Disruption: New way to gain competitive edge
Last year, a senator in the US stirred up a controversy in the otherwise considered to be “a safe and secure profession” of teaching when he emphasized the availability of the option of attending online lectures which could also reduce the burden of salary bills paid by the universities to different lecturers and instructors to teach the same course year after year. But he did mention the necessity to strike the right balance. [(1), (2)] His views may have drawn a lot of flak from different corners but we cannot undermine the point he was trying to convey.
To find a place, survive and grow in a competitive space, it is very important for business enterprises to create and sustain its competitive edge. However, with the growing intensity of competition in the dynamic and technology-driven business environment of the present day, where almost every business is trying to be innovative and unique in one sense or the other, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to hold on to their competitive edge. This is leading businesses and entrepreneurs to think out-of-the-box and come up with high-impact and innovative business ideas, solutions and models which sometimes prove to be disruptive to the prevalent competitive forces.
Disruption or disruptive innovation in the world of business can be brought about by almost anything that’s thinkable and feasible. It could be a new product or a unique pricing strategy or a new manufacturing technology or a new channel of distribution or a new packaging strategy or a new technology and so on. And with the growing proximities between business and technology, innovations in the field of business are becoming increasingly dependent on technological advancements.
Case of Business and Technology
The spurt in the number of startups and growth and expansion strategies adopted by so many existing businesses are an indication that there’s immense potential in the markets which, if we go by the demographic statistics, could only be growing with time. But there’s also an ever-increasing competition in the existing business space.
Startups and existing businesses will increasingly try to be more innovative, more competitive, more efficient and more productive with their products/services, with their value-chain processes, with their business models and even with their targeted areas of business.
And while living on the page of technologies like the internet, smart devices, BigData, analytics etc and staring at a future of automation and machine intelligence, there’s an emerging need for businesses to consider making use of these disruptive but advanced and futuristic technologies to gain a competitive edge in today’s dynamic business environment and to strengthen their foundation of business and technology towards future-readiness.
Example One: E-hailing
When e-hailing came into existence and started becoming popular, it found most of the local cab businesses taking a nap. E-hailing proved to be a disruptive business model for the conventional cab businesses, especially in the open economies.
Companies like Uber were quick enough to capitalize on two powerful technologies of its time — the internet and the smartphone and created out of it a user-friendly cab booking platform, for its potential customers, that could be used with the skills and resources the latter already possessed.
Example Two: Online streaming
Before the commercial availability of the DVDs, video rental businesses were dependent on the VHS tapes which were too expensive to be stocked and too fragile to be shipped. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph were quick to spot a business opportunity in DVD sales and rentals (by-mail) and founded Netflix in the year 1997. But with the increasing popularity and usage of the internet and declining DVD sales, Netflix made a shift to introduce video-on-demand service via the internet. Embracing the internet not only helped Netflix to rescue itself from a sinking ship (DVD) but also led to its global expansion. Interestingly, Reed Hastings holds a master degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Stanford. Marc Randolph’s paternal great-granduncle was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.
Input Sources: (3), (4), (5), (6)
The next level of disruption?
Artificial Intelligence: Companies like Google (Alphabet), Facebook, IBM, and Amazon are showing an intense interest and pouring in heavy investments in building Artificial Intelligence and AI-powered automated solutions. For example, Google X is carrying out a deep learning AI research project called Google Brain. In February 2017, Google Brain achieved a breakthrough success in image enhancement technology through which lower resolution images could be transformed into ones with a higher resolution but within certain limits.
To read more about RPA, click here Robotic Process Automation & Artificial Intelligence
Robotic Process Automation: RPA is already a widely used software technology amongst the big players like IBM, Intel, Xerox, Deloitte, Vodafone, Adobe, TCS, Cognizant, Accenture, Capgemini, Whirlpool etc which clearly reflects the potential and utility of this technology in handling business operations of varied nature.
With a proven track record, it is very likely that more and more businesses from the SME sector will start to adopt RPA.
Input Sources: (9)
Blockchain technology: Blockchain technology has emerged as one of the most secure platforms for data exchange and data storage on a digital network.
The world’s largest shipping company — Maersk, had a test run with blockchain technology for the purpose of tracking its cargo. Blockchain technology could also prove to be useful for retail companies in the better management of their supply chain process. Many big players in the global banking sector are mulling over the idea of using blockchain technology for global interbank transfers.
Input Sources: (10)
From the invention of the wheel to airplanes, emerging technologies have always been a major cause of disruption to the prevalent models of business and trading for good.
In the present era, business and technology are moving more cohesively than ever before leading to one reinforcing the other and paving the way for the development of technologies which are more informative, more efficient, more productive, more reliable and more secure in solving the problems or fulfilling the objectives of business enterprises.
In the backdrop of ever-increasing competition, dynamic nature of the global business environment and increased usage of technology in the execution of business operations, it becomes imperative for businesses to remain aware of the developments which are taking place in the field of business and technology and assess how they could be using these next-level advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain technology etc not only to gain a competitive edge but also to prepare itself for the future that is already in love with technology.
Disclaimer: The above content/publication is intended only to provide a general overview and is not to be used as a basis for the exercise of any business or professional judgment/action.
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