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The Real Disruption Of Working From Home: It’s Not At All What You Think

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By J. Tyler Rohrer

The 9-to-5 workdays, the coffee breaks, the water cooler discussions — these are artifacts of a bygone time. Yes, remnants of them still permeate our corporate landscapes, operational workflows, social rituals and even our technology choices.

Recent events have launched a disruption of our daily work lives — but maybe that is just what we needed.

Right now, we face a choice of drastically slowing the global economy or compelling hundreds of millions of end users to be productive members of their organizations from home, right now. But the truth is this shift is possible.

And if it’s possible, what else is possible? What truly happens when you fundamentally change to a remote workforce versus preferring a primary campus attendance model? Secondly, what do you need to unleash this potential?

One of the first changes we have seen occurring for thousands of customers is that with remote working models, the best tend to rise to the top. Perhaps it is the lack of office politics or other constraints. But it’s more likely the result of added productivity of working when work needs to be done (not between eight arbitrary hours defined in a 1940s industrial model/production line economy). I want to use a phrase called “intrapreneurship.”

Unbridled in many ways, these remote office workers become not just stellar individual contributors — they become innovators. Having no formal training in psychology, I can only surmise what the possible effects of the comfort and agility, lack of bumper-to-bumper traffic and abbreviated eating and sleeping habits can have on productivity. But perhaps a better way of looking at this is to say we get back those minutes and hours we used to spend preparing for and navigating to and from work. This is not to say we are going to work more hours from home; we are going to work better hours.

As I think about this, it’s safe to say we have become an intellectual economy versus a manufacturing economy. So many of us no longer screw widgets on thingamajigs made by the low-cost bidder. Our service-based economy is based on intellectual property. Better said: ideas. And ideas flourish when people are liberated to pursue them unfettered by conventions or outmoded practices.

The internet is the greatest platform ever created by man for the proliferation of ideas. It is not for this reason only we should find models that use it to work. However, it is a compelling one. Virtualization, while it was and continues to be one of the greatest data-center recapitalizations of all time, also taught us the power of abstraction. Abstraction in the virtual technology vocabulary means the willingness to disassemble computer systems and re-assemble them in new ways using hypervisors and micro-services to replace prior system architectures. Abstraction becomes a key way to bypass our dependencies on any one device located in a single place. When the full capabilities of your computer can go anywhere at any time, then you can also work productively anywhere and at any time.

Moore’s law is something I refer to, as it is center stage in this new evolution of the modern workspace. The speed of processing power per dollar increases forever. There is no reason our new distributed, remote, work-from-home architectures cannot fully embrace this computing reality. A model with rich and robust edge devices and operating systems coupled with intelligent, pervasive, learning, secure, centralized and managed cloud services looks to be the ideal model.

The real disruption of this new work-from-home scenario is this: We are already emerging better, smarter and more agile. This is not a bumper sticker. This trend has been accelerating over the past decade, and adoption must move even faster if we are to equip ourselves to live in a world where “disasters” can now bypass borders swiftly.

The early adopters are tirelessly innovating and topping barriers, and a wave of “fast followers” are right behind them reading the pages of the newly inked “Work From Home” books being written across our agencies, organizations and enterprises worldwide.

Web collaboration platforms, tele and PC-presence, chat, teams, data sharing, VDI, DaaS, RDS, application publishing, server-based computing, clouds, hyperconverged infrastructure and more are all available right now to enable a completely new re-imagining of what your workforce could and perhaps should be.

For those organizations willing to re-imagine, there are a few logical steps you can take that are near fool-proof. I call it “cloud staging.”

  1. Get a topological overview of what your current configuration looks like. Said another way, do an instant assessment to find out what your users have at their fingertips and, secondly, how they are using it. Like Google maps, know your starting position.
  2. Look at the results of your assessment and realize that storage, applications, compute and networking do not need to be landlocked inside a PC from a big box store.
  3. With your current work-from-home constraints, what applications are your users already using? There is a good chance they should be woven into your strategies. What new cloud services for data (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, DropBox, AWS S3, etc.) and applications could you begin to use companywide?
  4. The benefit of step-by-step cloud staging is that an organization can start small. Begin by backing up your data. Next, move on to replacing legacy applications with SaaS or cloud services. Most options are now just clicks away versus weeks of physical hardware delivery, configuration and deployment.
  5. Fail fast. If designs fail, replace them. Do not stick to bad ideas just because we take a great deal of time making them.
  6. Stay informed. The stream of consumable data on new ideas, new deployments and new architectures has never been more visible. There is no monopoly on good ideas in the modern workplace.

This is your opportunity to truly re-power your end user computing strategies. This is the real disruption of working from home.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By J. Tyler Rohrer

J. Tyler Rohrer co-founded Liquidware and leads Strategic Alliances, managing relationships with major platform and storage partners.

