Not Uber-Scale? Digital Is Still Headed Your Way
Ask a dozen CEOs what digital means to them, and you’ll likely get a dozen different answers. That’s not a sign of ignorance, but simply a sign of the times. The digital era is still quite young, and many executives continue to have their own take on what it all means.
But here are few things you can count on, regardless of your company’s size:
-Everything that can go digital will go digital
-The pace of the change is what no one is understanding
-Only in looking back will we recognize the immensity of the disruption
Given the constant noise around digital disruption, it’s not surprising that many organizations confuse being truly digital with simply bolting digital technologies onto existing offerings.
This strategy of incremental innovation may satisfy immediate customer appetites for greater accessibility and convenience, but it’s not enough to help organizations drive significant and sustained revenue growth to stay ahead of the competition.
Becoming a truly digital business requires much more than doing the same old things in different ways. You’ve no doubt see this observation making the rounds, courtesy of TechTarget’s Tom Goodwin:
“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.”
Goodwin’s got this much right: something powerful is indeed happening in the digital economy. New business models and players are turning industries upside down. Lots of companies won’t make it; tech savvier ones will emerge.
Digital disruption, powered by the seminal technologies of cloud, mobile, data analytics and social runs much deeper than most people understand. It is about modernizing manufacturing and financial process, overhauling entire supply chains, bringing more intelligence to marketing and sales strategies, making it easier for people and teams to collaborate, while rethinking talent recruitment and management.
You don’t have to be Uber-scale to be affected. Most everything – stores, warehouses, factories, pipelines, networks and all manner of goods and services they deliver – is being affected. CEOs need to make sure their companies are not the last ones to be spending gobs of money to build, maintain and produce for an old-economy that is being quickly passed by.
I hope you enjoyed the first article of the Digital Transformation series. We will be posting a new article every week!
About the Digital Transformation Series:
Over the next few months Applied Tech President and CEO Kurt Sippel will be exploring “Digital Transformation” in a series of articles with the hope to inform, educate, and discuss its many different facets. Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future shifts in mind. Kurt will explain how this effects your business, how to best prepare and how to leverage the technology to get the upper hand on your competition.
About Kurt Sippel:
CEO Kurt Sippel began his technology career at age 18 when he began providing consultation services to various small businesses in Fond du Lac County. This was followed by eight years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he managed and taught research technology while pursuing a Master’s degree in urban and regional planning.
In 1999 Kurt left the university to start his own firm, Applied Tech Solutions Inc. to focus on the technology needs of small and medium sized businesses. Applied Tech is now the leading IT managed service provider in Dane County and has offices in Madison, Waukesha and Stevens Point.
