113 – Business Transformation in the Digital Age with Chris Aarons

Chris Aarons is the author of The Digital Helix (a Wallstreet Journal and Amazon Best Seller), Transforming Your Organizations DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age. He has helped launch dozens of companies and products using a unique mix of digital, sales, and marketing strategies.

In 2006, he launched one of the first social media departments at AMD and later wrote the book Social Media Judo: The Essential Guide to Mastering Social Media and Delivering Real Results. Chris also teaches digital marketing at the University of Texas at Austin and has won numerous awards for his digital programs while working for clients such as Adobe, Amazon, AMD, Cisco, Dell, HP, LG, Microsoft, Philips, and others.

Top Takeaways: Business Transformation in the Digital Age with Chris Aarons

Organizations are moving out of the industrial age and into the Digital Age
Look for gaps within your job and see what could be changed
Look at micro opportunities instead of life changing opportunities – build on these
Every person/business hire companies, products or services to do a job – game changer in marketing
Bring level of expertise – find a way to do it different and exhaust it – add to the idea and make it better
Innovator’s dilemma is how do I come up with an idea that people want that hasn’t already been considered
Example of McDonald’s triple thick milkshakes – easy simple answer doesn’t get to the real reason
Watching customers transforms the simple answer into the complex reason and opens up opportunities for innovation
How do we get buy-in from out of the box thinking – talk to the best customers and get facts – become the focal point for insight
Surveys give you information; conversations are intellectual curiosity
See what other people are doing to develop your ideas, read more, listen to podcasts – see where boundaries are
Stillness is a strong management trait – Go to a dark room, close your eyes and just think about your ideas (take time to be still to evaluate your ideas)
Developing a digital mindset (free download article) – be ready for the unexpected at a corporate level
Create a culture for exploration, open ideas, reward for risk, opportunities for learning
Ask for an excuse rather than permission to push the envelope
84% of start-up exploited a gap in their company and went out on their own because they could not implement their idea in their current organization
Ask the what if questions until you find the gap and the opportunity
Lack of experimentation and lack of connectedness is a challenge for a lot of organizations
What are you doing with your insights, how are you sharing? Are you just making things mobile and not getting the real benefits of becoming digital
Break out of the surface changes and start doing things innovatively
What color is a Yield sign?

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Learning From Leaders:

Current Book: The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen

Leadership Superpower: Connecting things and seeing the next steps

Motivational Mantra:

[shareable cite=”JFK 8/30/1960″]There is no time for complacency. This is no time to abandon the drive and the optimism and the imaginative creativity which has characterized this country since its birth. This is no time for timidity or doubt. This is a time for boldness and energy. This is a time for stout-hearted men who can turn dreams into reality[/shareable]

Book Most Often Gifted: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t Hardcover by Jim Collins