Legacy leadership and the Internet

We are a legacy industry. What are the implications of this with respect to the internet?

Here is a fundamental issue as I am seeing it and hearing it from my work with retailers and manufacturers on using the web to drive revenue.

It needs to be addressed right now.

Why?

Because the truth is this:

CEO’s and owners,  in many cases, don’t REALLY understand the internet and all of its applications and, as a result, are losing market share daily because of this lack of knowledge. They will not make internet and/or website investment decisions involving large sums of money.  In some cases, they are telling me, “Oh, my kids are handling that” or “My daughter is handling that initiative for us” or “My marketing VP handles those initiatives.”

CEO’s, owners, leaders: please see that you have a responsibility to understand this part of your business yourselves as you control the purse strings, for the most part, and your children and/or employees cannot sign off on major expenditures without your approval. They are waiting for you to take the lead and get 100% familiar with the new technologies and their ability to drive revenue for your businesses. It’s just too critical an area to leave in someone else’s hands and will demand an ever-increasing piece of your yearly budget in years ahead, too.  Your employees are looking to you for leadership with respect to the internet-and not just your websites.

Here is what I believe is REALLY happening that is impacting your sales:

First, your son or daughter KNOWS the internet. It’s usually a given. BUT, they don’t know the furniture business like you do. . Your sons and daughters don’t usually have the VERBAL communication skills to tell you what you need to know about the internet. They don’t know how to frame their conversations with you in a way that spells out the BENEFITS of a certain course of action(that might involve a very large investment) so that you can UNDERSTAND it. They also don’t have the overview of the industry you do so they can’t put a certain suggestion for a course of action into context. As a result,  they DON’T SEE the revenue opportunities inherent in certain internet plays-and neither do you.

It’s a huge problem. On one hand, you have the financial decision maker-you- with little to no knowledge. On the other hand, you have a person with knowledge and skill but with little to no ability to contextualize nor to think strategically nor to communicate in lingo that you can understand and absorb(your children).

Now, in the case of your senior VP of marketing, they may, indeed, understand the revenue potential of the internet and certain software applications. BUT…and here is the huge BUT..they are reluctant to tell you-especially when they know you don’t understand the internet-what you REALLY should be doing because they don’t want to risk their jobs or have you think they are off on a wild tangent or spending money recklessly-especially in this economy. However, the wild tangent is probably exactly where you should be making your investments right now.  SO what happens? You are not even HEARING about these ideas. And, guess what? The salespeople who really have a solution that could boost your revenues never get past square one because they must “go in” through the marketing “silo.” Yikes..this is a formula for disaster…and the fallout from this is all too obvious to me and to you, too, as you see one retailer after another struggling.

The operative words seem to be “Let’s go slowly” “Let me review this some more” “Let me ask……..”.  Guess what?

There is nothing inherently wrong in going slowly, except that, in the world of the internet, everything moves at lightning speed. It is not a baby step world. As a result, our industry is light years behind other consumer durables categories in MAXIMIZING revenue from web based initiatives and our consumers know it and can sense it.

So, with important new technology driven revenue models under the radar of  most CEO’s, our industry is flailing. It’s not flailing because of the economy, it’s flailing because the consumers can SEE that we don’t, for the most part, GET how they want to shop for furniture and we make it ….difficult to do business with us.

We have GOT to respond to the consumer’s demands for multi-channel shopping opportunities and connecting with each other through social networking. And, you must understand the importance of taking control of your online reputation. For a good example of the impact this can have on a brand, go to www.complaints.com or www.epinions.com and search under furniture. Yikes!

I KNOW it’s disruptive, I KNOW.  I KNOIW you are already time strapped, BUT, it will be even MORE disruptive if even more of you  go out of business because you lacked the simple knowledge that would have allowed you to understand, at a fundamental level, the opportunities inherent on the web for revenue generation for your companies. This isn’t just e-commerce, there are many, many more-many of which are yet to be understood AT ALL.

I wish I had a dime for all the people that have asked me about what social networking is! Or online reputation management or analytics-all areas I work in.  Even fewer can put these areas into context to understand how they can use them to drive new revenue streams.

I am getting emailed daily by people-outside of the “traditional” players we all know, who DO get it, though, and this is what worries me for those of you who don’t. There is a whole new community of players in our industry who get no media attention at all and who are actively employing the tools of web 2.0 technology to ramp up their sales-nationally and internationally.  Check out www.modernsofa.com or www.funkysofa.com. Pure play-doing MILLIONS a year on the internet-no brick and mortar and only selling sofas… Hmmm….

So, if you don’t “get it” what do you do? Hire me for executive internet coaching on a one on one-very confidential-basis. Seriously. I will help you understand and contextualize what the opportunities are on the internet. Bring in your children and your marketing people, too, but ONLY AFTER we talk. I wish I could recommend another resource, as I usually do, but for this conversation, I am your “go to” resource.

As leaders, please understand what is at stake and do not be afraid to be vulnerable. We ALL started at the bottom with no understanding,but, now, when your consumers are switching channels at an alarming rate, you can no longer afford to leave this knowledge in the hands of the younger generation who lack the ability to put it in context for you and who don’t have the experience with ALL of of the stakeholders involved. When  leaders are in a position of not knowing what they don’t know -this is cause for serious alarm and, I believe, the reason so many of our companies are in trouble.

There is hope- a LOT of it. There are furniture retailers who are doing EXTREMELY well. I talk to them because they find me on www.linkedin.com and other social networking sites.  Deep understanding of the internet(not just your website) is the information gap that exists in our business. It’s time to fill the gap and build a new mountain. Call me.