An outlook on tech adoption for post-pandemic industries.
What I tell my friends in the industry. #COVID-19 #Industry 4.0
COVID-19 let the hell loose on us and now we are struggling to take back control. We suddenly realise how little control we have over everything and how all of our decisions this year, whether be it managerial, operational or even personal were, at best, mitigative in nature.
Enterprises, businesses and industries all over the world have learnt this more than ever this year. But, not all industries were impacted equally by the pandemic and its two fiascos: lockdown and social distancing.
So, how has that ‘Business Continuity Plan’ been working for you lately?
The world, although sympathises with you, is not kind enough to save your decreasing revenue or hampered growth.
“The winners and losers discourse” — You probably have come across this; In brief, media has been writing all about industries and enterprises by segregating them into two camps: those that survived and the others that were cornered by the consequences of the pandemic.
So, what am I getting at? Suddenly all the weight on technology adoption has shifted from planning for the future to the need to adapt now in the present. More tech adoption and digitalisation happened this year than ever before, and we got to see first hand how winners during the pandemic could be cherry-picked amongst the others based on just the fact that how much they were being affected by everything that was disrupted in 2020. Those who were going with the flow earlier had to change to another direction and suddenly we see everyone switching to the faster lane. I could go on further and say that as a lot of people jumped onto the safest ships around, this should have been a calculated and well-planned move rather than a dire consequence. Enough metaphors. Let’s take a look at some trends that grabbed our attention this year.
- E-commerce — supply chain 4.0 and cloud kitchens #hyperlocaleverything
- Robotics — manufacturing, deliveries and drones
- IIoT — digitalization, monitoring and automation
- ICT — 5G, remote working, online productivity, real-time communication, distance learning, streaming #netflixandchill
- Fintech — blockchain and contactless transactions
These are some of many other technologies with notable impact across geographies. For a detailed review, you can read the piece below.
We already know the need to choose the right technologies that serve as our vehicles, but how are we doing as of now?
Although, Moore delves into the mechanics of how each group’s behaviour can be defined by network effects and how to strategise for jumping the chasm, for our own benefit we must interpret it from 2 aspects: The key decision-makers in enterprises and their customers.
I doubt that this is no longer the case with less than ten per cent left to go in 2020. On one side, resilience is appraised as quality to stay unaffected by external factors, on the other hand, it can be a curse for those who got left out unprepared, as they couldn’t adapt and change as per the changing times.
Predictions for key technologies for 2020 were pretty green already. There have been a gazillion articles on what tech trends that have braved 2020 and that will continue to do so for the immediate future. The interesting thing is that not much has changed largely. Case on point, technologies like AI, IoT, 5G, Big Data, Cloud, Blockchain and Robotics still remain the key contenders for dominion post-COVID-19.
Technology has been the saving grace to more businesses than I can list here.
This change/transition was seen inevitable in itself but the accompaniment of lockdowns and social distancing has given sudden jolts to our industrial ambitions.
With the majority of Industries adopting automation and digitalisation, IIoT has become the one-stop shop to unlocking Industry4.0. But don’t mistake this for a pill. It’s a recipe and you are free to make changes to it as long as it is strategic to your business goals.
Rather than being about the buzz words, it has been always about value and the value creation process. I’d advise you to add the following to you list of considerations:
- Focus on your Employees — your employees are first-class assets retaining them is hard and getting them back is even harder. Adopt technology to supplement them and compound their output.
- Digitalisation — leverage opportunities to adapt your business models to enable new revenue streams and add value. Anticipate change of expectations and behaviours. Collaborative consumption or shared economy push from ownership to rental models.
- Consider moving from push to pull economy —Move from promotion to building a reputation for people searching for you.
- Servitization — Don’t just get stuck with maintenance contracts, Add valuable services to your core products.
- Circular economy — An alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.
- Platform economy — As MIT Professor Michael Cusumano puts it, “also known as complement strategy differs from a product strategy in that it requires an external ecosystem to generate complementary product or service innovations and build positive feedback between the complements and the platform. The effect is much greater potential for innovation and growth than a single product-oriented firm can generate alone. Extremely simplified, a platform business serves as a connector between interdependent people and the product or service they are seeking. It’s like saying, “to be in that business you have to know someone.” A platform is the someone.”
