The Tech Revolutionist, Singapore: Senior Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says Survival in the Digital Economy Depends on Speed

“Survival in the digital economy will depend on speed,” writes Manish Bahl. “At the heart of the new digital world order is the unstoppable rise of automation, analytics and artificial intelligence (what we call the new machine), and with that comes an unprecedented level of speed — in doing business, generating value, making decisions, meeting customer expectations, and getting products and services to market.” Excerpts:

“In an age when a start-up can reshape an entire industry overnight, businesses must be on their A-game. In short, it is speed that determines whether you disrupt or are disrupted.

Cognizant’s research shows that digital leaders hold a 139% advantage over stragglers in cost savings and revenue growth. For example, if you think it will be another 10 years before AI needs to be taken seriously, you’ve already lost.

Businesses need ambitious goals, but overblown promises and expectations will only lead to disappointment. Scattershot initiatives or overly general bromides to “Just do AI,” “Just do big data,” or “Just do every new shiny technology” invariably backfire because those left to carry out the order don’t know the difference between “fast” and “far.”

Meanwhile, attempting to imitate one of the digital masters or unicorns is often a misguided or even dangerous strategy. The chances are good that endeavoring to become “the Amazon of our space” will destroy more business value than it creates.

Companies can tackle the challenge by using the speed framework, which allows executives across industries to determine their capabilities and how to progress to the next level. The ultimate objective of this framework is to help organizations match the speed of disruption in the marketplace.

- Speed to automation or how fast companies leverage software bots for automating human-based processes to get on a high-growth path,

- Speed to monetize halos of information or how quickly companies start to understand and drive value from their data,

- Speed to enhance the workforce or how effectively companies can upskill their workforce to improve productivity and improve employees’ strategic value-add,

- Speed to abundance or how fast companies can create high-volume markets by leveraging AI, analytics and automation to drive down the price point of products, and

- Speed to discovery or how quickly companies innovate and disrupt the market of their own accord

It is time for companies in Asia-Pacific to step on the gas, but without overheating engines.”

Click here to read more.