Future-Proofing: Critical Cornerstone for the Digital Economy

Why it is necessary for the current era of disruption The IT industry has been in a state of flux over the last 12 months thanks primarily to disruptive technologies of all sorts appearing and rocking the status quo for many industries. This has become so extensive that it is imperative for all to identify current or upcoming trends that have the potential to influence the marketplace. Businesses need to be able to learn and adapt, or be left behind. Future-proofing, of course, is critical here. Consider the likes of iflix, Grab, AirBnB, Amazon, and other on-demand services that have appeared over the last five years. While their goal is to provide an entirely new level of service that is unprecedented for all, they have challenged the norm and forced many industries as a whole to face change. Mainstay players must now figure out how they can take on these fast-accelerating upstarts. In fact, disruption – now a buzzword among innovators – has become a true force to be reckoned with as it has become a major wake-up call for businesses that are complacent or appear to be laggards. Disruptive Effects As the world struggles to embrace change that the digital age heralds at a never-seen-before rapid pace, it is clear that there is a revolution taking place right now with technology taking centre stage. Technology has, and still is, changing all the rules and propagating the fact of how disruption is now the new norm. Once this understanding gains more traction among businesses, the next step is to consider future-proofing for the variable factors that these disruptive forces might bring to the table. Let’s start with how disruptions affect businesses. As consumers change according to trends, businesses must be ready for a never-ending game of evolution and be quick to absorb, understand, and adapt to rapid transformative processes. If they don’t, there is no chance for them to ever catch up. This applies to all industry sectors as disruption is not discriminative and will have a knock-on effect among inter-related verticals. Disruption is an inevitable process that, by how it progressed over the last few years, has now become nigh unstoppable. In fact, the premise that it appears to focus in limited sectors is false as many business leaders have pointed to digital transformation as one of the major factors feeding the continual growth of many socio-economies. The way forward is for all to embrace the idea of being disruptive or disrupted, rather than fearing it. Digital Take-Up Future-proofing covers a broad stroke of processes that mostly rely on engaging the digital native. That one aspect alone is a necessity as it will enable businesses to be more aware and highly relatable to the ever-changing landscape that on-going and soon-to-come disruptions have brought about. Having such engagements in mind will give rise to interest or, perhaps, instantly spur many towards transforming how they operate to make it more technologically inclusive and be fully prepared for the oncoming wave of disruptions. This is, essentially, a crucial factor for businesses to keep in mind as they study and figure out what is needed for future-proofing. Understanding the digital native certainly goes above and beyond deploying new technologies and enhancing how the workforce operates. In fact, the two inter-linked functions would only work when more start to understand and embrace the need to become digitally enabled, not just from a business perspective but in how they go about their daily activities as well. Digitally Driven With the Fourth Industrial Revolution now in full-swing, companies can no longer second guess themselves as newer innovations continue to show up and consistently shake-up the existing state of affairs. Industrial trends like Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Mobility, and eCommerce have already broken the proverbial glass ceiling as they move to digitise the world. Seeing as these five empower the digital economy, it further reinforces the notion that they should not be under-estimated or disregarded. Businesses must be immersed with any one, or all, of these influential factors to ensure their technology offerings are future-proof and able to take on these seismic shifts that the world is now experiencing. The world had not been ready for the likes of Uber, AirBnb, and Alibaba. Even home-grown disruptors like Tripda and Hermo have started making in-roads for the ride-sharing and facial care spaces, further proving that industrial competitors are not the ones who will start any shake-ups. The use of advanced technologies will be vital to this and, thus, it is only appropriate that businesses step up their efforts to spur digital transformation from within at all levels. MDEC is driving the digital economy in Malaysia In Malaysia itself, as a core path towards the development of a high-income knowledge-based economy, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has acted as the driving factor pushing for a fully connected digital economy. SMEs, which have long been the backbone of Malaysia’s economy will continue to play a strong part and are deemed by MDEC to be agile enough to compete effectively in this disruptive landscape. The rise in e-Commerce activity over the past few years has been significant, and MDEC expects SME exports to strongly push towards the 2020 goal of 30%. Whatever it may be, the truth is that versatility is king today and will be in the future.