Digital Darwinism by Tom Goodwin

Author:Tom Goodwin
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780749482282
Publisher: Kogan Page
Published: 2018-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

How vital is this change?

Waves of change are indeed sweeping the world; music and news have suffered, magazines seem on an inevitable path to death, the automotive sector is about to undergo huge shifts as electrical propulsion changes more than would first appear, and new business models proliferate. But it’s important to note to what extent your business must change. If you are a consumer packaged goods company, then Dollar Shave Club shows what can in theory happen. However, while it was bought for a billion dollars by Unilever, it only threatened to remove value from the market while it was aiming to be acquired; it didn’t necessarily change the market as much as trends presentations and over-excited articles suggested.

There is changing because you have to, and there is the opportunity cost of not changing. What is the risk of not changing? Banks may be strong, stable companies that are not forced to change – they can probably buy most start-ups who get interesting and dangerous enough to threaten their business – but wouldn’t it be wise to be in control of your own destiny?

Even companies that don’t have to change have a lot to gain from change. People are more likely to get divorced than change their bank, even though banks offer all sorts of incentives to move, and yet Monzo Bank in the UK has 40,000 people on a waiting list (Martin, 2017). This is the power of a new clear proposition and of a customer-centric service. When you take on large legacy companies, especially those that are not loved, when you are clear in being an alternative, whether commercially or philosophically, then people will either love you or hate you. This is a powerful emotion and tension to unlock. We would all do well in business to be hyper-aware of what has changed, but even more, remind ourselves frequently of what has stubbornly not changed.

If you are a large legal firm, then yes, you would be wise to employ best-in-class IT staff, to leverage cloud-based software solutions and try out Slack. Legal firms can make heaps of money advising on changes to intellectual property or patent laws, or new disrupted threats, but your business isn’t likely to be destroyed by artificial intelligence (AI), robots, or freelance platforms like Upwork; it’s likely to be augmented by them. From teaching to general healthcare workers, from dentists to firefighters, there are many industries not facing clear and massive dangers from not changing.

Yet a lot of us really need to wake up. Many of us, and I mean many of us, have our heads in the sand. If you work in the real estate, automotive or insurance markets, big changes are coming. If you are a department store, talent manager or a toy maker, you need to look out. If you write code, you need to be alert to the fact that you are soon likely to be training computers how to do your job and they will self-improve faster than many ever expected.

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