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Is Social Media Analytics Redundant Today?

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Over the last decade, there has been an explosion in social media data, and at the same time, AI/ML models are also getting better at predicting people’s interests and purchasing habits. For example, social media data can be processed and analysed using AI models to find meaningful correlations to precisely target products and services to specific users.

Businesses can also leverage analytics models on data collected from social networks and use computational frameworks like Apache Hadoop for analysing large volumes of data.  A lot of companies have been using social media data from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn, Snapchat to improve their marketing ROI and target consumers by analysing users’ platform behaviour in relation to demographics.

But, there’s a caveat! While social media data provides great insights into the behaviour of users, they may also face user privacy-related issues.

Social Media Analytics Vs Privacy Violations

Ever since the Cambridge Analytical scandal and the introduction of regulations such as GDPR, it has become more stringent for companies to leverage social media analytics for targeted advertising. The impact of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a catalyst in this regard when it was found that third-party applications on Facebook were mining users’ data for political campaign profiling.

In the past, third-party data aggregators scraped social media sites and collected personal sensitive data, which was then resold to companies. Now, with the introduction of regulations that prohibit that practice, will social media analytics become redundant or less effective for companies?

Events such as the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal, massive security incidents like Equifax breach, and later on GDPR paved the way to tighten the norms on how personal data is collected, stored, and processed. In the past few years, the lawsuits against these tech companies on privacy norms have only strengthened the trend. 

Companies around are therefore preparing to become more compliant with the regulations and what data they collect of users. Facebook, for example, has now become more transparent to users specifying what data they collect and what information they provide third-parties for their advertising campaigns.

Social media profiles have personally identifiable information and other sensitive data that can be used by data scientists to create models for specific products, which can generate more sales. The challenges with collecting social media data can depend on the kind of data collected (non-personal social data or personal data) and how the data is utilised. It also depends on the applicable laws and regulations in geography. For instance, in Europe, It will be more difficult for social media analytics companies to execute to their full potential using the data, versus Asian countries where privacy laws are less stringent.

Privacy Compliant Social Data Analytics

Without having to profile users using digital identifiers like IP or Mac addresses and cookies, there is still a lot which can be done. Companies are looking at GDPR compliant data processing on social media data, with proper consent and transparency for how personal data is collected and utilised for analytics. Here non-sensitive social media data is used for increasing sales or generating marketing insights with CRM integration, which is an appropriate use of social media ‘likes’ to achieve specific business goals. On the other hand, if sensitive personal data is mined to track users or survey their purchase habits, then that could be a violation at least in some global geographies.

For companies, it is important to be careful about the nature of data collected for analytics and ensure it’s not personal in nature, as it can attract penalties. To counter this, proper data governance programs have been put in place for analysing social media trends and making sure that there is no violation.

Even if there are fewer datasets available for social media analytics on personally identifiable data, social media analytics companies are expected to keep utilising non-personal data for sentiment analysis, sales trends, visualisation, and acquiring sales leads, all within the boundaries of regulations. For example, by monitoring social media, one can determine customer sentiment analysis on non-personal data, which can be converted into actionable insights.

The Roadmap For Social Media Analytics

The bottom line is that the collection and utilisation of social media data are complex, involving multiple sources and data management challenges. This is confusing for analytics professionals and social data analytics companies to identify the legality of collecting such kind of social media data.

This means that companies will continue to use popular products such as Google Analytics to track social media campaign performance, conversions, and ultimately understand the return on investment from social media marketing efforts. Other large companies like Salesforce, IBM, SAS have products for social media data analytics.

While social media analytics will continue to play a role in sales and marketing, other areas like risk management and fraud detection are also becoming more prominent. Here, law enforcement companies are leveraging social media analytics to extract and analyse the data generated from various data sources.

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Why Amazon’s E-Commerce Sales Are About to Surge Even Higher

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By Andrew Tseng

What’s going to happen when Amazon can fulfil all the demand it’s seeing?

Overwhelming demand

Starting in early March, Amazon began to see a surge in demand in its e-commerce business as a result of consumers staying home and shifting more of their spending online. This surge in demand was so large and unexpected it overwhelmed Amazon’s fulfillment and delivery capabilities.

The company prioritized stocking and shipping “essential” items including household staples, medical supplies, and other critical products. It even actively discouraged customers from ordering nonessential items by “blocking” them or making them harder to find and significantly reducing its spending on marketing for certain product categories.

Massive hiring spree

On March 16, Amazon announced in a blog post that it would be hiring 100,000 people across the U.S. in full- and part-time fulfillment and delivery roles to help meet this demand. It also increased compensation by $350 million globally, which included temporary pay raises and a doubling of the hourly rate for overtime hours, up from the usual 1.5-times rate.

