The other day, I happened to listen to the story of a man who built a $270 million business selling fish. And he also sells meat, by the way … His dream was to give customers access to formalin and antibiotic free poultry and seafood products. He started small, sourcing products from a single farm in another state, waking up in the middle of the night to coordinate with fishermen who came back with their daily catch. Slowly his business grew to an extent where he realized that it was just simply not possible for him to get just 2 hours of sleep and manage transactions that were happening in 10 different places at the same time. This was when he decided to bring in digital transformation. He created a digital product that has revolutionized this unorganized sector. Fishermen, consumers, employees … all use the same platform to communicate and do business.
So you might say … Fine … but what’s in it for me … If you are an entrepreneur, big or small, digital transformation brings in the promise of data — data that tells you stories about your customers, data that helps you put them into segments so that you can carve out custom flavours of your product to make them come back, data that helps you grow your revenue and expand to bigger markets. Digital transformation helps you do more of what you do well and less of what you do not so well.
If you are a customer, it gives you power at your fingertips. You are no longer at the mercy of unscrupulous merchants. You have the power to raise your voice and rest assured that you will be heard. As a result, you enjoy the best experience that can be offered to you — value for money, often by eliminating middlemen and unnecessary hurdles in the process.
And last but not least, if you are the employee, not only do you get more done in less time and become more efficient, you also get to use tools that help you to better manage the change. You also get to experience transparency and insights into what is happening to make proactive corrections thus saving time.
Digital transformation has a lot to offer society as a whole. Digitisation has made life easier and enabled us to multitask like never before. Innovations and transformations in one sector have sparked many in others and this domino effect has had a remarkable effect on humanity in general. Drone deliveries, private space travel and google glasses are just a sign of things to come …