Digital transformation is essential for businesses to succeed in the coming Open Economy. Companies must be prepared to embrace competitors and freelancers.
The Digital Revolution – an Imperative for Business
Business must invest or fall behind
Samsung has just released a new report which shows that businesses need to make investments to ensure that they are ready for the next wave in the digital revolution.
The report reveals that by 2020 companies which have not opened their borders to competitors, innovators and a new generation of independent freelancers are unlikely to prosper in what Samsung calls the ‘Open Economy’.
Freelance workers are key
Freelance workers will be a key feature in this new economy, along with routine embedding of startup-driven innovation and a new kind of collaboration between traditional competitors.
Over the past decade, due mostly to the rapid adoption of mobile technology, businesses have become more open and collaborative. They now have a better understanding of the benefits of working this way compared to existing ‘closed’ business models.
However, the report suggests that within just three years, organisations will be operating in a world that is much less restricted by technical or human boundaries. People, data and ideas will be integrated into business models, but it will be crucial for businesses to get to grips with, and fully embrace, agile technologies and embrace the expectations of tomorrow’s work culture.
Embrace security
To survive and thrive in this world of new technologies and highly dispersed digital workforces, companies will need to embrace security platforms. These will allow them to share information openly but with safety. This will force them to fundamentally rethink how they create business models and the technologies that they depend on.
“Finding ways to safely empower new waves of future freelance workers is going to be the number one business challenge. Within three years, it’s expected that businesses will have to deal with over 7.3 billion connected devices[1], whilst a rapidly digitised and changing workforce will evolve to one that will transform businesses in how, where and when they operate,” says Nick Dawson, Global Director, Knox Strategy.