Like all successful businesses, MoreThanDigital.info was also founded in response to a market deficiency. Benjamin Talin was inspired to start his journey in this industry as he observed gaps and issues in it. He realized the importance of digitalization in his 20’s, started advising governments and ministries about SME challenges and other educational needs.
With years of experience as a businessman, publisher, and international guest lecturer Benjamin established himself as a digital expert. He had already begun his journey when he started his first business at the age of 13. Not a boy but more a man he lived in the United States for a short period and settled back to Europe to study Business and Economics in Zurich.
Building Knowledge
Benjamin sought out challenges and even did not wait for challenges to confront them. This behavior distracted his attention from study and he became famous for never being at the university. Rather he chose to build more businesses without caring about failures. He even failed his first two start-ups in Switzerland and landed doing over a dozen of internships.
Now, here is the catch, nothing goes in vain — he created his agency that turned into a company group including a consultancy company and other start-up projects. He did not stop there and opted to do a bachelor’s degree at Zurich University. With gained knowledge, he started teaching at different universities about entrepreneurship, new business models, and digitalization. The days got shinny when all these led to having lots of publications, keynotes, and guest lectures internationally.
Inception And Challenges
The first brick for MoreThanDigital was founded in 2017 when it started as a blog out of frustration. Now, it grew as the leading digital initiative in Europe and spreading arms across the world. Before formalizing strategies, the company provides yearly 2 Mio executives access to knowledge that is easy to understand and free for everyone. Being customer-obsessed fanatics they are winning the world with business knowledge services.
While interviewing Benjamin he explained the current scenario of the businesses. According to him, within the last few years especially the last decade, there was an overwhelming flood of new technologies, new business models, and new challenges occurring in the market. Many entrepreneurs could not hold up with the speed and the dependence on good consultants, external freelancers, and partners. However, these uncertainties opened doors for lots of marketing and BS within the business world which were exploited because of ignorance. These opportunities changed customer preferences too for good.
Benjamin believes that the Covid-19 pandemic was not too bad for them. He and his team kept their focus on things with optimism and hope attached. At a time when many businesses were trying to survive, the need for neutral information accelerated MoreThanDigital’s business and its platform. It was although hard as a lot of partners and supporters were struggling too, many personal objectives changed in the inner circle. They needed to develop a big project and MoreThanDigital Insights platform within these difficult times.
Engage, Just Not Sell
MoreThanDigital refrains from believing that everyone is a target. This behavior of attempting to appeal to everyone results in failing to connect with true potential customers. The company has a different approach, they engage their customer base and communicate the company’s central “why.” Working against the mainstream with limited resources is always hard for them because the circumstances put a lot of pressure on the team, partners, and everyone involved.
The company’s common vision and mission statement #bethechange prove to be a cornerstone that dictates the important part of who they are and why people love to work with them. This helps to deal with challenges on daily basis but it hits hard to go where nobody has gone before. Constantly evaluating the path, where need to go, and what other decisions need to take care of are crucial as criticism plays its part. It is prevalent every single day and there are a lot of disagreements as they do not follow the rituals. Staying true to the ideology is critical no doubt but the result makes it worth investing time and energy.
Identifying Customer Needs
Taking a broad view of customer satisfaction benefits a business. Being at the center, the company always tries to communicate as much as possible with the members of their community. The most effective way is having 1on1 meetings including getting feedback from partners, members, and of course haters. They constantly align with the needs but always try to differentiate between the “greater good” they want to achieve and single biased views who want to take only advantage.
The marketing model these days is undoubtedly 360 degree in nature as well as informed, up-to-date, targeted, and revolutionary. Adapting this principle as the backbone, MoreThanDigital helps as many members as possible to better deal with the future. So they keep trying to expand the platform for better information sharing. The company will soon launch MoreThanDigital Insights as a new powerful platform for companies to identify their weaknesses. In the future, TechValley and Academy are further cornerstones that will help grow the Company as a digital ecosystem which will eventually give more people access to the future.
Benjamin’s Message
To this end, no strategy would work if marketing is weak. Platforms and especially digital ecosystems are tough and indeed demanding. When someone wants to build multi-sided platforms and especially an ecosystem then they should brace themselves for a long ramp-up phase. They are not just by coincidence a difficult business model to manage as one has to manage the chicken-egg problem and needs to factor in many more stakeholders in the long run.
Benjamin has a message for entrepreneurs seeking careers in the industry. “Starting with your own funds, bracing for years of hard work and little income, and also try to build the platform from point to point without sacrificing your values. Many outsell their vision and values for some investors and are then surprised that it didn’t work out. Sometimes staying true to your vision is tougher than many think, fast money can then lead to wrong turns and finally could kill your idea.”