On April 13, Amazon announced it had hired the 100,000 people and would be hiring another 75,000. It also revised the $350 million compensation increase to over $500 million. Then on April 24, the company said it was extending the higher hourly pay and doubling overtime pay through May 16. And on May 13, the company once again extended the enhanced pay practices through May 30 and revised the compensation increase estimate to over $800 million.

Much of this hiring has related to fulfillment centers, but also to Prime Now, Amazon Fresh, and the Whole Foods delivery business. Amazon had announced a broad rollout of free same-day Whole Foods delivery to Prime members in January in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings release. In January and February it was easy to find and book available Whole Foods delivery times, but it began to get more difficult in March and into April as items sold out and demand outpaced delivery capacity.

Fulfilling demand

In Amazon’s first quarter, its online store sales — the global e-commerce business — grew net sales by 24% year over year. That was a sharp acceleration from last year’s 15% growth rate.

But the coronavirus-related demand only began to meaningfully surge in March. Presumably, January and February saw more normal growth rates. Amazon doesn’t disclose monthly sales, but let’s say those two months grew 17%. That would have been a slight acceleration from last year’s pace due to the positive effect of the rollout of free one-day shipping for Prime members and the broad launch of free same-day Whole Foods delivery. If that’s the case, that suggests March would have grown at a rate of around 39%.

But remember, March was a month when Amazon couldn’t even remotely fulfill all the demand it was seeing. To grow around 39% while not even fulfilling demand suggests that Amazon’s online store sales should surge much higher when it’s able to completely fulfill demand.

On the first-quarter earnings call, management said it wasn’t sure exactly when it would be able to fulfill all the demand and couldn’t “really project when that day will be or at what point in [the second quarter] or [third quarter] or beyond.” Considering Amazon’s conservative approach to financial guidance, suggesting it may meet all the demand during the second or third quarter is very bullish.

Later in the call, in response to a question about the second quarter, management made the following comment:

Well, we are heavily constrained — again, it’s an odd quarter because generally, the biggest uncertainty we have is customer demand and what they’ll order and how much of it they’ll order. Demand has been strong. And the biggest questions we have in [the second quarter] are more about ability to service that demand and that — the products that people are ordering in a full way, not blocking or making it hard to find nonessential items, increasing marketing and everything else.

It’s noteworthy that management said it was allowing people to order “in a full way” and “not blocking or making it hard to find nonessential items” and “increasing marketing and everything else.” It stands to reason Amazon would only open the flood gates like this if it felt it would be able to fulfill all that demand.

So what’s that mean? It’s a reasonable conclusion that Amazon’s online store sales growth should accelerate to well beyond 40% and possibly much higher in short order. There’s certainly precedent for this as so much more of consumer spending shifts online. For example, on Wayfair‘s (NYSE:W) first-quarter conference call, it said its second-quarter to-date sales growth has been about 90%. And on Etsy‘s (NASDAQ:ETSY) first-quarter call, it said it was seeing over 100% year-over-year growth in gross merchandise volume, the total value of products ordered on its platform.

Could Amazon grow that quickly if it’s fulfilling all the demand it’s seeing? Only time will tell, but at the very least its growth rate should go sharply higher. Investors should consider buying Amazon shares because of this underappreciated acceleration in e-commerce sales growth, but should also think about holding them for the long term considering where Amazon will be in 10 years.

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Why this CEO says ‘staying nimble’ is key to the success of direct-to-consumer businesses

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The last decade generated a new category of digital-first, direct-to-consumer businesses that upended how consumer goods were created, priced, marketed, and sold. My company, Mack Weldon, is one of them. Brands like ours have touched nearly every consumer category from cooking pans to mattresses (and yes, even men’s underwear).

This generation of disruptive brands has been propelled by emergent social media, access to capital, and generational shifts in shopping habits and brand perception. It has been the decade of direct-to-consumer.

Then the coronavirus crisis arrived.

While digitally-born and e-commerce-driven businesses are among the best equipped to survive this crisis, the catalysts that drove the DTC boom have changed. The assumptions made about the market, as little as five months ago, are no longer true.

What does the business landscape look like in the era after the pandemic? Here are four things you should hesitate to assume about DTC businesses.

A new outlook toward brick-and-mortar

DTC brands left their digital perches and started opening stores in the last few years. It was a boon both to brands looking to expand their reach and to landlords who were keen to place relevant tenants in their projects. This will all change.

Brands—whether legacy or digital—will be more cautious about when and where they open up doors. We at Mack Weldon opened our first shop last year at the Hudson Yards mall in New York City and had plans to expand through directly-operated stores and third-party partnerships.

Now, we’re looking harder at those plans. How will consumers respond to physical retail when the pandemic recedes and how permanent will those changes be? We’re being careful, but we also realize there will be timely opportunities for leases and new, more flexible formats in desirable locations.

Easy money to launch and expand

The DTC boom was largely driven by access to capital. Venture capital and private equity money fueled the formation and expansion of scores of new brands. According to data from CB Insights, consumer brands have raised more than $3 billion since 2012, and about half of that money was raised in 2018 alone.

