Graduates Mean Business
Digital Marketing Graduates are the new disruptive influence, challenging traditional business thinking and practice.
They are breaking new ground, breaking down barriers, and making innovation a reality.
Disruptive innovation, is innovation that creates new methods of thinking and practice, and displaces established ways of working.
New innovations (disruptive influences) have reshaped the landscape of business for generations. Those who have ignored it or resisted it, have ultimately paid the price and gone out of business. Progress and development will always be the winner.
Disruptive innovations shake up and sweep away existing practices and replaces them, because they have attributes that are recognisably superior.
Digital Graduates are the way forward for digital marketing. They are already here. It is already happening.
Businesses must choose to embrace this new reality, or miss out.
Level of demand by Businesses
The generation of graduates emerging over the last 5-10yrs have grown up with technology.
They haven’t known it any other way. Graduates and technology are just a natural fit
Taken one step further, graduates who specialise in digital technology, are in high demand. It is a career path with a very bright future. Competition for their services will intensify further over time.
Businesses globally depend on computers, and there is no doubt that the future business world will be even more dependent on computers.
Businesses need to remain at the sharp end of digital technology, so that they have a realistic chance of keeping pace and creating an edge over competitors. This makes people graduating with degrees in this field, in high demand.
In terms of understanding and applying new technology, graduates, particularly those in the 1-4yr post grad category, represent probably the most ideal fit.
They have an invaluable combination of leading edge knowledge and an ever increasing level of diverse work experiences.
This positions them as powerful expert generalists, eg SEO, social media, content creation, graphic design etc
This is distinct from Marketing Specialists, functional experts, adept in developing marketing programmes, market strategy, research and analysis of market data etc
Graduates have enviable versatility, which businesses are keen to capitalise on.
The digital world is unique in many ways, and does not slot comfortably into the conventional notion that experience picked up over many years working in an industry sector is an advantage over up and coming new entrants.
Because of the speed of technological development, and the imperative to be “up to date”, the preferred front runners are inevitably always going to be digital post graduates, rather than more work-experienced hires.
Digital graduates are blessed with a broad and multipurpose skill set, and adept in a wide range of digital areas. Importantly, they possess a range of hard and soft skills, that employers are looking for that will demonstrate they have what it takes, to meet expectations in a variety of roles.
Hard skills
While graduates may be expected to fill non-specialist positions, they are required to have high level technical abilities, ie the “hard” skills necessary to fulfil the appointment criteria and achieve the expected impact. These may include such aspects as: statistical data analysis, software skills, programming, coding etc
Soft skills
Soft skills are self developed attributes, picked up through life and work experience. whilst not specific to a particular job, they are vital in almost every industry. Examples include: communication, interpersonal relationships, teamwork and collaboration, creativity and open-mindedness, leadership, adaptability.
So…..Where from here?
The use of Graduates gives customers what they already have and value, but make it better.
So where do companies go from here? Where to next?
One option is to sit back ”for the time being”, on the assumption that you can only judge these things accurately in hindsight.
But why make less profit now, when you can make more? Because by not taking up the opportunity when it is available, it might mean you end up with no profits, rather than less.
One of the more consistent patterns in business, is the failure of Market Leaders to stay on top of their industry, when technology and innovation changes.
Why is it that companies which have the means to invest in new technology and innovation, to protect their market position, dither and sidestep the opportunity?
The smaller, less capital blessed firms, adopt the new technology and innovation and often excel for vastly different reasons over the established businesses, and win the market.
With the compelling evidence of disruptive innovation etched into the archives of business history, present day companies can free themselves of the mistakes that so many companies in the past have made, and protect their future.