ICT & THE FUTURE OF YOUR BUSINESS
Where do you see your business in the next three or five years? What are your goals and action plans towards achieving it?
When projecting the future of your business, you also need to project the future of technology. Technology can either rubbish your forecast or bring it even much more closer. Knowing this will help you stay ready so that opportunities won’t meet you unprepared.
If your Grandfather who drove Peugeot 201 should be brought back to life, he may be shocked with the reality. He may not find it easy with Peugeot 508 because the advancement in technology will be quite shocking.
When projecting the future of your business, always have Information Technology in mind and always make projections with respect to where technology is heading.
For example, you are a car dealer. By now, you shouldn’t be projecting importation of petroleum cars in the next few years because the world is moving away from petrol already. Car manufacturers are also beginning to adapt to these realities. You don’t just make projections because you need to progress, you make projections with respect to how your business or services will remain relevant in the world of tomorrow.
Doesn’t it surprise you that the washing machine you knew years ago has totally changed and is more computerized? Doesn’t it surprise you that the television you knew years ago is even more relevant these days than the computers of yesterday? Doesn’t it surprise you that 25mb of memory that used to be celebrated yesterday may not even be enough for one high definition raw image file?
Successful organisations have always had their success stories hinged on their ability to foresee tomorrow and secure their spot before it arrives especially with regards to technology.
Harvey Padewer, CEO of Aquila Energy, a $4 billion company in Kansas City has this to say
“A CEO who is not totally knowledgeable about information systems-how to invest in them and how they help the business-just isn’t competent. . . . If you look at most successful companies, the senior officers really understand IT.”
Without a considerable working knowledge of ICT, your business will fade into obscurity as you will not be able to keep up with the competition. You don’t just need to have staffs who knows their onions in ICT, you also need to keep learning and stay up to date so that you can be a successful leader in your organization.
Before Facebook joined the billionaire clubs of American companies, there were already other businesses making billions but the founders of Facebook saw the future and secured their place. Netflix started as an online DVD rental store but they saw the future of streaming media and took it up. Today, Netflix is competing with Cable Tvs even without owning a single dish or decoder.
What services do you offer? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
Pause…
Where do you see technology in the next few years? Now, in the face of such advancement, how relevant will your services be? What can you do to make it stay relevant? What necessary digital skills do you need to acquire or improve on?
Being able to answer these questions honestly will tell a lot about the future of your business.
