We live in an unprecedented era of instability and uncertainty for businesses across the globe. The environment we live in has become severely vulnerable due to climate change. The increase in global temperatures, loss of biodiversity, urban waste, and natural disasters have forced people to consider the consequences of social and business practices causing these. On the other hand, the pandemic has disrupted the mental, physical, and social well-being of individuals and communities at large. This collapse in the social ecology has created a highly unfavorable environment for businesses, with organizations now struggling to operate and survive.
Nonetheless, businesses have gradually become responsive and adaptive to this landscape by latching on to technology. Many companies have collapsed due to their failure to integrate technology and digital mediums adequately into their systems. For this reason, let’s discuss five tips for businesses to survive in this era.
Businesses, specifically small and medium organizations, transitioning from paper-based data systems to digital data systems have to tackle many issues. While business leaders are now prioritizing the establishment of digital systems, there’s less emphasis on developing mechanisms to protect digital systems.
Cybersecurity is usually the last domain that businesses think about during the transition. However, it’s arguably the most critical domain since it puts the security and privacy of organizational data in jeopardy. Companies go to great lengths to protect physical assets with heavy investments in human and infrastructural resources. Unfortunately, these efforts aren’t replicated to protect digital assets and systems.
For this reason, companies can strategically invest in improving their workers’ capacity and guard against real-world digital threats. It’ll allow them to mitigate the risk of cybercrime, preventing potential loss of data, privacy, reputation, and revenue. They can encourage top-performing employees to consider enrolling in online degrees to keep pace with the transforming cybersecurity landscape. It’ll allow them to boost their technical proficiency, remain ahead of the technology curve, and draft strategies to tackle cybersecurity threats. Since hackers in today’s time have become increasingly sharp-witted, organizations must deploy cybersecurity measures. And the only viable way to do so is by developing a team of cybersecurity experts.
In today’s rapidly evolving era, the destructive nature of technological change has rendered existing knowledge and practices obsolete. Research needs to be a priority for organizations to understand the context and how the consumers, policies, and environment have changed.
First, businesses should conduct market research to understand the role of technology in people’s lives nowadays. Secondly, the market research should be followed up by operational research into the changes business have to make to cater to these advancements. This layer of research will inform how technology can be utilized to develop responsive products and services and how to market these offerings using digital communication mediums. Innovative options such as artificial intelligence, AR/VR, 3D printing, and blockchain are potential exploration areas. Nonetheless, organizations should ensure that these endeavors align with their business philosophy and churn out desirable results instead of squandering their investments. Again for this purpose, research will prove monumental in determining the viability of a technological upgrade or implementation plan.
Beyond the direct integration of technology for improving organizational efficiency, there’s another application of technology in nature-focused strategies. Termed as Nature Positive Economic business models, these models emphasize the usage of digital means to be more environmentally responsible. Adopting these models requires businesses to transform their core ideologies and initiate top-to-bottom change.
Businesses should review and revise their central organizational goals and ethos. The goals should prioritize the well-being of people and the environment while leveraging technology and remaining profitable. Furthermore, these strategies should have measurable targets that assess the business adherence to the new ethos and monitor the impact of new operations on social and environmental well-being.
A noteworthy incentive for businesses to adopt these approaches is the positive response they’re likely to receive from consumers and society at large. Today, people have become increasingly aware and conscious of social and environmental well-being. We’ve seen a surge in promotion and favourability of businesses that have already adopted similar approaches. Therefore, automate business processes to eliminate environmentally harmful practices, utilize sustainable technology, and redraft company policies. Besides, organizations that leverage technology to achieve sustainability are lauded by stakeholders worldwide.
Companies adopting and promoting the approaches mentioned above can act as ambassadors of change in the industry. They should actively promote these approaches to other businesses and share the ethos and evidence driving this change.
Large-scale businesses that are well-positioned can engage with government leaders and policymakers to advocate technology-centric approaches. Governments supportive of these approaches have provided tax subsidies to companies in some countries, resulting in encouragement and incentive for the businesses to further the cause and other companies to follow in their footsteps.
Every organization relies on various activities, processes, and operations to achieve short and long-run business goals. Efficient utilization of technology allows businesses to streamline their business processes and achieve desired outcomes with comparatively less cost. Nonetheless, only automate those business areas that lead to improved efficiency, higher returns, and enhanced profitability. Automating those business functions or processes that provide comparatively less return on investment will only incur further losses. Therefore, conduct an organization-wide assessment, identify areas of improvement, and leverage technological systems and software accordingly.
To thrive in today’s technology-driven era, organizations of all typeFs should focus on business process automation. Automation can prove worthwhile for businesses, from enhancing business functions to boosting customer engagement and limiting production costs.
Organizations worldwide will have to reinvent themselves to survive in the current era, which requires an overhaul of their physical and digital assets to become technologically advanced. To achieve this, business leaders would first have to educate themselves on technologically advanced and nature-positive approaches to transform business ethos and initiate change internally. Subsequently, they will have to become advocates externally by informing the sector and society of the dire need to adopt these approaches and reap their benefits.
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