But recent market trends and the pandemic have pulled the plug on easy money. High-profile flameouts, including WeWork and Brandless, coupled with an increasingly more expensive digital advertising landscape, changed the calculus for investors. Can new brands make enough noise in a competitive market? Can existing brands find both scale and profitability in this new environment?

Going forward, investors will be more circumspect about opportunities, valuations will come down to earth, and marketing and distribution strategies will be scrutinized. Financing will still find its way to high-quality brands and business models where the unit economics support profitability, but the volume of deals and subsequent valuations will be rightsized.

A return to the original marketing playbook

The digital-first, performance-driven marketing playbook that fueled so much success—ours included—needs an overhaul. Before COVID-19, ad rates on the major networks were climbing and price arbitrage all but nonexistent to support major growth. Once the pandemic took hold, some scale opportunities returned, but it’s clear that as demand comes back into the system, we all need new ways to drive cost-effective, new customer acquisition. For us, we are contemplating our first major video ad test including OTT and linear TV—as well as continuing to invest in channels such as podcasts and radio.

Further, the COVID-19 situation forced all of us to take a hard look at our marketing plans and make some major pivots. We heavily revised our marketing calendar and product launches in order to offer products relevant to our consumers facing drawn-out quarantines. Specifically, we revised the tone of our emails, ads, and social media to be authentic, empathetic, and human, and we prioritized imagery highlighting how our products work well in a WFH environment. What purpose can a brand such as ours serve at a time like this? The customer relationship must go beyond email campaigns and sales promotions. If you meet customers where they are today—they will reward you over the medium and in the long term with loyalty.

Lastly, the pandemic is shifting e-commerce demographics. According to First Insight, online shopping among baby boomers jumped 120% in March of this year as the pandemic finally forced these consumers online. Is there a new population for digital-first brands to access, and if so, how will we reach them?

Business leaders can use this time to adapt the cadence, tone, tactics, and audience focus of their marketing efforts.

There’s enough room for everyone

The first decade of the DTC period has come to an end, and the pandemic is accelerating the rules of its next chapter. We’ve already begun to see some high-profile bankruptcies in J.Crew and Neiman Marcus, and there will inevitably be more.  Consolidation is on the horizon—anticipate smaller companies joining forces and larger incumbents making acquisitions motivated by more rational valuations and opportunities.

Furthermore, incumbents will likely emerge with entirely new strategies around their retail footprint and need to build a more robust, digital-first DNA. Likewise, there will be successes in this space, as brands with sound businesses can capitalize on new market realities and new customer preferences.

At my company, we’re cautiously optimistic about the next phase of DTC, bullishly looking ahead. We’re executing on our strategic plan but also keeping an eye on the future as we prepare for limited retail expansion and investment in our digital footprint and product offering.

Direct-to-consumer brands were born of ingenuity and tenacity; the pandemic is once again demanding that of the marketplace as we determine new ways to meet the needs of our customers. The most nimble of us will author the new rules together as we enter this next phase of direct-to-consumer businesses

Feature Image Credit: [Photo: Warren Wong/Unsplash]

By Brian Berger

Brian Berger is the CEO and founder of menswear basics brand Mack Weldon, which he launched in 2012. Since 2012, Mack Weldon has become a leader within the men’s apparel industry, expanding its product offerings to cover other essentials of a modern man’s wardrobe. Before founding Mack Weldon, Brian served in several leadership positions in internet and media companies, including Comcast and WebMD.

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Why Facebook Has a Better Shot at E-Commerce This Time

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By Donna Fuscaldo

Online shopping is seeing a surge amid the pandemic, presenting Facebook with a big opportunity if it can succeed in a market that has long been out of its reach.

“Been there, done that unsuccessfully.” That’s what some investors may be thinking about Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) new e-commerce push. The tech stock has made online shopping missteps in the past, and it still has trust issues even if its user base continues to grow. But with online shopping increasing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and with a potential shopping base of more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook has a real shot at succeeding this time around.

The pandemic is changing the way we shop, potentially forever

Shopping online was already a big story prior to the pandemic, but with stores shuttered and stay-at-home orders still in place in some cities, consumers have been turning to e-commerce to get their goods. At the same time, small businesses, many of which remain closed, have to find alternative ways to get products in front of customers — thus the increase in online shopping.

Those trends alone don’t ensure that Facebook will be a winner. It has to offer an easy and hassle-free way to shop in order for it to take off with the masses. If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that loyalty can only go so far — consumers want service. With delivery delays hurting Amazon‘s ability to get products to customers in under two days during the pandemic, shoppers turned to alternatives. That’s helped drive sales at retailers that offered same day pickup and delivery.

