If the future is about technology, that means every company to a large degree is going to become a technical company in some fashion. No matter your industry, technology will play a determining factor in your competitiveness and long-term success. Will your company be at the forefront or will hesitation keep you from success?
If the future is about technology, that means every company to a large degree is going to become a technical company in some fashion. No matter your industry, technology will play a determining factor in your competitiveness and long-term success. Take Capital One for example, within six years they went from 2,500 people in IT to over 9,000 and want to be considered a technology company as much as they want to be considered a bank. And on the completely other end of the spectrum is the burger joint named Creator, where all the burgers are made start to finish by a robot in about five minutes. The benefit according to the owner Alex Vardakostas is that the company spends double-digit percentages more on ingredients than most burger restaurants because it saves on the cost of human labor. If that is not a competitive advantage I don’t know what is.
The example of Capital One and Creator all come down to one thing. The desire to innovate in a real way. You see, a lot of companies talk about innovation and even have innovation labs, but are only really willing to innovate in very controlled safe ways, which ultimately stifles innovation. Take Blockchain for example, it is a proven technology with a tremendous amount of merit that a lot of companies are exploring, in fact according to a survey by PWC, 84% of companies are dabbling in it in some fashion. They are hiring teams, doing POC’s but frankly fear is keeping them from going much farther. According to Brian Behlendorf “Many companies are simply worried about being the first to deploy new technology – and the first to run into problems. They want to see other people fail first – they don’t want to be a guinea pig, it’s just the nature of enterprise software”. Another quote from the survey said “Everybody is talking about Blockchain, and nobody wants to be left behind”. So you can see there is a tension between “we need to be competitive and embrace new technology” versus “I am too scared to actually go to market with this new technology”. Within that tension is where truly fearless and innovative companies are handed a competitive advantage.
Many companies are simply worried about being the first to deploy new technology – and the first to run into problems. They want to see other people fail first – they don’t want to be a guinea pig, it’s just the nature of enterprise software"
-Brian Behlendorf
What’s riskier than early technology adoption? Hesitation. We partner with several Fortune 500 companies and their innovation labs. Our goal in these partnerships is to help them overcome the fears of being first and instead instilling in them the confidence to go down new roads. Whether it be in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning or Chatbots, having a good partner that has broad industry experience across many different verticals can give you a view outside of your four walls. We push the edge of technological capabilities to help our customers do the same in order for them to stay ahead of their competitors. When technology creates efficiencies that means more money can be put into the business to grow it. Go back to the example of the burger restaurant Creator – that efficiency helped to create a better tasting burger that gives them a competitive edge – but, that edge will only last so long. So when those efficiencies and savings are created make sure you are still looking to the future.
(To learn how restaurants use Artificial Intelligence to improve margins and customer experiences, click here)
About the AuthorNick is an expert on the changing world of work and a consultant to many companies in helping them prepare for coming changes. Most recently Nick has been a speaker at various SHRM Conferences around the country on the topic of AI, HR Automation, and job security.
Nick is also a self-proclaimed expert barbecue smoker, so be sure to ask him about his latest experiment. Connect with Nick on LinkedIn here or just give us a call toll free, (844) 425-8425 and we'll track him down for you!