It is becoming more and more obvious that if we as business owners don’t start disrupting ourselves, the global marketplace and exponential technology will disrupt us. It’s a matter of how, not when.
Two prominent experts in this field are:
- Peter Diamandis
- Ray Kurzwel
There is a bight-side to this though and it’s why I’ve chosen to write this blog article.
On the new technological world
When taking into account all of the online noise out there already, I am sure you keep one eye on the future as well do. As business people we all know it is important to have some understanding of the technological and digital revolution that is headed our way… which REALLY is already here. “The future is now” as they say. We’re potentially on the verge of a time where robots and artificial intelligence will do most of our mundane jobs and a time where complete industries will have been wiped out, replaced by new and previously unseen ones.
It’s not gotten that far yet. However we are already seeing so many disruptions to so many industries.
If by some off chance you have never heard of, or never put much thought into it, I urge you now, to take the time and think very seriously about the skills and value that you offer the marketplace… especially the ones that cannot be replaced by technology. Think too about how you can fully utilize doing what you love, in a way that will reach larger and even global marketplaces, not just your local one, because your future business growth will depend upon it. We are only 5–10 years away from some major technological changes sweeping across the globe. We are already seeing new industries appear and old ones going extinct. I urge you to think strongly about how your industry will be affected? Post thoughts in the below comments too if you’d like. We would love to have your thoughts and insights on this.
The bright side – (its about opportunity)
My new workshop (soon to be evergreen webinar), ‘Disrupting Ourselves’, is all about preparing and being ready for these upcoming changes. As with anything in life, if we dive in proactively, we can and will be ready to turn a potentially huge challenge, into a TSUNAMIC opportunity.
If we educate ourselves and remain informed, keeping our fingers on the pulse of the upcoming changes, while keeping an open-mind and a willingness to pivot fast, the spoils of this opportunity can be ours.
- The ongoing, growing success of some of the biggest global brands is largely due to the implementation of these principles.
- Alternatively, the demise of other global brands, like Kodac and Chevrolet, have been a result of the other end of this spectrum and not being proactive enough in their approach to a rapidly changing marketplace.
The Smart Company website has a blog article titled, ‘The future of work is a race between education and technology, and one’s not keeping up‘. It is well worth a read.
Continual learning, ethics and remaining informed
Personally I think ethics need to be valued more highly. Technological disruption or ‘digital disruption’ as it has been coined, doesn’t seem like it can be stopped. Therefore we have to chart a course for our businesses to stay relevant and remain in demand. I also think as a race of people we need to stop and discuss the ethics of what we are doing more than it appears we currently are. More transparency of discussion not just by those who speak on TED or write blog articles, etc, but by the leaders who make the decisions, create the laws and the rules of our nations and the world we all live in.
An article I read a while ago on the D!gitalist Magazine website didn’t speak as much about ethics, but it did speak a lot about learning, and what may be needed to keep up with technological advancements and economies. One think in it that stuck in my mind was this:
“Technology is not enough. Researchers at the University of Southern California are working to develop a cognitive neural prosthesis they hope will allow people with traumatic brain injuries to literally download muscle memory and motor function. If it works, we may in the future be able to buy or rent knowledge as we need it and import it into our minds in minutes, Matrix-style. That’s an enormous “if,” though, and it’s not going to come soon enough.”
You can read the full article here.
Please do feel free to share comments and thoughts in the below comments section. If there are relevant articles you would like us and others to read or website your regularly read to keep up with latest technological announcements, feel free to share those too.
