The digital future
looms; who’s ready? This is easy
to preach, tough to practice
Ford sacked
its CEO in a year in which the company made record profits, for the reason that
it had not invested enough in the emerging automobile future of electric,
self-driving vehicles. If that criterion is applied, how many Indian CEOs would
retain their jobs? The question is worth pondering, as digital technology
transforms swathes of business that never imagined themselves as digital in any
fashion. Tractors could start talking to drones on their own, and insurance
majors could be left gaping, as nimble financial technology startups employing
artificial intelligence gobble up their business. Offline retail has woken up
to the e-commerce challenge in the US, and some similar stirrings are visible
in India as well. But it is not just businesses that directly confront a tech
invasion that will be affected by the power of digital transformation. Every
business will be, and must be prepared.
Of course,
technology cannot be an end in itself. To what end technology is to be
deployed, and in what manner must first be determined by the management, before
allocating a flexible budget to the chief information /technology officer. This
calls for rethinking how the customer would like to be served and how available
technologies can be marshalled to that end. This is easy to preach, tough to
practice. That is why concepts such as design thinking are capturing managerial
imagination. The point is not for CEOs to be able to mouth the bit of jargon
that is the flavour of the latest gathering at Davos, but to figure out the
likely tech-driven evolution of one’s own business — before being swept out of
the path by the competition that has cracked this piece of the puzzle. India is
fast acquiring the physical infrastructure of a connected economy that opens up
new possibilities, which would translate, in some cases, into threats for
existing business.
Adapting to
the new, tech-driven future would also generate a whole lot of new work for
Indian information technology companies. They must first acquire the consulting
capability to advise companies on what is to be done, apart from the ability to
execute it.
Source | https://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-editorials/the-digital-future-looms-whos-ready/
Regards
Prof. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library &
Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
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