- Operational technology —Move from data-centric IT systems to operational technology (OT) systems to monitor and improve processes, services and devices. Maximize the value of your offerings for your customer, increase the life of your products and reduce expenses.
- Connected Enterprise — Achieve cohesive yet decoupled models by embracing 4.x technologies. You don’t need me to tell you how downtime has affected your industry. The benefit of remote control is so evident now that it cannot be understated.
But does it all work out smoothly? Some first-hand challenges we noticed were:
- Uncertainty — uncertainty makes decision making complicated. With changing times, decision-makers are often stuck with dilemmas when it comes to the call for action. My advice is to keep things simple. If it looks complicated, then it probably is.
- Fragmentation and how to deal with it ?. Whether you like it on not, I like to believe that today’s fragmentation will be tomorrows ubiquity. So, don’t hold back because you think there can be one ideal subset. Pick and choose based on value addition and not trends and predictions.
- Speed — how fast can we adapt ?— Accept and implement there is no faster alternative. The sooner you accept your needs, the more agile you will be towards change.
- Don’t be afraid to seek support systems — This is common and we all know it. We can be obsessed with independence and proprietorship but time has always proven that you lose less when you don’t risk alone.
- Think value rather than data. The need for data is to aid clear and accurate decision making and foster simplicity. Simpler solutions are always better. It’s the ‘get things done’ attitude that shows for itself.
- Assuming cyber safety of systems that support your business. Don’t assume, confirm.
The takeaways.
- Vision: We cannot afford to be conservatives or even worse sceptics and almost everyone around is a pragmatist. We have to be visionaries.
- Plan: Mitigation should be part of our plan, also, should uncertainty.
- Team: Our team is our first need. Make technology a part of the team.
- Finance: Do not get too bogged down by ROI. Time is money.
These are the keys now, no matter the scale of your industry. Paul sallomi, global technology leader at Delloite writes:
Technology leaders will be defined by what they do along the three dimensions to managing a crisis: respond, recover, and thrive. Some key next steps include:
•Evaluate the value chain and how disruptions can be mitigated and minimized in future events.
•Drive technology adoption and innovation to support the “future of” scenarios.
•Consider M&A opportunities to enhance and grow technology capabilities.
•Understand demand and supply-side shocks and develop inventory strategies to buffer volatility and risk.
•Implement digitally-enabled future of work tools, including those for business processes and back-office functions.
What have we learnt from all this ?
You can have problems and still keep your peace of mind.
One of our customers goes on to say “who in their wildest dreams knew all this was going to happen? The world will never go back to being the same. Everything has changed and this is how it is going to be from now on. we were right to move to a new revenue model”. Its another success story that I may share another day. But we are happy that all our customers are ready for 2̶0̶2̶0̶ 2021.
I have been quite vocal lately about my thoughts on the phrase — Go with the flow. It’s usually the case where anyone who says that actually means living in the moment and not being too bothered about being in charge of the direction. The direction of what you might ask. Career, progress, business, growth, life in general, et cetera, you name it. Direction provides a degree of certainity to our decisions or goals and lately, certainty is what has been in short supply for most of 2020.
You, the decision-makers of your company are now in charge of the flow. You are not a fish neither is your business. Seize control and choose the right direction. Make the direction co-aligned with your customers. It is simple, prepare for the future when everyone is busy adapting for the present.
So, the flow was there but the current was slow, what do I do ?. Run before you fly, you can’t walk into flying. You need momentum and in these times we need to embrace strategic and long term methods. Be the wave controller. If this is the opener you needed to tip you over to the 4.X camp, we are building the river banks. Seek support systems. We, as a community, welcome you with open arms. Let us help our customers stay on course. You can be in absolute control of your businesses, and it doesn’t even require me telling you what choices you have as of now. You know it, take the calculated step in the right direction. Not for today, for the future.
