The new digital economy has redefined the business landscape. Successful traditional businesses are at a huge risk of not only losing their dominant position but going out of business. Technical advancements, ubiquitous connectivity, proliferation of mobile devices combined with our understanding of how humans interact with machines and software has allowed creation of not just new businesses, but increased process efficiency within all industries. Today, we have the convenience of getting what we need through online marketplaces and highly usable mobile applications that essentially serve as remote controllers, to perform most tasks in both our personal and professional lives.
While the pace of digitization presents exciting entrepreneurial opportunities, it also presents tremendous risks to traditional businesses. Businesses that have enjoyed healthy growth in the past decade or two are facing fierce pressures from new entrants. Past experiences and knowledge are no longer sufficient to stay ahead. New competitors are both cursed and blessed by the fact that they do not have any pre-dispositions. Disruptive thinking, accelerated progress, relentless execution, unquenched drive, frictionless cultures, and venture capital are fueling new players.
Digital transformation is not just about building faster software or launching a mobile application or adding the word ‘innovation’ in corporate marketing collateral. Digital transformation is re-thinking how a business engages with customers, partners, and even employees. Many successful, traditional enterprises are now re-thinking and changing the way they conduct business. Chief Digital Officers are being appointed to strategically drive transformations across enterprises. While it is important to understand engagement, customer journey mapping and create internal business cases, organizations are realizing that strategic planning must be balanced with measurable, rapid progress. Transformations do not happen overnight, and need not be deployed through a big-bang, enterprise-wide initiative. Transformation is an iterative process that initiates in a specific area of the business.
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The digital economy poses both a clear challenge and opportunity to traditional businesses. Many traditional business will go out of business losing out to new efficient start-up’s who leverage technology to operate. There is an opportunity for traditional businesses to re-establish their dominance by transforming themselves: leverage technology as a means to not only stay efficient, but acquire new customers/audiences that want to communicate through digital properties, such as mobile applications, online market places and asynchronous communication (messaging). Business must invest in these initiatives, and they need to move with lightning speed. However, trying to do it all internally and by themselves is a recipe for disaster, given the urgency of the situation and the dearth of investment in “good” technical talent. Businesses need to identify trusted development partners who they can lean on for helping them drive the change in an accelerated manner. There is no time for that classic in-house versus outsourced development debates. The only discussion that businesses need to have is who can help them meet their goals in the fastest, most flexible and affordable way.
Pakistani startup industry is progressing quickly. Owing to government initiatives and awareness around technology and entrepreneurship, several universities have incubators and entrepreneurial societies to inculcate the spirit of learning in young students. As a result, we now have several hundred startups who work to improve the life of people around the world, make profitable business ventures, and increase job creation. The government is planning to boost entrepreneurship with initiation of 10,000 startups by 2023. Prime Minister Youth Program has recently launched multiple initiatives for the development of the young population in the country. The name of the program will be the Start-up Pakistan Program and it will run under the Kamyab Jawan Program. The program will train one million students from different universities and colleges. Under this program, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) will get funds for the expansion of Business Incubation Centers (BICs). HEC will use that fund to train 500,000 students for entrepreneurship and it would also use some funds to produce 5,000 graduate startups from different HEC recognized universities through Business Incubation Centers (BICs). National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) will also provide training to 500,000 students for entrepreneurship and cover 300 technical training centers across the country through blended incubation. Under this program the government will engage with overseas Pakistanis from developed countries who are technology geeks and infopreneurs. They will help to train the youth for new technology, entrepreneurship, and market reading.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]The writer is a Karachi based freelance columnist and is a banker by profession. He could be reached on Twitter @ReluctantAhsan[/box]