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employment and wider societal impacts. Along the way, we will provide best practice advice on how to digitally transform your business to remain competitive in the new digital age.
This introductory article sets the scene by highlighting the key technologies involved, the pace of change taking place and likely business impact. Advice is presented encouraging you to undertake a Digital Landscape Analysis evaluating the extent to which your own business will be disrupted.
DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES:
A PERFECT STORM The main technologies threatening to disrupt existing value chains, business models and industry structures across a diverse range of sectors include broadband and mobile connectivity, social media, enterprise social, the cloud, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, automation, additive manufacturing (3D printing), wearables, Industry 4.0 and the Blockchain, combined with the rapid emergence of a new generation of constantly connected customers/ employees (Gen C).
On their own, each of these technologies would be disruptive enough. The fact that they are converging at the same time creates a perfect storm.
We are already beginning to see the early signs of a digital tsunami in the professional cleaning industry and across the key sectors supplied by RP Adam Ltd (Arpal Group). For example, the following topics, among others, have recently been covered on the Arpal Group blog – technology innovation in contract cleaning; cleaning and floor scrubbing robots; online ordering and e-commerce in the cleaning supply chain; IoT, drones and cognitive computing in facilities management; smart offices and smart cities; 3D printed office blocks; robot chefs; the sharing economy e.g. Airbnb and its impact on the hospitality industry; robot run hotels; the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on labour markets and employment; the use of cuddly pet robots in care homes; demise of the B2B salesman; and the use of big data to deliver hyper-personalisation in travel and hospitality.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com HOW DIGITAL DISRUPTION
WILL IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS Digital disruption will present opportunities and threats for your business in three main areas:
• ‘External’ Digital: the use of digital and social media technologies for building customer engagement, for sales, marketing, PR and customer service.
• ‘Internal’ Digital: the use of digital and social technologies within the business to improve internal communications and knowledge transfer; achieve operational efficiencies; improve staff engagement and morale; and to drive change towards a more customer centred organisational culture.
• Your Underlying Business Model: is it time to reassess the long standing beliefs underpinning how your industry operates? How relevant is your underlying business model in a digital era?
WHO WILL BE AFFECTED? The question is no longer whether your industry or your business will be affected. The only pertinent questions to ask now are how severe will the impact be and the timescale over which this will occur.
We addressed this issue in a recent post on the Arpal Group blog entitled “Will your industry be disrupted?” Using a framework first developed by Deloitte, industries can be ranked according to the time period over which digital disruption will occur (the ‘fuse’) and the severity of the impact (the ‘bang’).
If you are operating in a ‘short fuse, big bang’ sector, according to Deloitte, you have less than three years to adapt and transform or face watching up to 50% of your business perish. There is less urgency to adapt and transform in a ‘long fuse, big bang’ sector but the process should start now as your industry is going to experience profound change over time.
Where does your business sit on this spectrum? How close are you to the ‘Digital Vortex’, the inevitable movement of industries toward a ‘digital centre’ in which business models, offerings,
and value chains are digitised to the maximum extent possible?
There is no room for complacency. While some industries may take longer to be disrupted, rapid and continual digital innovation is becoming the ‘new normal’.
DIGITAL LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS Developing an appropriate response to the digital challenges outlined above should now be considered a top priority for your business. The choice, quite simply, is to ‘adapt or die’.
The starting point is to undertake a ‘Digital Landscape Analysis’ evaluating the current and future state of digital disruption in your industry, the key technologies involved, emerging opportunities and threats and likely impact on your own organisation.
Five key issues should be addressed:
• Draw up a list of the disruptive changes and technologies likely to impact on your industry now and in the future.
• What impact will each of the above have on your industry and over what time period? How will industry dynamics change? Summarise the key threats and opportunities?
• What impact will disruptive change and technologies have on your own organisation? To what extent does your organisation need to transform digitally, using emerging digital technologies to rethink and improve the way you do things ‘externally’, ‘internally’ and your underlying business model?
• How are similar organisations in your industry responding? How are your main competitors responding?
• Who is ‘leading digital’ in your industry? Who are the exemplars of ‘best practice’?
Next month we will look specifically at the impact of digital disruption on the professional cleaning industry.
www.thearpalgroupblog.com
www.rpadam.co.uk
Tomorrow’s Cleaning September 2016 | 29
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