Business managers are generally too busy putting out fires and don`t take the time to look at the opportunities that new technological capabilities present, says US-based business strategist Daniel Burrus.
Burrus, the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, will be in SA next month at the invitation of Microsoft SA to talk to local business leaders. His organisation monitors global advancements in science and technology-driven trends.
"It is time for companies to rethink how they do what they do and change how they think about what is possible, because there are new ways of doing things that enable us to do what was impossible before," he said from his Milwaukee headquarters in a telephonic interview.
Business should investigate new technological capabilities, said Burrus. These can be exploited to achieve the business goals of lowering costs and improving efficiencies, relationships, collaboration, growth and competitive advantage, he said.
"Business advantage comes from having the right tools to turn all the data that is available into knowledge, and then taking action based on the insights gained."
During his South African visit, Burrus will share the principles and techniques he has developed to enable business to predict technological changes, anticipate and avoid problems, and develop strategies to meet the changing needs of customers.
"For example, the 'both and` principle says the future is wireless, but it is also wired. The future is old media and new media, e-mail and paper mail, electronic shopping and in store shopping. Competitive advantage will come from being able to integrate the old and the new to create higher value combinations," he explains.
Shift thinking
Business must learn how to take advantage of increasing bandwidth, storage and processing power. These are the main accelerators of change that will affect business around the globe for the next five years and beyond, he said.
However, Burrus said, in this increasingly technological world, business is still all about people, who are the consumers, buyers and sellers. Therefore, business should seek out technology that will enable higher levels of business communication and collaboration.
He said business strategies should be based on such certainties rather than uncertainties such as the economic and political climate. "We can be certain that business will continue to be about relationships, but we cannot be certain that the economy will continue to improve."
Burrus said another kind of certainty businesses can tap into is the experience multinational vendors can share about innovative applications of technology around the world. In this way, local companies can take advantage of experience gained in technologically progressive countries like South Korea and Japan.
"If we can see what the new capabilities are and how we can exploit them, then we have something powerful," he concluded.
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