Digital Disruption, a rapid transformation in the business ecosystem

In 90’s when you were in your pre-teens and the digital transformation has not taken India in its clutches and every video game that you bought was from a local vendor in the market, a favourite weekend destination for the entire city but as you grew up, things started falling apart to pave a way for a rapid transformation and now browse Grofers or Amazon even for our daily necessities. This is a real-life example of the digital transformation that has swept us off our feet.

The above transformation has been made possible due to Digital Disruption. Though, there are multiple definitions of this term which was first coined by Clayton M. Christensen, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Here are some commonly used definition-

“Digital disruption is the change that occurs when new digital technologies and business models affect the value proposition of existing goods and services.”

“Digital disruption is an effect that changes the fundamental expectations and behaviours in a culture, market, industry or process that is caused by, or expressed through, digital capabilities, channels or assets.”

In both these definitions, the word ‘Change’ is central, change due to the recent developments on the digital front and also due to the shifting focus of the consumers to these changes, which has disrupted the existing conventional business model, where digital media did not play a very significant role.

While new digital-centric business models have been the main focus of the companies around the world, but there is another addition in the form of Artificial Intelligence. We will further discuss in detail and also provide an overview on how to accelerate your digital journey?

Classically, the most potent mode of reaching out to the consumers was through print media and television and advertisement hoarding. The companies would be more or less sure of the consumer base, their likes and dislikes, necessity and luxury, etc., and it was fairly easy to understand and predictable. It’s a topsy-turvy situation today, millions of consumers, with million different taste and preferences, thousands of brands eager to sell their product, thriving online market, social media, shopping applications, a feedback mechanism etc. It is all flooded and it will be hard if someone does not know how to swim through all these. When this new digital evolution was unfurled, new business models were introduced to tackle this situation, however, one single model did not seem fit in the longer run. New variables are added and the model is updated, basically, one has to fight their way out of the chaos.

The situation took another sharp turn with the introduction of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the business. AI can pick feedback given by two different people located far off and makeup or tarnish a company or a service provider’s image in no-time. This can be easily witnessed from the fact that companies are always up in a damage control mode.

Situations on digital media change so fast that one a single day a company can gain huge profits in the morning and it can incur huge losses in the afternoon. AI even suggest items, registers what an individual is buying, their likes, their frequency of purchasing etc and it can compare with other similar data to create a new interpretation. This is quite challenging, so virtually a single company has to deal with the entire corpus of consumers around the world. So one needs to be very proactive to immediately adjust to any new change. This exhibits the age of dynamism and creativity the Disruption and brought about. And to stay ahead one can pay a heed to these steps to accelerate their growth.

While it’s troublesome for an organization to disrupt itself, that is an ideal situation contrasted by being challenged by a new market player. Senior Leadership must embrace this dynamism and lead the workforce in creating a plan of action and business models which would seamlessly fit with the changes.

It is very necessary to have a clarity regarding the unique brand value that your company has. Why would a buyer choose you over others where there are hundreds of players selling similar products and services? Each brand has become famous because of its value and focusing on it to make it grow and sustainable will keep you in the market for a longer run, as statistics clearly show that in average a company would stay visible in the market for about 60 years before the disruption had set in and it has drastically reduced to 20 years now. Timely self-assessment will enable you to focus and realization of new skill sets, capabilities, etc. to deliver the company’s brand promise.

Business today is about a group effort and due to the point precision attitude of the consumers, it is hard to bring complete satisfaction. So companies focus on performing those tasks that they specialise in while outsourcing the rest. Even in micro level leaders segregate their tasks and with combined effort introduce changes onto existing platform and build up their own model to garner better approaches and profits at minimum costs, all while giving access to other people. Leaders perceive the significance of working together to build up holistic solutions for their customers. Today even large organisations cannot maintain an all-encompassing customer system as it is virtually impossible to ace in section and it won’t be cost effective.

Corporate inertia, personal career worries, ego problems, and the fixated to the comfort zone increment the trouble of effectively creating and implementing new strategies and business models within the existing system. Leaders ought to invest copiously their time and efforts to incubate the teams which are trying to disrupt the core business. Maybe at times, leaders need to upgrade their existing knowledge to stay ahead of time.

Transition of every kind is tough to accept and implement as we are so used our past roles and enviroment. However, we are in the age of dynamism where making quick decisions and implementing swift market conducive changes are the key to growth.