The M-Bomb: Riding the Multi-Channel Whirlwind - Softcover

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Geoff Webb brings his experience from driving change and innovation in the most aggressive blue-chip businesses around the world. He is also the founder of The Webb Partnership, an international consulting group specialising in customer innovation and e-services strategy and implementation. During the last three years Geoff and his team have worked with and supported hundreds of leading retail and consumer businesses around the world. He knows where the bodies are buried in building new channels to market.

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"For nearly 20 years I have watched Geoff challenge and change conventional business wisdom. His writing captures his management style, intelligent, fast, hard-edged, intolerant of 'fluffy' thinking but with just enough humour to make it all acceptable. The M-Bomb brings together his experience and his vision for building dynamic competitive edge in a pragmatic and deeply thought provoking way: mercifully it is also entertaining. Read it and be prepared to change the way you think!" Iain Ferguson, Chairman, Birds Eye Walls "First the phoney war, then the M-Bomb. Geoff Webb has written the definitive survival guide to this new war zone for all brand owners who care for their precious assets." John M Sunderland, Chairman, Cadbury Schweppes

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The M-Bomb The Internet bubble has burst, hasn't it? The fluff and nonsense is all over and we can get back to serving customers and building brands the way we used to. Wrong! The hopeless Internet plays have drawn our eyes away from the real threat that has crept into the markets. The multichannel game is on. A far more dangerous and subtle game. The simple e-commerce experiments are giving way to highly credible and profitable services that use Internet technologies to unlock the potential of hugely successful traditional brands. Weaving the new with the old, the leaders are creating remarkable services that meet real customer needs and make money - lots of it. Businesses like Wal-Mart, Citigroup, Sony, Carrefour, Tesco and GE are rumbling into action and are threatening established players in every sector. Many of the best brands in the world are hopelessly ill-equipped for the challenge. The M-Bomb represents the multi-channel challenge which is forcing businesses to equip themselves to deliver products and services efficiently to the home and on the high street, online and through traditional sales channels. Another product, another channel, another market, no problem. Failure to meet this challenge at low cost means certain extinction. Geoff Webb brings his huge experience from hundreds of bricks and mortar and e-business innovations to offer a comprehensive guide for businesses to help them survive the M-Bomb and thrive in the world to come. Winning companies must reorganise themselves to successfully manage clicks, bricks and other tricks smoothly and profitably. Customers will expect to be served in any way they choose - at no extra charge. With examples from financial services, manufacturing, retail, telecoms and the food industry, The M-Bomb is the first practical guide to the next five years of business. Geoff Webb backs up every insight, every assertion, every must-do and every bear-trap with a living example from the markets and his vast international business.

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Introduction

Let's face it - the Internet hasn't yet touched the vast majority of households or the way that we live our lives, The first fluffy years have certainly seen lots of useful bits and pieces happening in personal communication, travel and banking. Unfortunately most of the puff and wind has come from established brands developing pathetic Websites, while dotcoms screamed loudly and expensively in the slot next to Ally McBeal, like a little rich kid who no one recognizes or wants to hear.

The shock wave of the Internet hasn't come close to hitting yet - whatever the hype says. So is the Internet really just a fashion statement, a side show, an email and sex thing?

Wrong question! It has never been about the Internet. The Internet on its own is a damp squib. The traditional business isn't dead and brand is a bigger king than ever before. This is an integration thing. A pick 'n' mix, plug 'n' play, best of both worlds thing.

The new competitive battle is for the major brands to extent what they do. They must recognize themselves to touch existing and new customers in both traditional channels and online channels, at high levels of efficiency. They must create the business model to fold partner skills and products in with their own, to offer a steady stream of services and product innovation across these different channels. Different types of customers able to get precisely what they, how they want.

This transformation is hard to achieve. Most businesses around the world are either hypnotized by the siren voices of the pure Internet options or are in denial and placing bets on the status quo. Many dotcoms are in even greater trouble because they don't even have the established brand, let alone the mix of traditional channels and skills to anchor this offer.

This fundamental challenge is the m-bomb, and it will push into new ownership or just kill off up to 80% of today's successful brands over the next five years. This is because the costs of managing efficient multi-challenge supply chains, marketing, communications and customer services will go ballistic if you just tinker with how you currently do things. Some smart investment and vision is required to communicate across the old and new media and to touch and service customers in ways that they will respond to. The businesses which can organize themselves quickly to master the multi-channel game will do hugely well, as they sweep up the diamonds in the debris from those operations which can't evolve their brands and services fast enough.

In Part 1 we will explore why the m-bomb is ticking and distil the evidence we see around us in the markets, of who is losing the plot and who is getting there. We look at some of the hills to climb as well as some reasons to smile a little.

In Part 2 we look at how to create the strategy, organization and business agenda for the next five years. By distilling the lessons from 1000 company years of real multi-channel innovation we will detail the practical changes, business approaches and actions that you will need to take in your business. Every insight has anecdote and a practical example or two. If you are anxious to go straight to the meat of what you must do (and go back to why you must do it later), then jump straight to page 35 now.

In Part 3 we look at how to implement the changes and how to create the environment and culture which will accept and accelerate the new customers offers and revenue streams. WE over the ways that you must build and experiment, as well as the ways to kick the "thought police" out of the way.

In Part 4 we summarize the immediate steps the winning businesses will need to take and look forward to some more mini-bombs and future trends to track and watch out for.

Tick, tick, tick, tick ...