Digital disruption – major changes

Digital disruption has become a buzzword, but what does it really mean and what does it imply?

I remember an assignment from my school days where I portrayed my great-grandfather’s way of life. He was born in 1889 and lived in the countryside in the canton of Zurich. I remember his fascination with the first electrical appliances, when the light bulb replaced the oil lamp. This generation experienced the first airplanes and cars and the beginnings of the electric railroad. My grandfather, born in 1914, still walked long distances to school and in my father’s youth there were still many gravel roads in Switzerland.

The world was still in order back then!

Well, I prefer my Macs and broadband Internet connection to life back then, but … it wasn’t that long ago!

It seems incredible how we are connected to the whole world today. We can take a first-class photo of any everyday situation as a souvenir and immortalize ourselves in creative disciplines with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Disruption has always been part of our system and, in my opinion, it has little to do with competition.

Disruption begins to take effect when a technology, a political system, a world view or an ideology becomes obsolete and the systems are thrown out of their dominant position.

At a moment when no disruption is involved, we are operating on the basis of competition.

Two banks with the same business model are competing for market share. We were recently able to witness this live using the example of Deutsche Bank and Drestener Bank in Germany.

Both built up a similar structure over the years. They courted the same customer group in order to grow.

This leads to inefficiency in the system, where the infrastructure used is built twice and aggressive techniques are used to outdo the competition, where corruption and illegality are not shied away from.

While such competition can be described as a battle with spears, the situation is completely different in a time of disruption like the one we are currently experiencing.

One side fights with spears and the other with fire.

It is impossible to fight fire with spears. It simply does not work.

This is the reason why this new era in history is so dangerous and cannot be determined in advance.

Blockbuster had no weapon to fight Netflix.

A bookstore had no weapon to fight Amazon.

Banks will not find weapons to fight Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google and other tech players when they conquer the financial market.

It doesn’t even necessarily take a specific player to trigger disruption in an entire industry, expertise or system.

The professional group of traders as we know them from the trading floors of the 1980s, where they were packed with people, is simply no longer needed. Technology has almost completely replaced them.

Workers in large distribution centers are simply no longer needed because they are being replaced by robots.

Our democracy could be next because it is too slow, in contrast to the speed at which technology is developing.

All information and concepts are outdated.

Sometimes disruption is described from an abstract perspective as vertical and not tangential. The juxtaposition of these terms should make sense as described above.

How the heck can we fight disruption?

In this era of humanity where digital disruption is progressing unchecked, it seems that our lives will change completely. The reason for this is not AI, the reason is not robots, the reason is not politics!

It all points to the fact that disruption is due to the internet along with our access to computers and what we have created based on them.

We have managed to combine the strengths and knowledge of humanity and now this power is being fully released.

The greatest danger threatens those who think they have the right to what they currently have.

Nobody has a right to anything. Neither the richest and most important companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon nor the most influential states such as the USA or China!

At any given moment, a new idea, a small change in the law or something we can’t even dream of can completely change everything.

How can you protect yourself and, if necessary, your company from disruption?

How can you avoid becoming redundant?

You can be sure that anyone who wants to tell you that they have a solution and know how disruption works doesn’t have the slightest idea!

We are used to planning things for years, but this is now becoming impossible. The only way I can see to get through this turbulence is to be creative at all levels, to constantly adapt to the situation and find new ways of doing things.

We are constantly forced to look out for things that could change the system in which we operate.

In IT, it seems to me to be increasingly dangerous to program large systems and thus create hard dependencies. The only sensible approach on an abstract level that I can see is to take everything apart and divide it up in such a way that new systems can be created in parallel with microservices, which can be adapted more flexibly.

A company must profit from the pillars that work. At the same time, it must be aware of when the zenith has been passed and a pillar no longer works.

Apple knows that the days are numbered when selling computers and technical gadgets is a lucrative business model.

They keep this mainstay running and draw their profits from it. I am quite sure that this market is under constant observation.

At the same time, they are trying to gain a foothold in the music and video streaming business. Other areas include banking via Apple Pay and the education market.

These sectors are fundamentally different from the market segment where Apple comes from as a tech giant. Apple has understood that an emotional attachment to the old world can send them into bankruptcy just as it did with Kodak or Blockbusters.

It is anything but certain whether Apple will be able to build highly profitable pillars from these new business areas again, but at least they have the courage to try.

I advise any company that feels that the good days for the product line are over to keep the business going. At the same time, completely different ideas should be developed to achieve diversification.

I firmly believe that in a time of disruption, outdated business models will not be resurrected! Optimizing and artificially keeping the patient alive means a lot of energy and investment that could just as easily be thrown out the window.

What about the workforce and workers?

Digital disruption also affects the workforce. I see the biggest problem in the workforce at this time because employees from an old business area are highly unlikely to have developed the skills to work in the new business areas.

Consider the ability of us humans to absorb incredible additional volumes of information in a short period of evolution. So it seems understandable that some people can’t or don’t want to keep up with these developments. Today, we are expected to integrate ourselves into the digital world. It is up to the individual to behave correctly in this world and to defend themselves.

Many are so busy maintaining their privacy boundaries that they are oblivious to the opportunities. Many have succumbed to the stress that the tireless mobile devices together with the social media features provide. Many cannot cope with the flood of information and resign themselves.

If you give up, you will miss out on digitization and its highly interesting and highly lucrative aspects!

I don’t have a definitive solution for companies, I don’t have a definitive solution for employees. Both sides are in the same boat and are forced to adapt in order not to go under.

In all likelihood, companies will not be able to provide the necessary training for their employees. Everyone will have to help themselves in this situation and deal with it.

Here too, creativity is probably the only possible conclusion! Everyone has to constantly reinvent themselves and look around the corner to see what comes next.

The digital transformation starts with you!

Various pioneers have proven that we have what it takes to run a business:

• do not require a fixed address.
• are not dependent on a head office where employees arrive at 8 a.m. to do their work.
• only need a laptop, an Internet connection and a credit card.

Digital disruption can be an opportunity for each and every one of us.

Aren’t these fantastic times where digital disruption is creating new opportunities for everyone?

Whereas previously products had to be organized in warehouses for distribution, such services can now be purchased. Producers and sellers are retooling themselves so that commissions from countless products can be generated online via the affiliate model. We are connected to the whole world via Google and Facebook and can find people everywhere who share our interests.

Even if the exchange in the digital world is often only rarely physical, I at least find it very valuable, as we are given the opportunity to participate in the lives of others from a distance and communicate with them within the given limits.

For me, visual impressions are very important in my life and I enjoy the sharpness of my Mac Retina display, the sharpness and quality of modern prints of photos and graphics, the high video and TV quality with HD, the easy editing of graphic material with the programs from Adobe, the large online video and photo archives …

We can participate in the lives of others on almost every conceivable level and benefit from the stored knowledge free of charge!

Digital disruption is also a chace! Great times!