid for the use of their network. This model is no longer viable in the

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long term, if only for the issue of capacity.”

Why?

“Everyone can drive 120 km per hour on the Brussels ring road, but if there’s a traffic jam, nobody can. If we want to continue to guaran-tee “quality of service” to our customers, we need to segment them. This means some customers will take precedence over others at peak times. Segmenta-tions can also be made in the case of wired internet. So why can’t we do that for mobile internet? Technically speak-ing, that is already possible. Should the data traffic need-ed by paramedics access-ing the medical records of a road accident victim be given the same priority as those for someone who is killing time watching YouTube video clips or downloading an entire vid-eo?”

If you can identify network us-age, you know who is watch-ing what on digital television.“Identity management is one of our most important as-sets. Watching television will become an experience more

and more individual and per-sonalised.We watch television when and wherever we want and on the device of our choice. This

means there will be a total shift in the industry. Whenev-er I say this, some people feel threatened. We own the data required for targeted ad-vertising and this means we could sell it. But on the other hand, we can help channels offer to each user the pro-grammes that suit them best. In this area too, a new model is coming.”

Identity management is one of our most important assets. Watching television will become an experience more and more individual and per-sonalised.

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Few viewers sympathize with antagonist Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. And much has al-ready been written about the character’s villainy and the well-deserved scorn elicit-ed from many viewers.

I contend that it is high time we consider a more empathetic (and fresh) view of Nurse Ratched. After all, this is a woman stuck between hospital administrators wanting one thing and a den full of patients want-ing the complete opposite.

Given the recent rise of content marketing and other inbound methods, many strat-

Utilizing Content Strategy to Remain User-Focused (Or Avoiding the Nurse Ratched Trap)

DJ Francis, Content Strategist

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egists and brand/product managers find themselves in similar positions – tasked with producing content os-tensibly for business pur-poses, but aimed at an au-dience with varying needs and concerns, some much removed from said busi-ness purposes.

“Wait a second,” you’re thinking, “doesn’t that make ME Nurse Ratched in this scenario?” Maybe more than you think.

Employing the tenets of content strategy, however, can ease this tension and provide much-needed fo-cus to your efforts. But only if done correctly.

The Fallacy of Zero-Sum Marketing

Many of us frame our jobs like Nurse Ratched, as a zero-sum game. We must pick a side because the desires of hospital admin-istrators and patients – or executives and consumers – are mutually exclusive.

This is simply not true.

And we all know that exec-utive and consumer desires

aren’t mutually exclusive. Look at consumer-focused organizations like Apple, Amazon and Zappos. They have figured out how to do right by the consumer while making a profit.

The only difference is the order. They start with the consumer desire and then figure out how to make money. After all, as Peter Drucker said 60 years ago, a company’s primary re-sponsibility is to serve its customers. Profit is not the primary goal. Profit is gen-erally a result of serving customers well.

But your company proba-bly isn’t Apple. You proba-bly feel pressure to hit your numbers each quarter whether that means solv-ing a consumer’s problem or not. (More often, not.)

To solve this conundrum, many strategists and brand/product managers turn to content strategy to help. After all, content strategy is inherently con-sumer-focused as the goal is useful, usable and desir-able content.

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However, many strategists and brand/product man-agers fall into a common trap that perverts their abil-ity to stay user-focused and inevitably poisons their con-tent marketing programs.

The Biggest Roadblock to a User-Centric Experience

I once had a client breath-lessly tell me that their in-ternal team had already completed a content strat-egy. They’d just finished a content audit, so they just wanted a once-over from me to ensure everything was perfect.

They presented me with a content plan that would have doubtlessly gener-ated content. There was a spreadsheet with their top-ics, all of the products and services they would men-tion, who would write each piece, which department was assigned to edit, etc. The client could certainly have produced this content.

The only trouble was that the content they had planned to write was use-less to any of their target consumers. They had for-

gotten a central tenet of business: Strategy is the WHAT and the WHY; Plan-ning is the HOW. They had planned for the content, but had omitted the strategy.

My client was using an in-bound channel, but treat-ing the content like an out-bound asset. They weren’t focused on generating credibility and trust; instead, they wanted to use content to interrupt and talk about their products.

