Getting to grips with the digital economy

Nelson Ogunshakin
05 April 2017

Twitter FacebookLinkedIn

Print

In a changing commercial landscape, leveraging big data as well as the digital economy will be the future difference between business success and business failure, writes Nelson Ogunshakin.

Undeniably, technology has revolutionised the way our industry approaches business. It has also changed the way pathways to success are formed. 

While many people describe these technological evolutions as ‘disruptors’ to the business status quo, I feel that the reality is that these evolutions and refinements are the new, everchanging status quo. Big data and the digital economy present new opportunities for leaders to develop paths to commercial success, with greater efficiency and they will continue to revolutionise our industry.

This is why, at the end of 2016, I identified big data and digital economy as one of five key challenges and market drivers for our industry. While political uncertainty, which I focused on in my Infrastructure Intelligence column in January, needs adaptive leadership as the situation continues to fluctuate, data and digital economy has already significantly altered our industry’s business landscape. It requires leaders to gain new skills to seize future opportunities for success.

In an age of information, access to data is critical to provide businesses with insights to enable appropriate decisions to be taken by leaders. The potential is for far greater commercial growth than for business decisions made without such data insights.

To achieve this business success, however, we need to use the right technology and develop appropriate skills to seize the growth potential through leveraging big data. No longer is allocating resources into IT a luxury cost. Upgrading IT is now a vital strategic business investment that has the commercial potential to yield higher returns than most other business initiatives.

To realise this commercial potential, business leaders must embrace big data and technology fully, taking IT from the status of ‘disrupting’ the workplace to fundamentally changing all aspects of the business, both internally and externally.

Big data and technology has enabled internal and external stakeholders to want to ‘belong’ or feel a part of the tribe that is your business. While many think embracing digital processes would create extra noise, if done appropriately it allows for a form of engagement that revolutionises business conversions, efficiency that maximises output, as well as retention of both clients as well as staff, increasing the overall business value.

The trick to all of this is ensuring that you have the correct technology and skills for digital transformations to yield business opportunities, while appropriately addressing any potential security risks. 

The solution is to find strategic partners amongst the variety of providers out there. Developing a closer relationship with such a partner better enables deeper insights that can reveal opportunities you as a business would not have known of otherwise. Given the continual evolution of the digital landscape, having a strategic partner enables your business to best seize the opportunities that come along.

Inevitably, while undergoing digital upgrades will fundamentally change your business landscape, the commercial opportunities those upgrades yield will be the future difference between business success and business decline.

As leaders, we need to think and plan for the future and that includes appropriately leveraging big data as well as the digital economy.

Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE is the chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering.