Digital Transformation Series｜Grupo Global: A 90-year-old media company's successful experience in digital transformation!

With the rapid upgrading of technology, a company that has been very successful in the past may suddenly be knocked down by new competitors. It is no longer possible to keep up with the pulse of this era simply by sitting on the advantages of past achievements. Digital transformation is already an enterprise forever. important issues for continued operations. But how to make a successful digital transformation? Let's take a look at the success of an established media company!

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In today's rapidly changing environment of technology, if you don't keep up with the trend and follow the trend, a company that has been very successful in the past may or may be knocked down suddenly. Even if he used to be a leader in the industry, or an important first brother and second brother in the industry, he is no match for such changes in the times. Today's society is different from the past. It is not just relying on the advantages of the past, but to keep up with the pulse of this era.

For readers who are not very clear about the concept of digital transformation, you can refer to articles such as "digitalization" vs "digital transformation" and the four elements of digital transformation .

Digital Transformation Success Story: Grupo Global

Grupo Global is Brazil's largest media company with eight subsidiaries, covering areas such as television, radio, magazines, and the Internet. In 2013, the company experienced financial difficulties, and operations began to flash red. In 2015, the company appointed a new CEO, Federic Kachar, with one ideal: to make change.

Change - the traditional business model is not feasible

Kachar first analyzed the market and found that three factors affected the development of enterprises: the business model , the way users were informed, and the economic environment in Brazil at the time . He found that the company's business model is dominated by advertising revenue, which accounts for 60% of all revenue. Users are reluctant to spend money to watch content. This is a big challenge for its subsidiary O Global.

Starting from recruiting new employees, he replaced a group of older executives in the company and brought in some young, enthusiastic and creative new blood. In addition, he moved all his employees to a new office building, where the previous culture of being divided into several separate offices no longer exists, and everyone can work and communicate in the same space. Kachar believes that "the new building is not just a change of address ", but a new beginning to symbolize a new corporate culture.

Kachar found that although O Global has incorporated some digital concepts, it is still mainly based on paper. The direction of the entire operation is to produce a paper version before get off work, rather than continuously releasing new content during the day. The quality of the content of the enterprise is very good, so Kachar thought, why not transfer all these high-quality paper copies to the Internet and start a new digital journey.

Change - three directions to get back on track

Kachar believes that " life is digital, and our customers are 24/7 and may need to read. Customers don't want to wait for a newspaper that is only updated once a day. We have to do for our content on the Internet. A very special, very different digital product. ” The people at the company never thought they would collaborate and work together, after all, each department and each subsidiary works and operates very differently.

There are three major directions to solve this problem: a whole new workflow , a production system that extends from the core, and a super table (similar to a combat coordination center) !

The new workflow is a 24/7 format for publishing high-quality content, divided into five time slots: 8:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, 5:00pm and 9:00pm, through continuous Sexual content is published to cultivate readers' habits and loyalty. At the same time, their first meeting started at 7:30 in the morning, past this time, the editor has not come to work, but now, they have to gather in a space, with the other staff to come up with ideas, discuss new ideas, and put These ideas are converted into digital form. After the morning meeting, they would sit down with designers, developers, executives at the super table, and customer-oriented staff to discuss the topic of the content.

Grupo has a centralized management of content release, integrating the fragmented brands in the past, allowing editors and reporters to produce content together, and then sending the content to different brands and their platforms.

As for the large table, which was placed in the center of the entire office, there were six senior reporters sitting. These reporters, who know how to get everything right together, play a very important role in the strategy, not only overseeing the process, but also coaching other editors and reporters. While constantly urging editors and journalists to consider digital platforms, they must not forget the importance of traditional paper versions. The design of this super table is the key to consistently producing great content.

Change - Infusing digital thinking into corporate culture

Kachar has adopted a new business model on their O Globo website, first, users can read five free articles, and after registering, they can read five more articles. But Kachar found that since implementing the business model in 2015, subscription rates were too low, creating serious revenue problems. The problem they face is conversion rates, and the best strategy is useless without the right people executing in the right positions.

They found that for such a strategy to succeed, to move them out of their traditional culture, they needed to be led by modern, open-minded young journalists. Alan Gripp, executive editor-in-chief and leader of the Super Table, said:

" Our goal is to use intelligence, technology and various forms of data to provide customers with the highest quality content. The right content is produced at the right time, so that readers can become partners of the company. We have all the conditions to win this war. "

Data integration and analysis has become the most important basis for all editorial and strategic decision makers. They found that customers only visited Globo.com once or twice a month, so they focused on " how to convert these customers into loyal customers ", that is, heavy users of the site. With this goal in mind, they started planning a new newsletter, developing a video, radio and mobile website. Finally, it succeeded in increasing the number of heavy users.

Grupo Global, a media company that has been in business for 90 years, has succeeded in its digital transformation because all people are working together towards the big goal of "digital transformation". Everyone knows that change is the only way to survive. In the past, the job of editors was to just write the content, but now, they not only have to work digitally, but also think digitally.

(Reference website: How digital transformation will change a 90-year-old newspaper )