The New Strategic Expedition up the Mountain of Value in the Age of Digital Challengers

We are at the base of Mount Everest, looking upwards, and have little idea how we really got here, or what we need to do next. There is an insidious realization that we are, in fact, at the edge of a new expedition. And, we’re not really sure if we should be angry, frustrated, or excited about what might come next.

If we’ve learned anything from the past, it’s that not all expeditions end in success. Yet, there is no safety, no sanctity in the same old “normal.” It’s not the road less traveled, it’s not “just” another story anymore; it’s now an economic expedition that you must go on, up the mountain of value that you’re sitting on.

Yet, we are incredibly inadequately prepared for the next steps. We wouldn’t survive the night, if this was a real-world expedition. Digital has always been somewhat “flippant” about how most businesses were using it.

While the instinct right now is to grab a life raft to get us across this raging river, or a ladder to get us out of the chasm that we are currently in, those who are the most prepared and the most far-sighted and strategic will be at an advantage when we come through the current situation.

We do, in essence, have three simple choices in front of us: