Are you a zero on Tech usage?

What is happening around us: The society around us had been changing constantly. The speed of change had been increasing in the past one decade or so. There are so many tech tools that are available now that were not there earlier. Whether it is Whatsapp, Telegram etc or more powerful Youtube, Instagram et all or Online purchase, Swiggy/Zomato etc.. the world has changed in a big way in the past decade. AI has come into our lives in the past year or more in a big way. It promises to change our lives in a big way in the following years. In the last one

year, I personally improved my productivity by 2 times in the area of content preparation using Generative AI. Right now, it can’t replace me for content writing for my training purposes. But that day is not far away as far as content writing is concerned. There are so many Technology pieces available that can be used in improving efficiency at businesses. The standardized tools that work across industries may be there. But the bigger benefit is waiting for us in applying the tech tools to specific needs in our business. The changes in our life styles have seeped in silently and all of us lapped up that change. A great majority of us use the tech tools and we are also enjoying them.

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Status of businesses: While we are accepting a lot of change in our personal lives, the status of businesses is not the same. The percolation of tech into businesses had not been so great. A great majority of the companies are struggling with basic work tools like ERP, CRM and so on. A big majority of Manufacturing companies do not use the basic software tools that are available. There are some good examples in the industry. But I am trying to motivate this great majority who are not using tech well. The routine processes in these companies are not even defined well.

The design of the organization and systems is not giving them any efficiency. It is good to look at an MRT (Mass rapid transit) or the Metro rail system to understand how a good system can drive efficiency. The MRT across the world are having predominantly same system. The whole train station is designed in a particular way, the trains have fewer cars. But they run more frequently at a close gap. Punctuality of trains is 100%. The trains stop at a predesignated locations driving the people to assemble only there. The MRTs across the world are highly efficient due to the larger physical design and the working system design. Businesses can learn a lot from this example.

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The businesses can attempt to redefine their business using technology. They can redefine the customer group that they can address. They can redefine the approach to customers. They can redefine their profits and efficiencies. A lot is there waiting to be tapped.

?Tech orientation: The tech orientation of employees and managements is very low. Many of the companies that attempt to introduce a good ERP or a totally automated machine struggle to get the best out of the automation as the people around these automated set ups are not having the required tech orientation. The ERP implementations in India are predominantly failures. The companies may not be using even small percentage of the capabilities of the ERP. So, the employees are not prepared in these organizations. They are also not approached well in all the implementations of technology in the companies. In this article, we are addressing how the employees can be prepared by improving their tech orientation. ?

?Companies can improve the tech orientation by introducing certain practices. The practices are needed to educate the top management and also the other layers in the organization. The practices that we are discussing are by no means the only ones. There can be many more. Companies should identify their own. Let us discuss a few examples.

?Visit to companies by top management: The top management can visit companies that are doing well technologically. Some companies that may be in the forefront of technology in the related industries. In one of the companies that I was associated with, I took the senior management team to top of the tier companies in Europe to understand their Technology development processes. This helped the senior management team to learn how companies are leveraging technology. The top management can also engage with big vendors like Infosys, Wipro, Siemens and so on to learn about case studies of tech usage across the world.

?It is very important for the top management to be convinced about the tech usage.

?Tech champions: There are always some leaders who are more tech oriented than others in the company. It would be good to nominate Tech champions who will take responsibility for teaching the employees about tech usage and overseeing the implementation of tech projects.

?Collaboration with Tech institutes: The Company can organize for lectures by Professors from Tech institutes like IIT and other universities abroad. There can be a series of lectures on topics of interest for the company. The company should focus on topics that are not related to them too. The focus should be on areas where the tech applications are happening well. The focus here is to learn how tech is being applied. Not necessarily only in their industry.

?Senior people should be encouraged to take short courses at these institutes to learn about application of technology.

?Attending Tech events: There are several tech events happening around the world. Online and face to face. The employees should be encouraged to attend these events. The focus should be on events that champion the basic understanding.

?Tech day events: The company can have a Tech day every quarter. Employees from every function should be encouraged to present papers on this day. It is a good idea to have these events in educational institutions like IIT / Engineering colleges with the Academicians in attendance.

?It is a good idea to work out a ‘Tech events calendar’ for the year. The company can nominate a team of employees from all levels to promote the Tech orientation in the company. The Leadership of this team can be championed by different people by rotation. Sometimes it is a good idea for this team to be led by junior people who may be very good in technology.

?Companies should over invest into this area for the next few years. After couple of years into this journey, I would suggest that company should work out BIG GOALS for the company for the next 3 years. The company should start challenging themselves to transform their business and redefine everything to the next level. The companies should be very ambitious in this regard. They should look at becoming the ‘most preferred partner’ of their customers, they should look at doubling their profits, they should look at introducing state of the art products for the customers and so on. By having such BIG GOALS, they should start leveraging the technology towards these BIG GOALS.

You can try to understand the competencies you need to handle a future manufacturing company from this video:

https://youtu.be/l5d0Iebi0gg

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