Emerging and disruptive technologies will have/are having an impact on every organisation from the smallest subcontractor to the largest multinational organisations.
Multinationals have the resources to deploy cutting edge technologies. They have the fiscal capabilities as well as the internal drive and vision to use new technologies to gain the edge over their competition and attract and manage customers.
When it comes to small business, the utilisation and implementation of these changes are complex, frustrating and fiscally challenging. The trickle-down effect and impact is often overlooked because of these requirements.
Every small organisation needs to develop capabilities that allow the implementation of emerging technologies without having to change the fundamental capabilities of the organisation.
Technology is great for business, new technologies, on the other hand, can be hugely problematic to implement, configure and manage, but more importantly to measure.
Technology, we are finding is fleeting. Something that we use today may not be around in 12 months time.
In contrast, we see old processes and procedure come around again and again with only minimal change no matter the technologies involved. This is the key to future-proofing your organisation.
The two things that are needed by small organisations are:
- How to implement change without negative impact
- Recovering from change, if it fails, in a low impact and manageable way.
In both cases, an in-depth understanding of the organisation is critical. This is often something that small organisations consider unimportant.
Ask a small retail shop, a legal organisation or an accounting firm what they do, how they do it and what components they consider critical to business and in most cases they cannot tell you.
Intellectual property, trade secrets and the fundamental business process that make the organisation unique are only known to a few people. This is both good (stops information leakage) and bad (no one knows what the organisation and management are doing).
Future-proofing your organisation is an important component of today’s business world for small organisations. If you change your business model because of technology, what else has to change, what will stay the same but more importantly will the change allow you to protect cash flow and revenue production?