Towards the end of 2019, Gartner published 10 Strategic technology trends for 2020. While almost all of the trends will be relevant, the post-COVID-19 impact has reprioritized the order in which it will take place. I have tried to visualize how the business may approach these technologies for adoption. We all know that political and business leaders worldwide are keen to open up their economies, and the first step towards it is regaining business confidence. In this long march to restoring the business confidence, technology will be the most important and influential factor which can sustain momentum at an ever-increasing velocity. Organizations have to choose tech streams that work across two continuous and complementary cycles:
Business Continuity
Business operations need technologies that can help them run the business today. It includes cloud-based technologies for communication and running business-critical applications without disruption, development of digital twin of their current brick and mortar business, adoption of technologies that power contactless delivery of products and services. Modernize the existing technology infrastructure to improve operational efficiency, and incrementally grow the business. These immediate measures will bring back customers to the companies, rejuvenate the dried-up revenue streams for several organizations, and then set the stage upon which innovation opportunities are explored and will ultimately influence the cost, risk, and success of implementing and scaling innovation efforts.
Innovation Run
If there is one lesson that has been driven home in the last couple of months, it is that every business has to build a culture of innovation. Organizations that value and promote innovation succeed and thrive. Today disruptive technologies are synonymous with innovation to transform the business and either create or respond to disruptions affecting the business. This innovation cycle looks at more radical changes to business models and supporting technologies as well as new business models and technologies that extend the current environment. AI, Automation, and Autonomous represent the innovation pack.
With this background, I propose the Multi-scale Technology Adoption triangle, which can fuel the growth of the organization. The x-axis represents the timeline of 18 months, which is Moore’s law for the digital era and y-axis, the geometric growth of organizations with respect to the timeline. Business cycles and technologies do not exist in isolation. They build on and reinforce one another to create the digital world. This approach provides the opportunity to create immediate returns that are easier to design, develop, and deploy. In turn, this enables further democratization of the use of technology as business users and customers self-serve to meet their individual needs. This further builds resilience for business against the macro-economic changes.