So how does the tech stock plan to make its offering superior to one-click shopping pioneered by Amazon? By not requiring small businesses and consumers to jump through hoops to buy and sell across its rather sticky platforms.

Facebook Shops, which are free for small businesses to create, live on their existing Facebook and Instagram accounts. That means small businesses won’t have to learn a new application or create a new page to get up and running.

On the consumer side, users will either be able to purchase directly from Facebook and Instagram, or they’ll be taken to the business’s website to complete the transaction. Thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, Facebook will soon be able to automatically tag items users may like and place them in their feeds. That could encourage impulse shopping, particularly if it only takes a couple of clicks.

coming soon will be the ability to tag and purchase items from users’ feeds. To make the process easy for small businesses, Facebook is partnering with Shopify, Bigcommerce, and other third-party providers to power Facebook Shops.

Facebook has the base

In addition to making shopping easy, Facebook needs a large base of merchants for its efforts to take off in a meaningful way. The more e-commerce sales it does, the more advertisers will flock to Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook makes money off of ads as well as transaction fees when users purchase on its platform. It plans on adding Facebook Shops to Messenger and WhatsApp in the near future.

The social media giant is no Amazon when it comes to online shopping, but it does have more than 2.5 billion monthly active users that could turn into potential shoppers. It also plans to promote merchants’ products with dedicated shopping tabs and eventually enable real-time shopping events. That provides small businesses with a new opportunity to reach existing and potential customers without much effort.

It’s not a slam dunk

In order for Facebook to be successful and realize even a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars Wall Street thinks may await the company , it will have to win consumers’ trust, especially if it’s storing payment information. That could be a hard sell given its history with data leaks and privacy breaches.

It also has regulators and now the White House breathing down its neck. Any negative publicity could erode trust even further. Facebook has been trying to win back trust by blocking misinformation during the pandemic and supporting struggling small businesses. It’s also proven it can still grow even with a battered and bruised reputation.

This isn’t Facebook’s first rodeo. It tried several times before with shopping on its platforms but it failed to take off. The company tried launching Facebook stores with big brands back in 2009; it fizzled. An online gift shop dubbed Facebook Gifts was unsuccessful. And it has also tested a Buy button directly in ads that show up in Newsfeeds. None of the shopping features resonated with users, in part because consumers haven’t been too willing to store sensitive data on its platforms.

The timing is different now, thanks to the pandemic. If Facebook can deliver an easy-to-use experience and protect customers’ sensitive information, the social media giant has a good chance of becoming a real player in the post-COVID-19 e-commerce marketplace.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Donna Fuscaldo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Facebook, and Shopify and recommends the following options: short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon and long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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It’s time for the ad industry to bust out of its bubble and heal: Living on the Edge

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By Jamie Barrett.

‘People are dying, the world is going up in flames, and we’re urging a voice talent to slow down his read,’ says BarrettSF founder

I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.

I attended a private day school for 11 years.

I went to an elite boarding school, and graduated from an Ivy League college.

I’m gainfully employed, and live in an attractive house that’s almost all paid off.

I have three healthy and well-adjusted kids, and my wife and I just had a really nice dinner in celebration of our 22nd wedding anniversary.

I don’t know a single person who has died of COVID-19.

And I am a middle-aged white man.

I tell you these things to make a point. On paper, I am highly unqualified to speak on the stress and suffering going on in our world right now. We are all living in “bubbles,” but some bubbles are more insulated than others. Some have a nicer view. Some have more money for groceries. It is borderline obnoxious for me to write a column in Ad Age about “Living on the Edge.”

Or is it?

The truth, or my sense of the truth, is that all our bubbles, insulated or not, have now burst. If the coronavirus was the pin prick, the televised murder of George Floyd was the Molotov cocktail. My bubble, your bubble, their bubble. No matter how well-constructed, they stood no chance.

Now, we are all living on the edge. We are all in this, irreversibly. No industry, no company, no individual is immune. There is a virus, there is venom, there is violence, there is a void in leadership. But for the foreseeable future, there is no vaccine. For any of it.

And yet.

And yet we all have our professional lives to lead. Clients to serve. Pitches to prepare. Zoom pleasantries to exchange. Ads to create. The beat goes on.

In many ways, on many days, it all starts to feel a bit small, even a bit wrong. People are dying, the world is going up in flames, and we’re urging a voice talent to slow down his read and really emphasize the phrase “paid up to two days early.”

This morning I asked my daughter Lucy what she thought I should do for this article.

“Talk about what a tough time it is, and how it’s going to take a while, but we can all help make things better,” she said.

I think Lucy is right. I think Lucy has to be right.

What we do has to be important. How we treat our people, the way we respond to adversity, the work we put out in the world, it matters. It adds up. We’re part of the dialogue. We’re part of the culture. As removed as we may sometimes feel, we’re part of this increasingly fragile, powder keg world.