Your biggest roadblock to a user-focused experience is often content planning sans strategy because it provides a false line of sight into your content efforts while per-mitting you to ignore the big picture entirely.

5 Tips to Retain a Relentless Consumer Focus

In-house strategists and brand/product managers should continue to call upon content strategy to guide their content programs and keep them user-focused. At Imagination, we are often brought in to provide per-spective and expertise, but remain on projects because

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of our ability to advocate for the consumer.

Here are a few ways other cli-ents have retained a focus on the consumer and enjoyed the influx of consumer trust (and purchases) that comes with it.

1. Prioritize: For each content program, we learn everything we can about the following five elements. But when making decisions, we remember that this is a prioritized list, with the consumer right at the top.

a. Consumer

b. Business

c. Brand

d. Competition

e. Existing content

2. Be Objective: Start with a list of questions you need to answer to please the end con-sumer. These aren’t the tradi-tional project brief questions; instead, determine what you need to know to make deci-sions, then find answers to those questions and only af-terwards make your deci-sions. Forget the corporate B.S. What do your consumers want? Where do they want it and how do they want it deliv-ered? Answer basic questions about your consumer to guide your efforts down the line.

3. Ask “Why?”: You should

ask “Why?” so much that it annoys your co-workers. Throw out more “Why?” ques-tions than an average two-year-old. Consider it a red flag if answers include names of internal stakeholders (“Bill wants it that way.”) or the newest shiny object (“Because we want a SnapChat/Meebo/FaceSpace presence.”).

4. Build it in: If the first column of your audit spread-sheet is a list of products, you are doing it wrong. A content audit should start with the piece of content followed by the defined target audience. An insight brief should start with the consumer’s demo-graphic and psychographic info. Build in your consum-er focus by starting with the consumer.

5. Teach: Instead of think-ing about promoting a prod-uct, consider yourself a teach-er here to educate about a consumer solution. Provide information at each step in your purchase cycle and measure your success on con-

In-house strategists and brand/product managers should continue

to call upon content strategy to guide their content programs and keep them

user-focused

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sumer-focused metrics (bounce rate, calls into the customer care line).

You Can’t Fake Focus

The tragedy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is really the meaning-lessness of the central power struggle. If Nurse Ratched had simply fo-cused on patient care, she would have inevita-bly pleased the hospital administrators. Instead, by focusing only on the administrator’s needs, neither administrators nor patients (nor Nurse Ratched) were pleased. The same is true for strategists and brand/product managers. Content planning with-out content strategy is doomed to fail.

In the movie, the pro-tagonist is only moved to physical violence against her when Nurse Ratched insists upon the status quo after an up-setting event. Your con-sumers will not appreci-ate self-serving content when they are desper-ate for innovation. After all, the best way to en-sure that your content efforts will succeed is to actually empathize. Don’t fall into the Nurse Ratched trap.

DJ Francis is the VP, Content Strategy for Im-agination, the 2012 con-tent agency of the year. His main goal in life is to help businesses act more like good people. DJ lives in Chicago with his wife and two dogs.

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Today strategy is going through a shift in power from those in the boardroom to those who are on-line.

One of the companies who have truly managed to leverage their existing strategic position into a true digital dominance is Forbes. With a website that is the envy

Forbe’s Digital Strategy Success, Interview With Mark HowardGeorge Hill

29

of many within the industry as well as digital offerings that have almost no rival, the busi-ness publishing company has truly embraced the new ideas within the digital realm.

In 2011 the traffic coming to the Forbes site was was at a pla-teau and WSJ was at an al-most unassailable point above them, working in the same space and vying for the same audiences. Jump to 2013 and Forbes finds themselves al-most on a par with WSJ with a suite of online services that are propelling the company forwards and seeing them in-creasingly at the cutting edge of digital offerings.

Their digital strategies have not only seen them catch up with their competitors, but from an internal point of view, they have

more than doubled their online audience since June 2010. This increase in audience has seen the organisation take advan-tage of a situation that many traditional publishing compa-nies have struggled with.

I was lucky enough to speak with Mark Howard, Senior Vice President, Digital Ad-vertising Strategy at Forbes about the company's rise to

digital prominence.

