Crisis, the strong wind of change: the age of disruptstars

As a solutions builder, I’ve experienced two types of business executives during my journey. Those who see disruptive technology as a vital future-enhancing tool and those who see it as an unnecessary evil and distraction. The first type, whom I call ‘disruptstars,’ embraces it and finds a way to align themselves and their business interests with it. Meanwhile, the second type, whom I call ‘disruptnemies,’ finds all means to make it irrelevant, including discouraging the drivers of the winds of change. Well, they cannot stop Coronavirus2, can they? disruptive technologies

Urgent need to change 

If you didn’t realize it, this novel coronavirus2 has come to tell us what some of us have always known; there is a strong and urgent need for change. The digital age, digital connection, global village, and increasingly disruptive technologies are trying to tell us something: be prepared, you have to change, or events will make you change. We have never really heard the warnings, or we have done so but not as we were supposed to do. As a result, we’ve been caught napping.  

Disruptive technologies 

I’ve sat down recently with senior executives of Psychology solutions businesses to discuss my current project. We are building a SaaS-model technology platform that will digitize psychological tools in understanding customer behavior – a novel approach to understanding the WHY factor. For instance, why people make decisions, take actions and choose options. It is a solution that can be deployed digitally and with little human contact. In addition, it is a solution implemented across verticals with few algorithm differentials. However, every meeting with them ended with more and more distruptnemies. How can this be done? Why change the status quo? It’s not broken. We discussed my current project with them as a learning curve and ideation.

Coronavirus2 and its accompanying disease, COVID-19, has come to change all that. Please be informed that things will never be the same again. Businesses that will survive have learned real lessons from this global pandemic. Therefore, they have set their sights on mechanisms that protect them from all borders. Above all, the factors, changing consumer behaviors, and now far-reaching crises warn us that our world is broken and needs to be fixed. 

Key survival factors for now and the future change 

1) Agility is key. Physically and digitally. If your business is deliverable only physically, you are going down slowly and steadily. Consequently, more crises will surely come. 

2) Flexibility is key. Remote working becomes vital. The traditional work models are gone. Therefore, the ability to pivot and innovate as a 10-year-old business is essential.

3) Age of digitization. It doesn’t matter what you do. You need to find a way to digitize your services and solution. Do it fast. 

4) Adaptability is key. The characteristics your business has should make you distinctive and highly specialized, especially in challenging business industries. Are you adaptable? 

5) Be a disruptstar. Like it or not, disruptive technologies are changing the world. We are adapting faster to consumer behavior and orientation.