Are You Ready For The Digital Economy?
The world of business is fracturing with the advent of the digital economy. The internet plays a central role as it enables the collection and sharing of information in a way that creates value and enormous profit. Businesses that make the shift to the digital economy will succeed; those that don’t will falter and fail.
Changing times
The changes taking place are often described as revolutionary in the same way that the introduction of computers heralded a new era some decades ago.
Whether the shift to a digital economy is one of evolution or revolution the results are the same as businesses gather endless information and extract chunks of value.
Businesses that rely on historical data suffer, as their decision-making is detached from the market; businesses that use real-time information flourish, as their decision-making is embedded in the market.
Information provides insight into what customers are doing and, more crucially, what they are likely to do in the future, which informs pricing models to increase sales and supply models to reduce costs.
The profit benefits and cost savings made from the use of information ensure the competiveness of businesses that embrace digital tools; and equally mark the demise of those that don’t.
The best way to understand the new business environment is to understand that the digital economy at its naked core is all about collecting customer and cost information and finding value therein.
Today’s personal computers, laptops, tablets and more importantly smartphones are now deployed as digital smart tools to extract the maximum amount of personal and business information.
Smart sensors too are playing a role as they embed in innumerable products as silent spies to collect customer and service information on a 24/7 basis.
Finding value
The key value of such intense activity is the capture of company specific insights into the current habits and future behaviours of customers and the market.
From the collection of such detailed information businesses work to develop new products, increase sales, reduce costs and operate with greater efficiency.
From a sales point of view, businesses identify customers who are happy and likely to stay loyal and customers who are unhappy and likely to leave for a competitor.
From a cost point of view, businesses identify underperforming personnel, machines and vehicles and fix them before they become a significant or costly problem.
Businesses with the ability to collect information, learn from it, apply the lessons learned and gain greater insights and create greater value than their competitors.
But what difference does it make to businesses and how they operate?
Businesses that embrace the digital economy know exactly what they need to do to stay relevant and businesses that don’t struggle and fall behind.
SO, the great and, at times, frightening transformation to the digital economy is already underway and businesses must embrace it to survive and find success.