Mark moved across to a strate-gic role within Forbes in Janu-ary 2012 from his previous dig-ital sales role. This was midway through the digital transfor-mation that has seen Forbes come out as a leading digitally led company today.

Talking to Mark, I gathered that there were several unique aspects of the Forbes online strategy. One of the most in-teresting aspects was the use of the startup mindset within the digital team.

What has set this apart from other companies, is that the

”We act like a 96 year old start up”

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digital division of Forbes was originally created as a separate entity, meaning that a more lean approach could be taken. The profits made by the on-line side of the company could also be used for further devel-opment of the online offerings, meaning that for the past dec-ade the Forbes online offerings have had the opportunities to invest in new and exciting tech-nologies.

Mark has described the com-pany as”We act like a 96 year old start up”, in it's mentality to-wards trying new approaches and new technologies

This has seen an increasing val-ue for advertisers on the site who, using new technologies, can now get a far better ROI and can target individuals rath-er than a relatively generic audi-ence. Using a technology called Social Voice, Forbes can now track the kind of people who are engaging and sharing this con-tent, meaning that advertisers have a better opportunity to

create things that these people want to see.

One of the ways in which they are making sure that they can act dynamically and quickly is through the use of their work-force too.

"About 18 months ago we in-vested heavily in the develop-ment of our own design team"

This has allowed Forbes to make changes that may have taken an agency or freelance staff one or two weeks to do, in one or two day. Combining this with increasingly deep dive analyti-cal technologies means that the online offerings can be flexible and changed depending on their current usages.

Mark mentions though that it has been important to not only have the skills in house, but to leverage the mindset of smaller startups. Through partnerships they have managed to create a stack of technology that creates opportunities for them to mon-etize their online offerings, but also use the mindset that small startups tend to have and the excitement and forward thrust that this brings.

"The rules have changed".

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Forbes have looked up and seen that a modern company cannot look at strategy in the same way as they did even five years ago. in Marks words "The rules have changed".

Many of their competitors have seen that their traditional methods of aggregating audiences and sell-ing them as a stack to advertisers, is no longer fit for purpose. Using the new technologies has allowed Forbes to target individuals. They can look at how the individual is engaging with the content and how this can be changed to truly place adverts in front of the right people at the right time.

In Mark's eyes the social web has democratised the publish-ing tools that were tradition-ally open only to publishers a few years ago. Although effec-tive businesses should now see themselves as publishers, Mark makes the point that publishing is one thing, but to make it truly effective, companies need to cre-ate a foundation and jumping off point.

Companies today need to made up of storytellers, consumers want to

hear what the company is actual-ly saying, not what they are selling and what they are advertising. This creation of a genuine brand per-sonality rather than the personality that is put forward in press releas-es or adverts, has reaped rewards for thousands of companies glob-ally and Forbes is one of the most successful.

One of the ways in which a strat-egist can utilise this is through placement. Mark makes the point that a strategist in today's compa-

ny needs to be more than just the navigator, they need to be at the intersection between departments of the company. Communication is key and having a strategically

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Communication is key and having a strategically

minded person working between the analysts, content creators and all other aspects

of the business is vital to business success.

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minded person working between the analysts, content creators and all other aspects of the business is vital to business success.

The analysts need to tell the sto-rytellers what is working, the sto-rytellers need to create and the technologists need to make sure that the technology for this con-tinues to not only be fit for task, but improving the company per-formance. The strategist needs to sit between all of these groups and make sure that the process is working effectively and is being steered in the right direction.

So where are we likely to see this kind of strategy in five years time?

With the rapid rate of change, it is hard to predict where digital strategies will be. It has only been in the past few years that we have seen companies really looking at the way in which their content is received on mobile and tablet de-

vices. This is something that five years ago would not have been considered at all.

One of the keys to taking advan-tage of these changes is that com-panies need to create a firm but flexible foundation from which new developments can grow.

Forbes have unquestionably been looking at this with their work with-in their digital team in the last few years. The use of internal design teams means that change can be achieved quickly and easily, whilst working with small agile minded startups has meant that they are keeping on the cutting edge of new ideas with lean and flexible com-panies.

One thing that is for certain is that when the next big revolution does come along, thanks to the work of Mark and others within the Forbes digital team, they will be well equipped to make the most of it.