Technology is as close to anarchy as you will get in this hyper-regulated world. There are no borders, no traditions, there is no guaranteed pension, and it keeps getting better and bringing huge benefits to society. From a big picture perspective this is a great thing. Cheaper phones, better computers, instant world wide access to information, multiple news sources, shopping from the comfort of your couch, and a massive potential marketplace if you decide to go after a particular industry to try change the world.
From a personal perspective though this means that someone is out to get you. As you sleep there is a product developer somewhere trying to destroy your business model and remove you from the equation. There is no bullet proof way to prevent this but it pays to keep yourself educated about technology and up-to-date in your application of it. Technology is a manifestation of the human mind, and the only way to keep up is to sharpen your mind and your skills.
How to Embrace Technological Trends
Create an IT Strategy
The first thing you should do is develop an IT strategy and define the roles that technology performs within your organization, and also the roles that it could perform in the future so that you keep one eye focussed on advancements. Manufacturers can use technology to reach higher production standards, reduce time required to introduce a new product, or cut costs. Service sector companies can improve communications, flexibility, and automate customer engagement. Once the strategic role that IT plays within an organization is defined, the search for improvements and solutions is easier to pursue.
Budget Money for IT
Once the search for solutions begins, ring fencing a budget for research into new technologies or hiring developers is necessary to remain abreast of current advancements. For smaller companies, this means educating employees through industry conferences and trade shows. For larger companies, it means allocating IT resources to experiment with technology and push boundaries.
Trial by Fire
Many companies choose a product and implement it across the organization based on promotional materials and demonstrations. Some, strangely enough, even trust sales people. While this may work for smaller, easily defined products, it can be counter-productive for larger solutions. The only real way of testing a technology is to push it until it breaks and get to know it's fail points and what to do when they are breached. If you are considering adopting a new technology, let a small number of technologically knowledgeable employees, a single department, or division use it and it will yield tremendous benefits. It will also provide an easy retreat if the technology does not perform as planned and you decide it is a dead end for you.
Constant Reeducation and Awareness
Never rest on your laurels. When ancient Roman generals triumphed their victories through Rome, a slave would stand at their shoulder whispering in their ear "Memento mori" - remember that you'll die. Though for the most part people no longer assassinate their rivals and slaves are now called interns, the message remains the same. Tomorrow you could be brought down.
Companies seeking to remain technologically advanced can benefit from one of the biggest gains it has brought to society. Free information. You can reduce much of your IT expense and retraining requirements by building technology into your business and empowering your own employees to be tech-savvy.
When a new product is released there is going to be a number of employees willing to test it. These canaries in the coal mine will live with the annoyances that come with being an early adopter, offer opinions, and find fixes. This approach is practical, and will usually provide a good sense of the functionality and shortcomings of an upgrade before you decide to role it out across the whole company based on a white paper.
Why to Embrace Technological Trends
Winning the Technological Race is Better than Winning the Lottery
Leave your linear mentality behind. Technology moves at an exponential pace and using so called logic, numbers, and methodology is not as rational as the accounting department likes to think. Businesses often take a set of numbers, extrapolate, use personal experience, and try to make common sense judgments.
The difference between doing that and reality is that today’s business environment is dominated by S-curves and digital laws, not the step-by-step linear advance that we learn about in economics 101. You probably need to make thousands of decisions and speed is important, so you take short cuts, rely on a curtailed dataset, add some personal experience, and then decide to go with a windows mobile operating system. A decision that ticks all the right boxes, sticks with the tried and trusted, and comes from market leaders would appear to be a recipe for success. What could go wrong?
The thing is, change doesn't wait for anyone, even for industry behemoths, and the informational content of our products and services is what matters. Value is now mostly driven by design through informationally driven advancements like open-sourced technologies, 3-D printing, and providing platforms as a service to empower a generation that have skills that make each employee a specialist at a particular role that no mass production can compete with. Just like in the gold rush, those who sold the shovels and picks made the most money. All technologies are becoming information technologies, including energy, and that means exponential rates of progress will increasingly become the norm.
Technology Trends
You will be googled, and when you are, networking capabilities can give your business the look and feel of a billion-dollar corporation. As trends in technology reach into new fields, the companies that have embraced technology gain a significant advantage. This includes everything from ice-cream and software to baby carriers. Your business needs an e-presence, no matter how bricks-and-mortar you think you are, because that will help you quickly gather feedback on where your market is heading.
What is going to replace the iPad was not even a discussion 10 years ago, the iPad didn't exist. Products no longer get a long time in the spotlight, and this is why you need to be plugged into the great digital game of hitting the piñata.
Product Anticipation
The best way of maximizing your chances at hitting the piñata are to follow trends in technology. Using this, and you own intelligence, can help technology-oriented businesses spot future product demands and advantages, such as adding the latest development environments to their suite to accelerate development, automating manual task, or specializing in the next wave of consumer gadgets to grab that market.
Trends in technology indicate a widespread interest that can be a bellwether for businesses that are prepared when the time comes. Your customers are keeping up with the current technology and that is a sign that your e-business should do the same
Business Models No Longer Last - Stay Agile
In the industrial age, a "company and sons" business model didn’t need to change very much. The way a business would produce, deliver, and capture value could remain relatively constant over many years. Management would focus on basic execution. This is no longer the case. Every industry must now expect a number of disruptions each decade, and economies of scale are disappearing. Bigger is no longer more secure, it just makes you an easier target. Every business need to be able to adapt.
What’s more, the process is accelerating. As technological cycles compress and planning cycles struggle to keep up, you need to experiment more and theorize less. This is creating a philosophical shift where strategy becomes more emergent, collaborative, and data based. The rule of thumb cannot measure a microchip.
Conclusion
Technology advances for one reason. There is always a better way of doing something. This applies to every business and you need to embrace change in a managed and intelligent way so that it grows your business, your mind, your exposure to customers, and your reputation.
Being aware of trends, and implementing them into you business is how you can grow your organization, because if you are not growing you are shrinking. The market will pass you by, the competition will eat into your profits, and you will be left behind the trend.
Brian