Connectivity and convergence are the trends to rival all trends.
According to Dorman Followwill, senior partner at Frost & Sullivan, convergence and connectivity are not just trends, they are mega, mega trends. Followwill shared this sentiment during his opening keynote at GIL 2015 Africa at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town this morning.
He highlighted how many of the technology innovations that we have been talking about for the past few years are closely linked to changes in the realm of connectivity and convergence. He cited big data analytics, wearable computing, artificial intelligence and sizeable improvements in the speed of communication as some of these trends. "Today, businesses need to be open to looking at things differently and this even means looking at your competitors as potential allies. If you want to talk about the speed of disruption caused by connectivity and convergence - these trends are pushing changes into hyper drive."
According to Followwill, connectivity is pushing and accelerating convergence across industries, technologies, products and is also changing the nature of competition. "We must be looking at how the big players are doing things. When you are following global trends, you always want to follow the smart money," he noted.
In addition to this, Followwill highlighted how these mega trends affect Africa, which he described as the continent of greatest opportunity in the world today.
Africa is the fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market in the world, he said. Mobile is the protagonist in the African story and it is these mobile-based industries that will be worth a consolidated $5.1 billion by 2020. "It is about how you can find opportunities to put a little 'm' in front of your industry.
"The opportunity in Africa is to take what has happened in mobile and use this to your advantage. Africa's digital economy is set to grow at an unprecedented rate." In line with this, Followwill also discussed the use of social networks across the continent, a rising trend. More than 80% of African Facebook users will be accessing the social network using a handheld device.
Looking at the financial industry, Followwill noted Africa is actually in a leadership position in terms of mobile payments and Africans are pioneering the use of digital currencies. "Digital payment systems are part of this leapfrogging process. And when we think about connectivity and convergence in Africa, we need to be looking at how to leverage connectivity and convergence to find new ways to connect towns, villages and countries across the continent."
To conclude his address, Followwill made a series of predictions about the potential of the African marketplace in the near future, even going so far as forecasting that sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to be the next China. "It comes down to piggybacking on new business opportunities. If you want to do big business you have to build a business that responds to big trends."
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