Expanding Business Horizons for Limitless Disruption

For a few years now, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, 5G technology and genomics have been expected to dominate the business landscape as sunshine sectors. However, in the light of the unprecedented pace of technological advancements, not to mention COVID-19, the question is whether these technologies will remain in pole position.

Why do I say this? Because when you look back, ever since the inception of the information age, developments have never quite panned out as expected. This is why it is crucial for us as businesses to ask ourselves one question: Is it prudent for us to continue doing what we are currently doing or train ourselves to embrace and operate in a different future?

This ability to accept change as a constant is as relevant in our personal lives. How we as individuals, members of our family, and communities plan for our future must also keep pace with exponential change. Which is why we must start sowing the seeds of transformational opportunities in our personal lives, industries, and the ecosystem.?

Making significant inroads into your market

With all the change taking place round us, there is an urgent need to focus on current operations in one’s own business as well as focus on existing markets and solutions, which are?horizon 1?and?horizon 2 respectively. Yet there is also the need to focus on new markets and solutions for the world—areas your peers or competitors may not be addressing or even exploring. This will be your?horizon 3—namely, opportunities to explore and create new markets by exploring and creating new technologies/experiences/business models.

Or to put it another way, the need for businesses to build adjacencies. To focus on creating capabilities or solutions which can be of relevance and value to multiple industries. To?be able to adopt and implement an inch-wide mile-deep business strategy while simultaneously building adjacencies. Consider for example how data is just that—data. It could be for a bank or an oil company. But then how can you as a data provider create a data cloud. Or, viewed from another lens, if you have an established presence and market say in the US how do you build or ‘convert’ this existing expertise so that you can succeed in Canada—a culturally and politically different space?

Consider now for example how Starbucks allocated its resources across different innovation horizons to deal with the challenges the pandemic posed. It introduced?new apps ?which had millions of downloads to help meet customer demand during times of lockdown and social distancing.

It introduced an integrated ticket management system, which organized orders from Uber Eats, the Starbucks app and drive-through customers, thereby dipping into horizon 2 while strengthening its presence in horizon 1—its current operations. It also introduced new espresso machines with sensors, thus demonstrating its ability to tap into transformative technology relatively new to the world in its business domain, which enabled baristas to track how much coffee was being poured and plan ahead for maintenance.?

Further, through the use of micro services architecture and its collaborative partnership with Uber Eats, an adjacent business, Starbucks not only tackled COVID-19, but also expanded into an entirely new business opportunity through its foresight and partnerships.

Customer is King

It is key to remember our business in is competition not just with competitors from our industry, but also for consumers’ time, attention, and engagement, all of which goes beyond industry boundaries.?

To create a successful and sustainable business, we need to focus, operate, and manage our current needs for the short term and, build simultaneously for the medium and long-term. This is why it is important to spread resources across horizons and build a portfolio of offerings to make yourself future proof. One way of assessing the viability of what you are doing is to ask yourself, “Will this help me increase my share of wallet with my existing customers?”

Consider for example a bank. If it is not already offering mobile banking it is looking at a bleak future. Not only should it adopt digital transformation to be able to offer its customers a digital experience, but it should also look beyond the immediate present and future and consider next-gen technologies like Blockchain and AI to further fortify and futureproof its business.

Changing your perspectives to change your approach

We may think the three horizons are earmarked in terms of time, but if we change our perspective to combining current technology with transformative business models, it can result in a disruptive product or service today. What could be a better example than Uber? We have witnessed how Uber looked at an existing problem of commuting with a new perspective. This resulted in a totally new business, disrupting not just the taxi industry but the entire mobility sector.

Operating in the current context while keeping an eye on two additional horizons is crucial. To do this well businesses must prioritize forging strategic partnerships, plan mergers and acquisitions, incorporate open innovations, and build and leverage networks. This will carve a path to success and enable businesses to emerge as disruptors.