And some good things are starting to happen. Nike, Heineken, VW, Dove, all these brands are responding in ways that begin to heal and help. Through their words and far, far more importantly, through their actions. More brands can do the same. No, all brands can. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t set my alarm for tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow’s Monday, right?

So how has it been for me, and for our agency, “living on the edge?” How are we dealing with this year of reckoning, of riots in the streets and masks on our faces?

It’s been a tough time, and it’s going to take a while, but Lucy said it best.

We can all help make things better.

Feature Image Credit: iStock

By Jamie Barrett.

Jamie Barrett is partner and executive creative director at BarrettSF.
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48% of employees are less likely to follow safe data practices when working from home

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According to a Tessian survey, data protection concerns go out the window for remote employees.

A new report from cybersecurity firm Tessian found that the move to working from home has had drastic effects on how people approach data loss prevention.

In a survey of 1,000 people from the US and 1,000 from the UK, Tessian researchers found that 48% are less likely to follow safe data practices when working from home and 84% of IT leaders surveyed said data loss prevention is more challenging when employees are working from home.

More than 90% of IT leaders trust their staff to follow best security practices when working from home yet 52% of employees (52%) believe they can get away with riskier behaviour when telecommuting, creating a dangerous situation for companies in sensitive industries.

“Businesses have adapted quickly to the abrupt shift to remote working. The challenge they now face is protecting data from risky employee behaviors as working from home becomes the norm,” said Tim Sadler, CEO and co-founder of Tessian. “Human error is the biggest threat to companies’ data security, and IT teams lack true visibility of the threat.”

The report goes into detail about why employees take more chances when working from home and the differences between employees based on age or location.

US employees are more than twice as likely as UK workers to send emails to the wrong person and are twice as likely to send company data to their personal email accounts than their UK counterparts. One-third of all employees surveyed take company documents with them when they leave a job, with US workers twice as likely as UK workers to do so.

When asked why they put their company and its data at risk, employees gave a variety of answers, with half saying “not being watched by IT” was their main reason for not following safe data practices. Another 47% said distractions at home caused them to take more chances and 51% say security policies impeded their productivity while 40% cited the pressure to get work done quickly as a reason. Of those surveyed, 54% said they would find workarounds if security policies stop them from doing their jobs.

A recent report on data breaches from Verizon found that 30% of breaches involve internal actors exposing company information as a result of negligent or malicious acts and the Tessian study confirms many of Verizon’s findings.

When broken down by organization size, more than half of those at organizations with at least 50 employees, 250 employees and 999 employees all say they are less likely to follow safe data practices.

Younger employees are also more likely to think they can get away with riskier data behaviour, according to the survey.

More than half of all employees have training every six months, but this statistic varied greatly based on the industry. The average for all industries was training every eight months, but companies involved in public services, energy, utilities, engineering, manufacturing, education, environment and agriculture all have training 10 months at a time or longer.

“As with most things related to cybersecurity, user awareness is a big deal and training programs are key, but a lot of organizations don’t have a follow up to training,” said former chief information security officer Allen Look in the survey.

“They don’t have a system in place to measure user compliance, performance, and success around protecting sensitive information. So what happens if they repeatedly fail? So we retrain them? There often aren’t clear consequences or avenues for remediation, which means nobody is actually held accountable when an incidence occurs.”

The priorities also varied between IT leaders and employees when it comes to the consequences of data loss. Employees were more focused on damaged reputation and losing their jobs while IT leaders were more concerned about losing customers, damaging consumer trust, breached information, and a hurt reputation.

The report includes a number of suggestions that included more training, more stringent company policies, and the adoption of automation or machine learning to help protect data.

“Business leaders need to address security cultures and adopt advanced solutions to prevent employees from making the costly mistakes that result in data breaches and non-compliance. It’s critical these solutions do not impede employees’ productivity though,” Sadler said. “We’ve shown that people will find workarounds if security gets in the way of them doing their jobs, so data loss prevention needs to be flexible if it’s going to be effective.”

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Deloitte: Enterprises say 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will be ‘critical’ in 3 years

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It’s already well established that next-generation wireless technologies are going to become ubiquitous over the next few years, but just how important will 5G and Wi-Fi 6 be to enterprises? A new Deloitte study of advanced wireless adoption provides an unambiguous answer: “critical” within three years, according to strong majorities of executives responsible for enterprise networking infrastructure. Those executives expect not just an incremental upgrade, but a “significant opportunity to transform how their enterprises operate, as well as the products and services they offer.”

According to Deloitte, 86% of surveyed networking executives expect these technologies to transform their organizations within three years, and 79% expect the same transformations of their industries. Of the two technologies, 76% believe 5G cellular will be critical, while 70% said the same about Wi-Fi 6. A solid 57% majority are already adopting one if not both of the technologies, while another 37% plan to do so within a year.

