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- Dr. Te Wu, CEO and CPO at PMO Advisory is a firm that provides project management consulting and training.
- Musk writes that he should treat the rebranding Twitter as X, as a transformation of business.
- Wu writes that Musk should also incentivize existing users to stay.
With astonishment, I've been following Twitter. Not every day does one witness such rash self-mutilation attempts in the name rediscovery.
Twitter's rebranding to X is the latest saga. Elon Musk's desire to remake everything to fit his vision and to pay homage to "X", as in Model X and SpaceX and his children X AE Xii, Exa Dark Siderael, seems irrational.
Musk is a man of immense wealth, and his brain is unmatched. Nothing seems impossible. Twitter is spinning into a black-hole vortex, and the birth of a new star (or perhaps X.com) is in motion. The future is never certain.
In my 30 years of experience, I have worked on many transformational projects. These include implementing ERP applications in large companies, including Fortune 500 firms.
Here are my top five project management actions to ensure this latest transformation is successful.
1. Consider it a total business transformation, not just a rebrand
Rebranding is an advertising ploy that aims to connect people with a new concept. This concept can be a logo, or any other symbol which is visually pleasing. Musk requires much more than just rebranding.
The rollout of X should be viewed as a major project. Business transformations are more revolutionary than marketing or perceptional changes.
Twitter must reframe the challenges at this point. Musk should use playbooks that are used by the business transformation community, given all of the brutal changes and destructions of value that have occurred over the past few months.
- Value of various components
- Decide what to destroy and what to salvage
- Reassembling high-value and high-potential components
- Restructuring key processes and re-engineering
- Revitalizing your business after a revamped and new start-up
2. New product development is the focus
Musk always wanted to create a "killer" app — an app that could do it all. Meta's products like WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook are not on this list. Musk confirmed to Twitter's Linda Yaccarino that he is working on a version of WeChat that will be better.
WeChat is the Swiss Army Knife app, with over one billion monthly active users.
This cross-platform application integrates "must have" features. It includes a sophisticated yet simple communication service that allows individuals and groups to communicate via voice calls, video chats, and messaging. These features are used to create whole communities and businesses, which are then accentuated by a powerful electronic payment system.
Electronic payment, for instance, has become so widespread that the Chinese government had to pass laws to force businesses to accept cash. If not, I could not buy food when visiting the country.
In the summers of 2009, when I was teaching at China Europe International Business School CEIBS in Beijing, I passed a vending-machine that sold freshly squeezed oranges. The payment system of WeChat (or any other local payment system, such as Alipay), was not available to me without a Chinese bank account. So, I would watch others tap their phones to get the delicious juice. It wasn't until a student took me in and bought the juice for me that I realized how much easier it was.
These super apps have a social impact that goes beyond their commercial value. According to one of my Chinese students, the business model for pickpockets has had to be reinvented because locals no longer carry cash, but instead rely on their smartphones.
3. Profit from existing Twitter users
If Musk's ultimate goal was to build a super-app, then the acquisition of Twitter would have made more sense. Musk could start by using the 360 million Twitter users already in existence, instead of starting from scratch.
Meta proved this by launching Threads back in July 2023. In only five days, Threads reached 100 million users. This was a record-breaking pace for technology adoption.
Musk and Yaccarino's winning strategy includes not only wooing new Twitter users but also existing Twitter users. It is crucial to encourage them to continue using X.
4. Clarify your vision
Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter less than one year ago, the majority of events have been engulfed in chaos. There is no apparent consistency or direction except for total destruction.
Not only have Twitter's employee numbers dropped, but so has the number of users.
New York's Transit Authority, for example, stopped providing updates via Twitter due to reliability issues. Musk must present a believable, compelling vision to X in order to attract high-volume, authoritative users. This is especially true for business communities.
When we start transformational projects, one of the first things that we do is discuss the future vision. We then create roadmaps to get there. There are often competing viewpoints. We evaluate the pros and con along this journey by working with key stakeholders. We are often lucky when more obvious routes for these transformational voyages appear. There will always be disagreements, and sometimes even conflicts. Early disclosure gives project teams time to explore more options.
5. Execute ruthlessly
It is not easy to implement any of the above recommendations. Building new features for products can be extremely difficult. Business transformation is an art, not a science. Take WeChat, which is a payment system at its core.
Meta, then Facebook, attempted to create its digital currency in 2019 but failed in 2022 because of intense regulatory scrutiny. It is easier to develop communication features than it is to create new communities. This is particularly true when so many alternatives are available, such as WhatsApp and Microsoft Team.
Even Twitter's most devoted followers will likely be shaken up by the recent erratic changes, and it will be hard to win them over. For X to be successful, it needs to win, or at least do "good enough", on all of these fronts.
Musk's record of accomplishing the seemingly impossible is its own benefit. Musk's latest project is not about landing a rocket on a barge, or massifying electric cars. Instead, he's dealing with culture and the ephemeral behaviors of people. Will people adopt such an app if Musk succeeds in building it?
Dr. Te Wu is the CEO and CPO at PMO Advisory. The firm provides project management consulting and training to companies including Global 500 firms and nonprofit organizations. He is an Associate Professor at Montclair State University, and Chair of the Project Management Institute’s Portfolio Management Standard Committee.
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By: insider@insider.com (Dr. Te Wu)
Title: Elon Musk needs to be ruthless if he’s going to transform X into a killer app. Here’s what he should do, according to a Fortune 500 project management expert.
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-succeed-expert-project-manager-2023-8
Published Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:00:01 +0000
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