The Future of Business in the Digital Era

Is it really possible to predict the future of organizations in this Digital Era? Yes, because all organizations will eventually be transformed by social and digital technologies. It is not a question of if, but when. We are living in an exciting time.

Organizations have to recognize there will be no foreseeable slowdown in the pace of technology changes and prepare themselves to harness and utilize relevant technologies if they intend on remaining relevant. To achieve this means investing in resources that are able to gather disparate strands of information from a variety of sources and apply them to the organization’s purpose, aspirations and objectives to see what their future could look like. Such insight will allow businesses to ultimately begin to see how they will have to adapt and change if they are to thrive in this Digital Era.

As can already be seen the advent of the Digital Era has certainly begun to change many aspects of how businesses operate. From communications, internally and externally (a demand for increased transparency in all things), to product development (no longer the purview of the R&D department or business, today many external stakeholders have a say in what and how products are developed and taken to market), to the rise of the virtual workforce (colleagues may not be in the same city much less country, and they can be working from anywhere, not necessarily an office) to how learning takes place (corporate learning departments no longer control what, where and how employees outside of an on-boarding programme learn as employees have begun to take charge of their own learning needs), to cite a few examples.

Then of course we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the impact of robots and robotics on businesses. For the majority of businesses, the thought of how artificial intelligence will impact how they function and do business is currently not even a consideration. However, it will not be long before they become an integral part of how business is done.

Whilst it may take some time for large organizations to feel a major and/or sustainable impact, they will inevitably be impacted because people are not waiting for organisations to necessarily provide solutions to problems they are facing. They are using existing and new technologies to come together with people of similar interests, concerns, problems to develop their own solutions because organizations are deemed too slow at responding to their needs. As this behaviour gains momentum and people become more confident and experienced at using the technologies to create new products and services, there will naturally be a direct impact on existing businesses as their market share and influence begin to wane.

In general, I believe that if existing organizations are to have a future they can no longer pursue growth and returns simply for the benefit of the organization and a few select stakeholders. Trends show that the advantages large organizations have had since the beginning of the Industrial Era are being eroded as a result of digital technologies and new and different approaches to businesses are springing up everywhere. One just needs to consider new currencies such as Bitcoin or the collaborative economy which is becoming stronger daily.

Organizations today need to function as part of an ecosystem, a business ecosystem. This calls for them to work together with a variety of individuals and organizations, in ways they would not have considered before these technologies were available. These digital technologies have, ironically, increased the human face of business because they are both personal and social. For the most part, the future of organizations looks as if it could be underpinned or directed by social constructs. Organizations in the future will move away from the traditional way of treating people as faceless and anonymous to personalization and operating as part of a supportive community.

Image courtesy: freedigitalphotos.net - "Time for change digital clock shows revision new strategy and go" by Stuart Miles