Paipa is small, but beautiful city in Colombia, which is a nice place for companies to hold client events.  Intergrupo, one of the biggest technology firms in the country, invited me to their event here in Paipa to speak with some of their large customers about Digital Innovation.  I had the opportunity to speak to them about how I think one should think about the adoption of digital tools and about success stories of companies taking advantage of cloud computing, social media and other tools.  It was great to hear the audience’s comments and opinions.

Many in the audience mentioned many challenges here in Colombia (and Latin America) in order to adopt new digital tools in order to create new competitive advantages.  I saw much interest from all of the companies in investigating new ways to analyze, collaborate on and design new business models, the topic of my workshops.

My premise is that, first, a solid strategy needs to be in place for your company to develop or enhance its competitive position (differentiation).  This is by no means a trivial process (and it’s one that I’m passionate about). With this strategy mapped out, then, one can start selecting technology that will help you achieve your objectives.

This is the topic that I’ll be talking about during my speech on digital innovation during the B2B event that Legis is holding in a few weeks.  I hope to see some of you there!

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Apple has all the freedom it wants in creating interesting new devices and software.  Nevertheless, when it comes to dealing with book publishers, studios and the like, things can seem a bit, shall we say, confining.  These companies are scared to death of a further squeeze on margins and having their valuable content swimming around on the Internet for free.

With the iPad, Jobs has launched yet another device for viewing all types of content including, now, books.  As more and more millions of users consume media on one or more of these devices, Jobs is creating a gated distribution system where he can experiment with different pricing schemes.  As more and more publishers, studios and music companies come on board and accept this state of affairs, it becomes harder for the remaining companies to hold out.

I’m sure some of these hold outs correctly understand the incredible power that could potential be in the hands of one company (Apple) and shudder.  However, as Jobs continues to add more consumers and more devices, these companies will find it more and more difficult to stay away from his massive distribution system.  The Apple media consumption ecosystem will only become more compelling as it’s pace of digital innovation accelerates.

It certainly is an amazing thing to watch.  While many executives understand from a theoretical level that things are changing (particularly in the media industry), Jobs understands what he needs to do to take advantage of what’s happening.  While many focus on specific nuances of each beautifully designed gadget that he launches, they risk losing the forest from the trees.

A major transformation is taking place before our eyes.  Content creation in the form of books, newspapers, movies, and music as a business has been bound to specific distribution businesses for many years. Sometimes they reside in the same legal entity (e.g., newspapers) and sometimes have ties to well-established distribution partners and Jobs is accelerating the transformation of these distribution channels (in many cases physical channels) into one digital bit stream.

In the process, the actual content will certainly be transformed.  Just as music companies are able to provide added content through iTunes; book publishers, newspapers and others will be able to provide added value through these new channels.  There will be many players vying for a role in this new ecosystem, but Steve Jobs, with a growing minion of subscribers to his media consumption platform (e.g., iTunes, iBook, Apps, etc.) will be a difficult force for the any media company to ignore.

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It’s impossible to tell whether the aforementioned documents paint a picture of a rudderless management team grasping at “strategy” straws or of one that is sufficiently aware of the tremendous potential opportunity within their grasp and, consequently, are at ease, openly analyzing their options. Though I’d vote for the latter, after perusing this information, it seems to me to be even more instructive of the industry as a whole.

The first thing that stuck with me after reading some of these documents is how nontrivial it is for a company such as Twitter to define what it is they are or what it is they do.  It seems that opinions within the company’s ranks ranged from “an index to my friends [sic] thoughts” all the way to a “way to share what’s happening.”  Additionally, the conversation on defining Twitter’s value and differentiation in terms of it’s utility for discovery (as opposed to Google search) seems appropriate and relevant.

This last discussion is particularly intriguing and revealing as it provides context for any possible discussions with companies such as Google and Facebook.  It’s pretty clear that Twitter content would provide an excellent complement to Google’s search results.  Thus, one can certainly find justifications for Google to partner or even acquire Twitter and it’s obvious that a number of companies are courting the company for just that purpose.  Aside from leveraging the resources of a larger company and providing an exit to its investors, the justification for being acquired is less straightforward.

Finally, for the first time, we are getting a clearer picture of the company’s revenue objectives ($100M annual revenue in two years) and possible monetization plays.  Initial monetization discussions and possible acquisition candidates seem to be focused on some branding opportunities (CoTweet) and a possible future focus on interesting mobile initiatives (Tweetie).   Nevertheless, it’s obvious from said documents that management’s main concern is building an organization, improving the customer experience and positioning the Twitter brand.  Just as importantly, much mention is made of leveraging a newer API to accelerate the “Twitter everywhere” strategy.

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the apparent company direction exposed in these documents, the unexpected explosive success of Twitter has certainly made us rethink the social media space.  Perhaps a more appropriate question that we need to ask ourselves is not so much whether Twitter’s management team is getting it right, but whether we understand the true potential of all of these new social media tools as they continue to permeate our lives.

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