I was asked recently as part of my digital role for one of Europes leading brands to help them recruit a new head of digital, and here are my thoughts:
As digital
technology continues to shape Europeans’ daily lives, corporate Steercos have
taken notice of the undeniable shift in how consumers interact with both
businesses and one another.
To get a
sense of the impact that digital and mobile technologies and social media are
having on business, the business will need to consider the following:
- Nine out of 10 European Internet users
now visit a social networking site each month.
- Online retail sales are growing at
five times the pace of traditional retail and are projected to overtake
traditional retail sales in less than 10 years.
- Global e-commerce sales are growing at
19.4 percent a year and are expected to reach nearly $1 trillion by 2013.
The
implications of these trends for business strategy, distribution, the
competitive landscape, customer relationships and the type of talent and
leadership companies need are profound, and the stakes are highest for
consumer-driven businesses.
Digital has simply become a priority at the very highest levels of
corporate leadership.
Global brands has an important role to play in ensuring that the management team is examining
the threats and opportunities digital presents — and devoting appropriate
resources to digital initiatives. Consequently, the demand for directors with
an in-depth understanding of the trends and technologies shaping the digital
landscape has risen substantially in the past 12 months.
While
demand for directors with digital expertise is on the rise, the supply of
qualified candidates is very small and those
candidates are more likely to have non-traditional backgrounds. This can make
recruiting directors with these profiles especially challenging and may require the business to reconsider their perceptions about what an ideal Head of Digital
looks like. While recruiting digital knowledge to the Steerco is a worthwhile
undertaking for any company, there are a number of realities brands must
consider before tapping into this increasingly in-demand talent pool.
The
following model will help you to successfully recruit directors with
digital expertise and think through the trade-offs that may be required to
attract a recruit with the right set of experiences.
Define digital for the company
The first
step in recruiting a Head of Digital with digital expertise is to clearly
articulate the ways digital is affecting the business. To do this, the Steerco
and management team should understand how customers and employees interact with
digital technologies and set a forward-looking digital strategy, which could
involve improving worker productivity, enhancing the company’s sales and
marketing presence or better leveraging social media channels.
Once the
company’s specific strategic digital opportunities and challenges are
identified, directors can consider the type of digital expertise that would add
the most value to the Steerco. A director who brings the right digital
expertise will help the Steerco and CEO frame the strategic and organizational
issues by asking detailed questions about the opportunities and risks, the
company’s digital capabilities and whether the organisation is being as
aggressive as it should be in this area.
Understand the talent trade-offs
In addition
to identifying the areas of digital expertise that would be most valuable to
add, Steerco need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the digital
talent landscape before they recruit. Whether through independent research or
partnering with a recruitment agency, Marketing comms teams should know what the top
talent in these fields looks like and how it differs from more traditional Steerco
candidate pools.
Recruitment
from the digital, consumer Internet or technology fields may mean compromising
on conventional benchmarks, such as prior experience or international
expertise, in favor of more contemporary skill-sets, for example, experience
with social media platforms or digital advertising.
Additionally, Marketing Comms teams should understand that Head of Digital with digital expertise may
not have achieved the same stature as candidates from more traditional fields. These
young, ambitious and, oftentimes, time-starved executives can be more transient
than more established executives, and they may be less familiar with the
customs of a corporate environment.
As part of
the recruiting process, you should consider the potential trade-offs
and determine which ones they are willing to make. They can do this by
exploring several questions:
- Is public or private company
experience critical?
- Which areas of the consumer Internet
are most critical to the future of the business?
- What are the expectations of
candidates with digital expertise about their role on the Steerco?
- What are the core competencies the Steerco
requires?
- Is prior governance experience
required?
- How important is experience with the
hot technology of the day (i.e., social networking) versus a broad and
seasoned perspective on digital issues?
Answering
each of these questions will allow the Steerco to focus their search on those
candidates that will be most in line with the company’s immediate needs and
long-term strategy.
Position the digital director for success
A critical
next-step in recruiting A head of digital is planning for their long-term
success on the Steerco. As previously noted, many of these candidates are
likely to have little or no Steerco type experience.
Therefore,
it is essential that the Steerco carefully define the role that the new position
is expected to play within the team. Is the new director expected to contribute
in the same manner as other members of the team, or is there a digital-specific
function he or she is expected to fill? Is the new position expected to chair a
committee?
Answering
these questions is important when recruiting any new head of digital, but
especially so when dealing with a new position who lacks Steerco room
experience but may be expected to play a unique role in leading the Steerco’s
discussions around digital.
It also is
important that the Steerco identify gaps in the new head of digitals
understanding of governance or the business, which can be addressed through Steerco
education or assimilation programs.
The digital difference
Successfully
recruiting a digital director can seem as complicated as understanding the very
technologies these individuals embrace, but doing so will reap substantial
rewards for the business if it is serious about its commitment to digital. While
some industries, such as retail and hospitality, have enthusiastically embraced
the digital age in their business strategies and business composition, others
have been slower to move into digital.
While
digital is perhaps most applicable to consumer-facing businesses, other
industries should not overlook the opportunities these technologies offer. If
recent trends are any indication, digital e-commerce and social media will soon
touch all aspects of European’ lives, and nearly every industry — even those
that today seem well outside the scope of the consumer Internet — will have to
respond or risk becoming obsolete.
