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Staying Relevant in a Changing Tech Industry

September 29, 2016

It is time to face the facts: technology is changing faster than ever. Normally presented as a positive, technological improvements can also be a threat to established businesses. The rise of emerging tech businesses may give consumers more choices, but can lead to increased competition for existing businesses and even a complete industry overhaul with new business models empowered by the latest advances in IT.

 

“Enterprises once protected by significant investments and regulations now run the risk of going the way of encyclopedias and record stores if they don’t embrace digital transformation.” - Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.

 

What does this mean for small to medium business owners? It means you must stay relevant in a changing business world, especially when it comes to utilizing technology.

 

No matter what industry you are in, it is at risk. Today’s changing technology and free information exchange means that there is always a better and faster way to do something just around the corner. The first step to avoid being left behind by changing technologies is to be aware of this fact.

 

Image from: forbes.com

One common example of technology innovation that completely disrupted an established business standard is email: it switched the way we generally communicate from paper to digital. Disruptive technologies can cause businesses to lag if they do not respond to them. Imagine a company that never adopted email or having their own website, that company might still be in business but they would be far behind the rest of us. When technology innovations arrive, small to medium business owners must ask themselves how they will respond.

 

“There has been a fundamental paradigm shift. Today’s customer expectations are ‘If I can imagine it, it simply has to be there; if not, I’ll invent it myself’.” — Kim Williams, AFC Commissioner

 

For semi-established businesses, technological change is also an opportunity for growth and industry change. If these companies can take advantage of the new technology, new business models and even hiring methods, they can get ahead of their competitors. Think about the Facebook Messenger App, it allows people to text and call online which cuts into the cell carriers industry but does not completely replace it. Facebook took a look at other popular apps like What’sApp (which they actually bought in 2014), which allows people to communicate internationally sans international dialing fees, and adapted that technology to their business. This was a smart adaptation of new technology that could have presented a risk to Facebook’s own messaging system, and instead it was an opportunity for growth.

 

What this all boils down to is staying competitive and flexible. You must respond to the changing technology in order to survive, this is not just good business advice, this is essential to running a business today.

 

Have anything to add? Please respond down in the comments.

 

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About Pagoda Technologies IT services

Pagoda Technologies is a globally recognized IT support company doing business in Santa Cruz, San Jose and all over the world who is working to help businesses and their IT departments run smoothly and efficiently. To learn how Pagoda Technologies can help your business, email us at support@pagoda-tech.com to schedule a no cost business assessment.



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