INTRODUCTION
When did service stations become petrol stations with no pump attendant? When did they start selling Red Bull, milk, deodorant and hot cheesy wraps? When did we stop lining up at the bank to deposit a cheque? When did it become cheaper to buy new clothes than get them mended? When did TVs and appliances become disposable too? When did we stop getting landlines and buying CDs and then DVDs?
When will we know the outcome of the smartphone wars? When will we know who won the race to become lenders of choice in new-age banking?
When are we going to stop shopping at supermarkets? When are we going to stop paying to see a GP face-to-face? When are we going to stop turning lights on with our hands? When are we going to buy our first robot and a driverless car?
When will, ‘When are we going to stop …’ become, ‘When did we stop …’?
If you don’t start thinking about this now, then I can tell you exactly what will happen and when.
You’ll lose your reputation for making the right leadership decisions, as the board loses its patience with you and your team, and your company downsizes or disappears entirely. You’ll be forced to explain to your employees why their organisation – once considered to be ahead in the race – is now up shit creek without a lifejacket on.
‘Artificial intelligence’ will be the joke levelled not at the new robotic process automation at your competition, but at your leadership – a derogatory term for the ‘old-school bosses’.
If you don’t start acting now, then it’s going to be too late.
The world will move on. The trend will pass you, leaving you rocking on the waves in its wake, asking yourself,‘What the hell just happened?’
Robinson Crusoe you are not. You are lumped in the same boat as all the others in big, lumbering, incumbent business today.
Maybe you’re already in this position. Maybe you’re already questioning why your sales are declining or asking if your future strategy is flawed.
Sure, once, 50 years ago, your business model would be good for another 50 years.
But times are a-changin’, and they continue to change,like it or not.
The world has actually experienced this rapid speed of change before. But we weren’t around in the 1700s, during the first and