What are the challenges of managing internet / e-marketing/ e-commerce / e-anything in a big corporate environment? The glory and certainly the press tend to follow those of us in the flashy world of startups, but most internet managers will have spent a portion of their careers in established companies (what used to be called “bricks-and-morter” around the height of the dotcom boom). Today, even the most change-resistent corporations have acknowledged that the internet is more than a passing fad and integrated some degree of internet strategy into their business. Listed public corporations regularly boast to potential investors about their internet operations and even the local home furnishings chain is likely to have some sort of web manager on staff. One could almost be forgiven for thinking that bricks-and-morter business has transitioned into the internet age without the major internal strife and backlash that normally accompanies significant organizational change. The truth, as any corporate internet strategist will tell you, is actually all about internal strife and backlash, as internal hierachies and structures resist the change wraught upon them by new media and technologies.

Just as I was considering drawing up my own list of challenges, I came across an enlightening study from the folks over at the Internet Strategy Forum. The complete results from the 2006 Corporate Internet Strategist Survey are available for purchase, but the research brief already reveals a fascinating story:

Let’s be honest — the first and second results could apply to anyone in just about any function (rare would be the manager in a big company who would not complain about headcount and budget). It gets really interesting starting with point three and moving down the list. For today’s internet managers, its all about being effective, understood, and recognized. In established businesses, internet managers are essentially change agents, brought in the organization to revise existing ways of conducting business. If you are given this responsibilty, but not granted the authority or provided the resources to enact change, you are going to struggle and occassionally yearn for the flexibility of a startup company or consultancy. Of course, this is great news for Web 2.0 companies, which compete for the same talent and can benefit from managers with real experience in the world of big business.

Friday, June 15th, 2007 @ 11:45 am Uncategorized
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