Your industry boundaries are shattering: are you ready?

Remember when things were simpler? When telephones only made phone calls and a car simply took you from A to B? We knew what a business stood for, in which industry they belonged. But the technology revolution has changed all that. Nowadays few companies truly belong to just one industry – at the very least, they are all technology companies!

While technology has removed simplicity, it's given us much more. It has provided huge opportunities for those willing to think and act differently. Just think about the vast amounts of computing power at the fingertips of people with smartphones – predicted to reach 6.2b by 2020. Think about on-demand television, online shopping (and machine-based learning that gives you better suggestions that shopping assistants ever did), tablets in classrooms. It's improving our lives – even though the speed and scale of change can be unsettling.

Shattering industry boundaries and creating new business models

Evidence of the technology revolution is everywhere. As I work with clients across different industries and geographies, I'm seeing long-established industry boundaries collapsing. The lines that used to create industry silos, the established rules and ways of doing business – it's all being fractured by disruption.

It all starts with technology. There were shock waves when a new approach to sharing car rides flipped the old taxi model at dizzying speed, creating an established, multi-million dollar business in its own right. And when a digital upstart with a new take on accommodation, it created the same inventory in four years that a trusted hotel brand took 93 years to compile. These new models were created by people who were open to new ways of thinking and envisioning the future.

Now these models are being copied and adapted at speed by local entrepreneurs. Never slow to spot opportunity, entrepreneurs are upturning business models based on their granular knowledge of how to succeed in local markets. In India, a new car sharing business is focusing on second tier cities and rural areas, which have lower rates of car ownership. This ripple effect of imitation and localization is only going to accelerate.

From what I've observed, I'd say we are on the cusp of completely new ways of doing business. And it's where industry boundaries cross, in the intersections and nodes between different sectors, that things get interesting. That's where you find the real hot spots for creating value.

We're only at the beginning of this transformation. But it will evolve and gather pace. We are on the verge of yet more sweeping change, and these are some of the early signs:

• Insurance moving to real-time data, using blockchain to share encrypted risk information with multiple parties across a complex ecosystem 
• Cars becoming a data hub, with driverless cars generating a staggering 1 gigabyte of data every second.
• Healthcare teaming with new players to create wearables, a new market forecast to be worth US$25b by 2019.

The common element running through these three examples is data. Who owns it? How is it shared? What's the best way to unlock its value? These are some of the fundamental questions being debated. All industries face technology-enabled, boundary-shifting structural change. A radical rethink is required.

Given the complexity and velocity of change, it is impossible for any one organization to have all the answers. In fact, a lifetime of experience in one sector could overnight become a hindrance. Fresh thinking is needed like never before – along with the bravery to break down industry barriers to create value in new ways.

One of the most important skills needed in the digital age is the ability to build relationships and connect with diverse partners – because that's how real innovation is sparked. Success will depend on a company's ability to innovate and collaborate.

In this interconnected, digital world, do you know what business you're really in?

It's decision time. You can be paralyzed by uncertainty, overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the challenge. Or you can embrace the opportunities that convergence presents.

Those who are ready and willing to step outside industry silos and think creatively about the impact of disruption on business models will reap the rewards.

EY is at the forefront of these developments. We explored these questions in San Francisco on 26 April at the EY Convergence Lab. We brought together 100 companies to examine how collaboration, technology innovation and the blurring of industry boundaries are creating new value-creating ecosystems.

There were four current hot spots we investigated:

• Future of cities: How can cities develop the housing, jobs, transport, community and sense of purpose that populations demand?
• Future of investing and financial advice: Evolving with the needs of investors is inevitable. But who else will be best positioned to provide these new products and services?
• Future of health and wellbeing: Everyone has something to gain - how do we commercialize the wellbeing ecosystem for all participants and sectors?
• Future of payments: Rapid advancements in technology are changing the way consumers and corporates in all industries pay and get paid.

It was an exciting and productive day - and the start of a journey together to shape the future. You can relive some of the events on the EY Global Facebook page, or search #ConvergenceLab and @AlisonKayEY on Twitter.