The common thread of unicorn companies (start-ups with a stock market evaluation of more than $1billion) is that they have dived into digital technologies and they are customer-focused. These start-ups have a billion reasons to focus onto their customer and they're doing it well.
This was according to Daniel Robus, Oracle channel director at Britehouse, speaking at the Oracle Digital Day 2016 Conference recently. Robus explained the common denominator with digital leaders is that they have reviewed their marketing position and they've adjusted for the new world. In the process their organisations have become digital masters and are reaping financial returns.
"Investing in the digital environment doesn't just happen; there is a plan behind it which consists of changing the rules within our own borders, causing disruption from within our own environment, and looking at our business from a new angle.
"This means fostering a culture of innovation which is embedded in the leadership of the organisation. This allows organisations to look at processes and automate them, observing analytics and understanding how they help to predict where the organisation is headed," he noted.
With digital at the core, added Robus, the organisations' systems can all point to one area - the customer. If customer centricity is at the heart of the organisation's digital strategy, the company can only succeed.
He made reference to Gartner's latest report of the top ten technology trends that are currently disrupting businesses.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning, which is composed of multiple applications of technology which make smart machines appear intelligent, will take a massive jump in their application around the globe. Virtual personal assistants and smart advisors are only the beginning, he observed.
"Then there is virtual and augmented reality, which is moving from games to commerce, and shifting from virtual reality games into virtual meeting rooms to discuss business contracts. These technologies are now becoming commercial and mainstream. We are living in a world that will carry on changing and these things are already a reality."
Another trend that we are seeing a huge upswing in, he continued, is digital twins. According to Gartner, there are 40 million uses for digital twins.
"Making use of digital twins in local business could mean taking the best of Eskom's engineers, pairing them up in a room with a digital twin that provides them with all the information on what's happening on the plant, and allowing them to do the second- and third-tier report from another office based elsewhere. Digital twins will make a marked impact on response times, while allowing your best employees to focus on doing what they do best - letting the mundane tasks go back to the virtual personal assistant," he elaborated.
In terms of the use of blockchain projects in business, Robus believes they are going to pick up momentum and they will move from financial services onto other applications such as music distributions and identity verification, especially in the medical sector.
"If the doctors get blockchain right, we will never have to fill in another medical form - medical files will be on blockchains and patient information will be accessible globally, irrespective of which medical facility a patient goes to."
In conclusion, he pointed out that the war which organisations are fighting for market share and mind space or a place in the public is not going to be won by toolsets but rather by a team that understands the fundamentals of their business - which is the customer.
"The digital tools just make it happen. Understanding the customer is what enables digital leaders to fly above the competition while the others are still looking for a digital strategy," he concluded.
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