Emerging Technologies

Each and every day as of late, new and innovative use cases for emerging technologies are being developed by the innovative creators of the digitally connected world of tomorrow. They are inventing the products and services that will have an impact on nearly every aspect of our daily lives.  With that said, properly leveraging emerging technologies throughout our career is becoming just what is needed to achieve the success we seek and desire. Whether it is in our home and personal lives or the business and work environments that we spend an increasing percentage of our time, whether we like it or not, we are more than ever before, connected, interacting and reliant upon with digital technology. We have little choice.

Whether at home, work or somewhere in between, we are connected and the way we are engaging with each other has significantly changed. This is also true in the way we engage our systems and pieces of emerging technologies like Smart Homes, Smart Buildings, Smart Highways, Smart Vehicles and we should not forget intelligent systems that are currently in place today and smarter ones coming in the near-term. The digital/connected aspects of our professional and personal lives have become so intertwined compared to what we had experienced in the past and with what has now become to be known as the norm, has led many to now believe it is essential to keep up with and have a basic understanding of emerging technologies.  However, we must break-out and isolate ourselves from time to time. Give our brains some rest and down-time.

One of the more rapidly growing issues that has begun to face and increasing number of professionals is the burn-out now being associated with the digital change (both plus and minus) and the technological sophistication and digital interaction as we move from job to job.  It is unclear what is more challenging, moving from a technologically advanced organization to one that is technologically challenged or vice versa. Perhaps that is something we all had better consider when we look at changing jobs from now on.

When talking about break-through technologies - some place them together under the header of Exponential Innovation, while others put them together under Exponential Technology.   No matter what you call them, they are those technologies where their capabilities (functionality, capacity and performance) doubles in each reporting period of time (typically annually). These technologies are at a point in their evolution where their price/performance makes them viable solutions to real-world problems that up until this point in time, could not have been functionally and/or economically addressed.  Now let’s consider the current spike in the creation and discovery of advancements in technologies that bring with them creative products and services, innovative solutions, and breaking traditional best practices and or thought processes. Basically, we are talking about DRAMATIC CHANGE!

When discussing this topic, many are quick to point to the evolution of microprocessors (chips) as to the first initiation of such an occurrence and reporting. Regardless of its point of origin, it is changing how we must think about business strategy. Below are five of the more commonly referenced exponential technologies of today (alphabetical order).

• Additive aka Accretive Manufacturing (3D Printing)
• Advanced Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Biotechnology
• Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Human Augmentation (VR, AR and HA)

Stop for a moment and think about these five technologies and the potential implications of their exponential advancement on your organization and more importantly, your career. Now consider this represents only a small percentage of the technologies commonly put under this same exponential innovation umbrella. How prepared are you and your organization? If you’re not, time is flying by.  It might be a career limiting move if you fall behind or fail to catch up.

INSIGHT: John D. Rockefeller said, "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

The business world is undergoing dramatic changes.  Digitization and emerging technologies are about tremendous implications today and will continue throughout the next few years. Both digitization and emerging technologies, are rapidly driving global economic and business transformation and it’s demanding global expansion and integration. The continuing wave of digitization and change, as well as emerging technologies are basically making businesses borderless. Organizations, employees, and governments must begin to respond to this global transformation.  Nearly all organizations that were asked stated that digitization and emerging technologies will be disruptive in the next few years.  All things considered, there is a widening functional gap between organizations that are beginning to mature in their digitization and those who have not yet begun. Nearly all have come to believe that usage of emerging technologies has just begun and is starting to accelerate and have significant implications. This requires all organizations, managers, employees as well as colleges/university students to begin and prepare and obtain the new skills that are required given to going digital and transformation driven by emerging technologies.  All of this has combined to dramatically change risk models and demand new business and operational processes, metrics, and risk mitigation.  With all of this considered, less than half of professionals that were asked, believe their organization’s leaders are spending enough time addressing digitization and emerging technologies.  How prepared are you and your organization?

John Naisbitt, a U.S. Business Executive said, “Whenever a new technology is introduced into society, there must be a counterbalancing human response - that is, high touch - or the technology is rejected...”

Nearly every executive I talked to believes that the accelerating pace of change is now a top challenge and major risk and these issues did not begin in 2019. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the impact of the change is showing to be far more reaching than many are prepared for. It took television 13 years to reach 50 million users.  It took the Internet 4 years to reach 50 million users.  It took Twitter 9 months!  It took Poke^’man Go only 19 days!  What is likely to be next and how fast with that happen? Possibly hours? Digital transformation is a much broader business strategy than just technology. Think about all the programs and projects.How prepared are you and your organization to deal with the continued acceleration of change that is driven by emerging technologies?

The time to act is now.  You can lead, . . . quickly follow, . . . or be aggressively pushed aside.

Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”

Multiple emerging technologies stand poised to alter many of the business and operational models currently in place and establish new models, industries, markets and expectations.  This will dramatically change the way organizations operate and the way business is conducted as well as what customers are likely to expect and demand.  A survey of professionals determined that only about 5% had initiatives underway and felt they were prepared. Clearly, organizations and professionals must aggressively adapt or risk becoming irrelevant.