Wi-Fi 6 and 5G are viewed as connectivity enablers — “force multipliers” — for cloud/edge computing, AI, and internet of things deployments. Ninety-five percent say that advanced wireless networking is either “very” or “extremely” important to their organization’s use of cloud technologies, with data analytics at 91%, AI at 84%, and an 83% tie for edge computing and IoT applications.

But concerns about the security and providers of next-generation networking solutions loom large for enterprises, as 56% of the surveyed executives called security their top challenge in adoption, and 75% said they would reconsider their service providers. Around 80% expect to primarily deploy their apps and services on either public (64%) or private (36%) clouds, with a majority trusting traditional cloud providers over their own enterprises to manage cloud data.

It’s worth noting that Deloitte’s survey took place in the first quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 infections were spreading but before the U.S. felt economic impacts from the pandemic — a factor that the firm says could accelerate or decelerate wireless deployments, depending on the company and industry. While 5G is expected to enable remote work through sharing of high-bandwidth images, videos, and 3D/XR content, Wi-Fi 6 could “free workers from wired connections and desktop phones,” as well as increasing the speed and quality of voice and video applications.

Deloitte’s survey canvassed 415 IT and line-of-business executives, with 48% at the C-level, 20% at VP or business unit head level, and 32% at director level, spread across companies with annual revenues ranging from $250 million to over $5 billion and across six industries. Interestingly, the effort to move towards 5G and Wi-Fi 6 isn’t just coming from IT chiefs: 48% of CEOs/presidents and 29% of other C-level executives ranked among the top three people at each organization leading the charge towards new wireless technologies, signaling the level of strong business-level interest in adoption.

Feature Image Credit: Deloitte

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Brands can turn the tide during coronavirus by building new consumer journeys

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By Shawn Lim

Brands need to focus on hyper-localisation by connecting with consumers where they are, as Covid-19 has dramatically changed consumer behaviour and altered the path-to-purchase, according to Facebook and Boston Consulting Group.

According to a new report called ‘Turn the Tide’, released by Facebook India and Boston Consulting Group, the use of micro-targeting can help brands get the first-mover advantage. This is because countries are being divided into different zones, with distinct restrictions due to the pandemic, so they need to build social connections despite social distancing, by engaging with consumers in their context

To cope with pandemic lockdown, which has caused significant disruption for communities and businesses, people are spending more time on social media platforms. This means brands have an opportunity to build stronger dialogues and deeper connections with users.

The aim of the guide, according to Facebook India and Boston Consulting Group, is to guide brands to adapt to the pandemic and ensure business continuity.

Nimisha Jain, the managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, says: “We are experiencing unprecedented shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviours as 80%+ consumers will continue to practice social distancing and are bringing the outside inside, over 40% of consumers are dialling up on health and wellness spends, e-commerce adoption has already advanced by two-three years, to name a few.”

“These aren’t just temporary surges, and many will last longer and become more defining traits. Our analysis reveals that only one in six companies emerged stronger in past crises. Players who show the agility to reinvent their value propositions, go-to-market plans and business models to address these demand shifts, will be the ones that set themselves apart from the pack.”

In addition, the report also shares actionable guidance for brands to build for the new consumer journeys in times of Covid-19 and beyond.

For example, brands can bring alive experiences through virtual launches and product demos as people turn to virtual experiences for every facet of their life. Facebook said it is already seeing more brands explore Facebook and Instagram ‘Live’ to connect with their followers and customers, with brands now thinking about using social media platforms for new product launches too.

Heeru Dingra, the chief executive officer at WATConsult tells The Drum the agency has modified its planning and strategy around the new consumer journeys, urging its clients to follow a simple mantra of ‘solve, serve and sell’.

She explains brands should focus on solving the problems their consumers face, serve their purpose and the result thereof could be the sale of services or products. She notes a lot of brands have understood this concept and have already started altering their approach to fit this mantra.

“We leveraged the power of gaming and re-created one of the most iconic games of all time, Ludo, for our client Tata Motors. Titled #SafetyFirst Ludo, this version aims to spread awareness about the importance of personal hygiene and social distancing amid the Covid-19 outbreak,” she says.

She also calls out work by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance called #CareWillOvercome, which salutes frontline workers, while a #ReconnectWithStarbucks campaign turned the act of baristas calling out people’s names into a digital phenomenon.

She adds: “These examples summarize how we integrated the need of the hour that is to maintain social distancing, continue to concentrate on personal hygiene and at the same time have our heartfelt appreciation for the ones who have been fighting for us day and night, into our brand approach in some way. This helps to amplify the brand message while being sensitive to the current situation, serving the purpose of extending the required communication and increasing as well as sustaining brand recall.”

The report also advised brands to look at their media mix models to drive growth by aligning to new media landscapes. According to the report, when brands, especially those with traditional product categories, start spending more online, they need to understand incremental outcomes, as well as cross-platform efficiency.

