Agility in a changing world

What strategic approaches can help firms remain relevant and competitive given the scale and pace of change around us?

This is a question that technology firms like Fujitsu have to answer for themselves and their clients, and I’m looking forward to sharing Fujitsu’s thinking on this issue at EDF Energy’s Talk Power Conference on 17 June.

Here are some of the points I will touch on.

The big trends
The world’s population just passed the 7 billion mark and continues to grow. We are an ageing population on the move, and this puts intense pressure onto our social infrastructure, in turn bringing new challenges around resource management, healthcare and conserving our environment.

On top of this, data is growing at an unprecedented rate. Indeed, an estimated 90% of the world’s data has been generated in the last two years. This is coupled with a shift towards the emergence of the digital consumer, with a greater appetite than ever before for digital services.

This data pool, generated by a wide range of connected assets, will only swell further and more rapidly, as millions and millions of devices beyond smartphones and computers become connected to the internet.

The energy sector like technology is under huge pressure to change, those companies that remain agile and ahead of the game are those that respond to the change by adjusting their business models accordingly.

How to respond
Those companies that keep ahead of the game, are those that turn this data into actionable intelligence. With such fast-paced change, using this insight can help create new more agile business models. As you might expect from a technology company, we believe companies must embrace the new digital world to succeed in future.

But how?

First companies must understand their strategic challenge: how those big trends could affect their business and their sector, and where the new opportunities lie. How to apply technology to your business to deliver the change in strategy will follow.

We believe a change in thinking is needed to embrace the new digital world. Think big, start small. Constant evaluation.  Be agile.

Technology is an enabler to deliver a change in strategy and embracing it is key to creating successful and sustainable business models. But working out the answer to your strategic challenge comes first.

I look forward to exploring more of this with you at Talk Power 2015.