Coincidence or Destiny?
As we engage in our day to day activities and interactions, we get to hear a lot of new terms and buzzwords. Interesting words that are sometimes a concept, which might be difficult to comprehend when you first hear them but that moment you hear them, you keep hearing them continuously; they just keep appearing everywhere, and they become a familiar term or concept. There is a name for this phenomenon, it’s called the ‘bader-meinhoff phenomenon’. The phenomenon explains that you come across a word and from then on you start to hear about it everywhere you go, over and over again. It is quite similar to synchronicity, which occurs when you are thinking about someone and they give you a call at that exact moment. Both phenomena speak of coincidence and destiny. As a business when you are informed about or come across terms and concepts that coincide with your vision and goals, how do you apply them to shape your business destiny?
New Gold or Oil
Data is the new gold or oil. It drives the way the world functions as well as the way companies perform or succeed today. Organisations are transforming their data into information and harnessing this information in making decisions that drive competitiveness. This is the principle on which digital business is grounded. The emergence of this information has created strategic opportunities for organisations, enabling the creation of new initiatives. The most important thing to consider is ensuring that the information for decision making is placed in the hands of the major decision makers who can drive competitiveness. We are also surrounded by a digital ecosystem which is a platform made up of the interactions and connections of people, the technology, resources and processes all sharing a digital platform for their mutual benefits engaging in collaboration and innovation, enabling businesses interact with their customer, partners and even competition.
Digital Age
We are in a digital age, leaving digital footprints as we move along. We are also a connected society, becoming more connected by the day, through devices and technology that create new functions and consumer behaviour. Digital transformation is changing the way business is conducted, affecting business models and restructuring the way customers expect to be served. The emergence of social media, smartphone apps, Internet of Things (IOT) and real-time data are part of this digital age and transformation. This process is referred to as digital disruption, which occurs when business models and new technology disrupt goods and services that are already in existence. Digital leaders are taking advantage of this, positioning themselves for success, investing money as well as time in new digital technology, new modes of operation and cultural change.
The Driver
Big data drives digital transformation, which enables companies embrace a new culture of change and helps them remain competitive on a global level. With the emergence of new data sources, organisations have become more efficient in operations, strategic in business approach, gotten more meaningful insights into their customers and their needs and discovered new revenue streams. Furthermore, with the emergence of these new data types, there has been a new requirement for analysis, paving the way for the Data Scientist. Data Scientists ensure that traditional business intelligence and big data are moving from operational analytics to a more discovery oriented analytics, which includes sentiments analysis and predictive customer analysis. A digital transformation is incomplete without the adoption of big data.
Concepts and Terms
You would have noticed by now, that I have mentioned quite a number of words or phrases, that might be new to you, for example; big data, connected society, data scientist, digital business, digital transformation, digital disruption, digital ecosystem, digital leaders, and Internet of Things (IoT). So let’s double back. If you start hearing or reading these terms after you read it here or somewhere else, you now know what the phenomenon is called. I hope that this write-up creates a bader-meinhoff experience for someone that just read it.
Like in the movie, Gladiator, the main character Maximus says
“Are you not entertained”.
I sign off by saying,
“Are you not digitised?”.
The world is already, what are you waiting for?
