Do names like Uber, MakemyTrip, Ziosk, BigRock, Khan Academy, Kickstarter, Alibaba etc ring any bell? They are digital avatars buzzing with a fresh frenzy all around our 24/7 tech-wired lives. But look closer and you will see how they are not niche innovations but actually smart ideas that have used technology to elbow out yesteryear's well-entrenched players. They have not done something too radical so to say, but yes they have used a mold-breaking approach to reinvent customer experience. That's how they have made sense for those digital natives who have been reshaping market demographics at a whopping speed and who have yet stayed almost unacknowledged by the big boys. These digital models have been swift, smart and suave at using technology for smoking out laggards and their ways of running the industry. They have displayed enviable savoir-faire in upending conventional rules of their market segments and have mercilessly capsized some long-standing kings who thought they will keep ruling the markets for many endless years.
Such newbies have just used Cloud in a new way, while most big players are still caught in paradigms like 'cheap' or 'fast'. These young pioneers have shown that Cloud can actually be used beyond its staple image of cost benefits. They have dared to experiment Cloud as a business model per se. And by doing so they have redefined customer delivery and experience to a new level.
They are not alone in this race to use tomorrow's technology today. To be fair and well-vigilant, we cannot discount how some big names in the industry are also playing the same formula. Some well-known industry czars are using Cloud and digital forces too to turn around moth-eaten business approaches.
For instance, the world's biggest sports-wear brand is no more about sneakers but a wearables major or a digitally-enabled athletic company. Like how Macy's and Tesco are soon morphing from yesteryear's vanilla grocery-baskets and stores to technology-sharp shopping experience sellers where RFID, QCR and bar-codes run the show as well as the customer moments-of-truth.While both young and seasoned players are toying with the power of using cloud as more than an enabler and instead as a business model itself; the good and bad news is that not everyone is able to swing this power the right way. More so, and this is where small entrepreneurs can come a little closer as we whisper – the ability to use cloud is more formidable when one does not have a rock tied around one's neck.
The blessings of scale, legacy, lineage, market penetration, extended supply chains and ecosystems and an ever expanding portfolio suddenly turn into some anathema when the question revolves around Cloud. Because Cloud needs agility, lateral thinking and above all the courage to take future-proof leaps.
Take a look at how IDC has stated how one-third of current top 20 leaders in the market in any global industry are going to be disrupted by new rivals who can leverage the third platform. By third platform, we mean mobility, cloud, analytics, big data and the whole enchilada. So why does the research firm point at this new force of disruption? Why new rivals coming under digital spotlight?The strange turn of tables gets more interesting when we hear that all this is going to happen not at the end of century or near some apocalypse but as soon as by 2020.
It's simple – if you are big, you would need the courage and the appetite to attack what you have and reshape a new model out of the melting pot. Alternatively, if you are just out of the embryo and an entrepreneur with a small scale as your only luggage, you can do the Cloud-leverage much faster, better and with better stability promises.
Yes, some 70 per cent of global enterprises are already on the path of transformation; but at the same time there are still 80 per cent businesses in APJ which cannot harness these forces of third-platform.Hark! Got the message?
You could be the disruptor here. You could be the guy who displaces and evaporates a big business just by some knack of cloud and being savvy on how and where to use this Genie.Companies are desperately trying to get a grip around the ideal of delivering a unified digital experience to win, serve, and retain customers.
Forrester has pointed how this has to happen across channels, devices, and every step of the customer life cycle. The research major also warned that digital disruptors are entering the market and now everything from customers, products, business operations, and even competitors are fundamentally digital. Like it cited some 74% of business executives say their company has a digital strategy, but only 16% believe that their company has the skills and capabilities to execute on that strategy.
The right formula, the manageable scale, the apt positioning and the adequate level of skills and resources is what will sway the game towards a young player in this big battle.It doesn't matter who stands before the Sesame door and how big or small his height is. What will open the door is simple – the code, the right Abracadabra.
So let the doors of treasures of tomorrow open up for you, irrespective of how small or how young your business is. Being not too big and new in this playground may actually be a hidden advantage.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
