A survey of Australian and New Zealand businesses just released [June 2018] by the Chartered Accountants Association of Australia and New Zealand has found that Technological Change is the #1 trend expected to have the most impact on businesses in the near future.
In coming years, automation, combined with economic and social factors, will cause changes to an estimated 40-60% of all jobs.
More than six out of 10 school children today will end up working in new types of jobs that don’t yet exist, according to CBS News (December 2017).
For some businesses, up to 70% of sales are of products that didn’t exist five years ago.
Those are just some of the reasons why a new book, THE BUSINESS OF CHANGE, by Ricoh New Zealand CEO Mike Pollok, is essential reading for New Zealand organisations facing Digital Transformation.
The book explores the very real digital threats and opportunities facing New Zealand right now and aims to help Kiwi organisations to cope with, and take advantage of, the new realities of business today and tomorrow.
THE BUSINESS OF CHANGE reviews many of the key technologies impacting on NZ businesses from Artificial Intelligence to Robotics, from the Internet of Things to 3D Printing to Connected Vehicles. There are scores of examples and case studies from New Zealand and elsewhere, and the book explores step by step how organisations of any size can reinvent themselves to prepare for digital transformation to avoid getting left behind.
THE CHALLENGE FOR NZ BUSINESSES
Every NZ industry, whatever it may be, is destined for disruption and destruction within the next decade. And, if you don’t do something about that, your organisation just might join the video chains, music stores, bookstores and other vulnerable industries that didn’t react quickly enough.
44 percent of New Zealand’s local business operators already believe* that the nature of their industry will be significantly changed by technology within the next 10 years.
Yet, so far, only 50 percent of NZ businesses have integrated digital strategy into their corporate strategy#. Those who haven’t are placing themselves at significant risk.
So, why aren’t more organisations actively evolving their operations?
Source: Harvard Business Review/Scout RFP 2017
In short, it’s the usual suspects: a lack of expertise, knowledge, resources, vision, time and/or money. Of those, the most damning is the lack of corporate vision. King Canute would be proud.
WHICH INDUSTRIES?
Some industries are more obvious candidates than others, as this recent research indicates:
Source: Competing in 2020, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Report
SO HOW CAN KIWI BUSINESSES SURVIVE AND THRIVE?
1 Find out your current status
Do your homework. Launch an audit to determine the current status of your business and your industry and establish your organisation’s digital strengths and weaknesses.
2 Determine opportunities and threats
Set up brainstorming sessions with your colleagues to determine the most likely sources of digital disruption for your industry. Involve your customers as well.
3 Establish new objectives
What is your business already trying to achieve, that it would wish to maintain and expand upon in a digital environment?
4 Get support from the top
Without endorsement from top management, you’re unlikely to succeed.
5 Take action
Change is coming. If you’re not ready, you’ll be left behind.
FOR MORE ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, SEE “THE BUSINESS OF CHANGE”:
* MYOB Future of Business report April 2017
# 10th PwC Digital IQ Survey 2017
