By Adam Wakefield

At which point do you believe that the power relationship between businesses and consumers began to shift from a business-centric emphasis to one where words such as “customer-centric” are now commonplace?

It is one of those shifts that come imperceptibly. A little like becoming "middle aged", you don't notice until you are waking up each morning with a new ache. Perhaps a better analogy would be the frog in a pot that doesn't realise the slow increase in the temperature until it is boiling.

But from a technological perspective, I would say the early days of the shift were in the old online bulletin board days. For the first time, there was a mass medium where individuals could talk back. TV, radio, and print have always been one-way channels. From those early days, it has moved to the global movement that is social media and personal technology. 

The world of work has changed as technology has changed. You’ve referred to how employers need to move from an attitude of control to trust when dealing with their employees. What do you mean by this?

The industrial revolution was defined by control. Control of markets. Control of competitors. Control of the workforce. Work was literally sh*t, so people had to be controlled to do it and watched constantly. In the age of the free-flow of the Internet, control no longer works. Business can't control messaging, they can't control and treat people how they used to, so it has moved to one of trust. 

That is the new control. An example is the move to online music and entertainment. Instead of trying to control piracy, just make music available online and make it cheap. Yes, there is still piracy, but a vast number don't engage in piracy and are only too happy to pay because they trust the service.  The same is required in the work place. If employees and employers trust each other, control is irrelevant.

In your writings and talks, you have referred to converged employees and customers. What do you mean by these terms, and how do businesses adapt to both of them?

I have since come to think that "digital" is a better word than "converged". The convergence of technology to the single device that we all carry with us at all times has come to shape our interaction with the world and our expectations from brands.

The only way a business can adapt to this is to become digital themselves. It's important to emphasise that by digital I don't mean just throw technology at the business. Digital is, more than anything else, a way of thinking. Digital is understanding your people and understanding the technology they use and using tech to build relationships, internally and externally.

How should organisations evolve so that they are able to stay abreast of the changes taking place within the digital realm that affect their organisations?

"Digital transformation" is the talk today and that is the way it has to be done. Every business will have their own journey.  Like marketing talk was "mobile first" two or three years ago, today it has to be a move to "digital by default".

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