by Shankar Venkat, Founder/CEO, Azure Digital

If you are a car race enthusiast, you will appreciate the significance of “Time” in fraction of seconds, because that’s what will make the difference between winner & runner up ! If you follow F1 races, the time it takes to change the 4 wheels of an F1 car in a pitstop should be less than 10 seconds ! Thats the closest to changing the wheels of a car, without actually stopping a car !

In the world of business, you are not in a position to drive into a pit stop, to change your strategy! If “Wheels” are the ‘Strategy’, and ‘Car’ is your business, you will need to change the wheels, without stopping the car !! When businesses fail to change the ‘wheels’, the business is sure to go off the road ! Nokia and Blackberry are the recent cases where the ‘Drivers’ failed to change the ‘wheels’ when needed, and both companies have been to consigned to the ‘Litter bins’ of corporate history.

So, the question often asked is “Why did the Drivers fail to change the Wheels ?”. One reason that can be attributed is the widely held tenet in business ‘Don’t fix, if it ain’t broken’. This tenet may have worked 40 years back ; but certainly not in this day and age. There are surprisingly many businesses out there, clinging to old ways and moving slowly, when it comes to business strategy.They fail to see that the ‘Digital age’ is upon us ! In the digital age, change happens fast.

What is the ‘Digital age’ ? Simply put, It is the convergence of ‘computing’ age and ‘communication’ age. Go back 25 years – Computers and Communication systems were very different.  Computers and Telephone systems worked almost in ‘Silos’.  There was no internet, no mobile telephones !  Fast forward to 2015, there is hardly anybody on the street in the developed world, who is not carrying a ‘Smartphone’. Smartphones offers immense possibilities not thought possible even 10 years back. This is ‘Disruptive’ technology.

This convergence of Computers and Communications has created ‘Business possibilities’ never thought possible before.  Uber Taxi is an often quoted example of  ‘Disruption’ caused to traditional business, because of ‘Digital Technology.

WeWork offices, is disrupting the concept of ‘Office’ and workplace for start ups and small businesses !

Digital technology offers possibilities to ‘Reimagine’ businesses in ways, that was not possible before. For instance ‘Proximity Marketing’ ,  is emerging a new ‘way’ to target customers to drive up sales in large shopping malls and in large events.  Brick & mortar retail stores can use the ‘beacons’ for mobile commerce and offer customers, special deals through mobile marketing.

The time to change the “wheels of business” without stopping the car is upon us, are you ready ?