Tech Survival Strategy for Businesses in the Next Decade: Identifying Essential Characteristics for Success
In the current era, known as the Information Generation, businesses across all industries are being transformed due to new demands from consumers. The pace of change we expect to see over the next ten years will be far more dramatic than what we have known over the past half century. This transformation is being driven by technology trends such as cloud computing, mobile, big data, and social media.
The most important attributes for businesses to thrive in the Information Generation over the next 10 years, according to a survey, are predictively spotting new opportunities and innovating in an agile way. However, only 9% of businesses believed they were capable of innovating extremely well in an agile way. This gap between capability and need is a significant challenge for businesses that want to stay competitive.
To meet these new challenges, businesses must exhibit essential attributes including resilience and reliability in digital infrastructure, advanced data management capabilities, and innovation in emerging technologies.
- Resilience and Reliability in Digital Infrastructure: The growing reliance on data centers and cloud computing requires businesses to invest in uninterrupted power and backup systems to ensure uptime and disaster recovery. The data center generator market is expected to grow significantly, underscoring the importance of power reliability and infrastructure redundancy.
- Advanced Data Generation and Management: The ability to generate, synthesize, and leverage data effectively is crucial, including synthetic data for machine learning and data privacy protection. The synthetic data generation market shows a robust CAGR of over 13% through 2035, highlighting how businesses need to innovate in data creation and utilization.
- Integration of IoT and Satellite-Enabled Connectivity: Global IoT deployments powered by satellite-enabled networks allow scalable, resilient communication in sectors such as agriculture, logistics, and defense. Proliferation of remote monitoring applications and demand for resilient connectivity drive business opportunities in this sphere.
- Secure, Real-Time Communication and Data Exchange: Particularly in defense but also enterprise sectors, tactical data links supporting secure, fast, real-time data are critical. The market growth in tactical data links with advanced hardware and interoperability illustrates the value of secure, efficient communication systems.
- Digital Transformation and Innovation Culture: Adopting hybrid energy configurations, automation, and next-generation technologies in data centers and beyond reflects the need to innovate continuously to meet evolving demands and regulatory requirements.
In addition to these attributes, the survey also identified three additional traits needed to compete in the new digital era: demonstrating transparency and trust, delivering unique and personalized experiences, and operating in real time.
Examples of businesses embracing these changes include GE, which is using Internet of Things technology to transform jet engines into massive data generators, helping customers improve reliability, lower costs, and generate higher profits. Similarly, retail companies like Zara and H&M are using advanced analytic technologies to process customer data and gain insights for fashion trends. Audio speakers from Sonos and tennis racquets from Babolat are leveraging software to enhance customer experiences and offer new services. In the insurance and automotive industries, new telemetry technology is being used to assess driver behavior and influence policy pricing and auto design.
A Google partnership with Levi's aims to develop interactive garments that will function as an open IT platform, further blurring the lines between physical and digital products. An app called Next Glass is attempting to change the beverage industry by recommending new beverages based on data science.
Businesses that do not meet these new challenges are at risk of disruption, similar to publishers of maps and atlases when GPS applications became common. Nearly 90% of companies that were on the Fortune 500 list in 1955 do not exist today, having disappeared sometime over the past 60 years. To thrive in the Information Generation over the next decade, businesses must embrace these essential attributes and continuously adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape.
- Investing in uninterrupted power and backup systems for digital infrastructure, such as data centers and cloud computing, is crucial for businesses aiming to stay competitive in the Information Generation, given the growing reliance on these systems and the anticipated expansion of the data center generator market.
- To deliver unique and personalized experiences that set them apart within the ever-evolving digital landscape, businesses must leverage technology trends like the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced analytics, and software enhancements to gather insights from customer data, as demonstrated by companies like GE, Zara, Sonos, and Babolat.