This would increase the need for digital measurement standards, such as custom mix modelling (CMM) by Nielsen, which Facebook said it had piloted last year.

Gautam Mehra, the chief data officer for South Asia and chief executive officer of programmatic at Dentsu Aegis Network observes the importance of moving away from traditional marketing metrics to real business metrics that can be measured and improved on an ongoing basis.

“With the impetus of commerce, CRM and digital transformation, I think, every company will now have a direct-to-consumer line of business and will want to bring themselves closer to the consumer, and rely less on the intermediaries,” he explains.

While most brands are dealing with huge change across many aspects of business, focusing on the changing customer journey is a good place for marketing to focus attention.

Feature Image Credit: the report also shares actionable guidance for brands to build for the new consumer journeys in times of Covid-19 and beyond.

By Shawn Lim

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How to Use Direct Sales to Re-Imagine Your Customer Acquisition Strategy

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By Benton Crane.

Four ways to rethink marketing right now.

So you’re an entrepreneur whose dream business was finally taking off, and then an economic shockwave hit. Like the rest of the world, you’re trying to not only survive yourself, but also to preserve your livelihood and that of your employees.

Now, although American is slowly rebounding, businesses are definitely not going back to the “normal” they once knew. In fact, for most industries, it’s unpredictable and about as easy to forecast as the wild swings in the stock market. A large part of that uncertainty lies in the mindset of consumers right now.

A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 66 percent of Americans are worried about being impacted directly by this crisis, and 75 percent think there is some degree of likelihood that opening the economy will result in more illness. That means even with all the talk of reopening and restrictions being relaxed, your business is nowhere near the same level of sales that you were before the worldwide disaster struck, and you’re wondering if the rebound buzz is the light at the end of the tunnel or just a mirage in the desert.

That’s why a relationship with your customer is so critical at a time like this. I have always been a strong advocate for having a direct sales relationship with your customers built on trust, a solid product and in the case of marketing, humour. Now is the time to double down on that mindset, especially when social media and online platforms are the only ways you’re going to connect with potential new customers. Here are four ways to use a direct sales relationship to grow despite of the challenges.

Act, don’t react

Reacting is jumping at every little shiny object that looks like it might offer a shred of increased sales or a quick fix that keeps you afloat. But the mindset of action is having the focus to not only survive, but thrive, during a time of total upheaval and disruption in your industry. It allows you to make a plan and implement it.

Nail the message

Your message is your sales pitch, your 30-second elevator speech to the target audience that closes the deal and creates a new customer. Don’t confuse this with branding or slogans — those aren’t something you should be focusing on right now. Get sales coming in the door now, and you will have all sorts of opportunities in the future to build brand over time.

Think about how you sell your product face-to-face. What problem are you solving for the customer? How do you get and keep your customer’s attention? What questions do you ask? What stories do you tell? An important part of nailing your message, which many companies overlook, involves making sure your online message is cohesive with your normal sales pitch. That leads to the next step.

Build an effective online sales funnel

This is where your message is translated into an online sales funnel. I’m not talking about a generic website filled with products, slogans and cheesy photos of you and your team. I’m talking about an online experience that mimics real-life interactions. Walk your customer through the sale exactly like you would if you were standing face-to-face with them. Empathize with the problem your customer faces. Introduce a solution (your product) and demonstrate how it will help them overcome or avoid the problem. Build credibility and overcome concerns.

Your online sales funnel can also include a video. If you can’t sell face-to-face, video is the next best thing. Work with what you have. If you can afford a nice cinematic camera and lights, great! But don’t hesitate to shoot video on your phone if that is all you have access to. Sincerity almost always trumps polish, and introducing a little humor or light-heartedness can make a wonderful connection with your customers.

An effective online sales funnel is a crucial pivot that can not only be a lifeline but also take your business to the next level. You should always continue to refine your message and sales funnel through testing and customer feedback.

Develop your brand

Branding is what will set you apart in your niche market and create more customers who not only buy, but are also excited to be a part of your business. At this point I recommend developing your brand character. Donald Miller, author of How to Build a Storybrand, teaches that your brand character needs to show both empathy and authority. These are the attributes that win your customers’ trust.

Once your branding is established, you can make the move to marketing nirvana, branded advertising. This is where your brand and brand characters you’ve developed take on a life of their own, where people are entertained and identify with your brand and become loyal customers. They will even help you market by voluntarily sharing your content with an ever wider audience.

So why do I share all this now in the midst of this unprecedented time of upheaval and disruption? Because although I know we will sadly see businesses go under and fail, I believe that the American entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. Your business might have the next product or service that’s ready to solve a problem, take the market by storm create jobs in your community and ultimately bring more hope — and a little humor — to a world very much in need of both.

Feature Image Credit:  Ellagrin | Getty Images

By Benton Crane

CEO of Harmon Brothers

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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