Change is the new normal

While the industrial age emphasised stability, the age of mobility prioritises speed and adaptability. The old ways of doing business no longer apply, so how do you ready your business for the challenges and opportunities of the year ahead?

TECHNOLOGY HAS FOREVER altered our perception of time and distance, and made possible today things that only yesterday seemed like science fiction.

To survive and flourish, businesses need to prepare for the changes technology brings, says Ken Tunnicliffe, Vodafone’s acting Director Disruptive models that challenge the norm, such as Uber’s taxi services and Netflix TV, are providing a different interface to traditional services. OTT players will change the way you engage with your customers and force you to deliver your services at a much lower cost. It will occur in virtually every industry, impacting businesses of all sizes and offering consumers more choice and control. The barriers to entry for new start-ups have never been lower. The emergence of newer, better, cheaper ways of doing things will intensify, and competition will increase. for known technology disruptions coming down the pipeline. For the freight industry, this might be autonomous vehicles and drones. In manufacturing, it’s likely to be 3D printing. Where possible, don’t just respond; act disruptively and re-imagine the end-to- end delivery and experience.” Consumer-facing apps have become ubiquitous. Application developers are now moving into enterprise, creating new apps for mobile, web and desktop platforms. Businesses will initially provide lightweight apps that perform a specific task, then evolve them to create a complete workflow that can be enriched through smart machine-to-machine (M2M) application. For example they might combine inventory availability, delivery schedules and order entry to deliver a commerce workflow – all without human intervention.