Tech should enable change and not drive it

Written by Rabee Saad

Rabee leads the Enterprise Division and is one of the oldest employees at KUWAITNET.


Digitalisation in the modern day
Adapting to the new normal requires new business models. With COVID-19, disruptive technologies, shifting consumer behaviors and increasing awareness of the societal and environmental impacts of business and technology have forced companies to rethink their entire operation strategy. Companies understand the need to change and adapt to all the fundamental shifts that are taking place. Technological advancements have transformed the business by increasing its growth, improving operational agility, creating more value and providing a better customer experience. With technology at its forefront, it is necessary for established companies to immediately adopt new ways of working and build new channels to connect with the customers.

Though technological transformations have engulfed businesses and various other institutions, it is only enabling these institutions. Despite being an enabler, technology is not the whole answer. The rapid rate at which technological progress sits at the heart of the transformation imperative. Technology is the enabler that allows businesses to identify and unlock customer value and connect with them. However, it also bends the competitive concept out of shape.

It is the human endeavor that drives a business or the world around us. Technology is a helping hand, a tool that is used by humans to create an efficient business scenario. Human endeavor is what developed technologies and in turn, technology drives forward human endeavor.

Technological Change - Why is technology the enabler?

Technology has impacted every facet of the business today: not only on how you tend to the consumer’s expectations but also the nature of who are the competitors. It is changing how one creates efficiencies within our businesses and industries, how it can bring the products and services to the market with speed, gathering information and understanding of your customers.

It is also worth noting that there is nothing new about the creation and use of technology for advancement in case of ease of speed, and scale of production. Harnessing the power of animals for agriculture and transportation, the wheel, and the evolving power sources of water, steam and then electricity - are all the technological leaps that have been enabling business since time immemorial. They are leaps that have created monumentally successful businesses for those that realized their potential.
For instance, the electrification of businesses was the most significant shift which took place about 40 years ago, spanning from the end of the nineteenth century through to the 1930s. The same calculations, risks and costs were made by the business leaders back then as now.
The same experiments were carried out by adding electricity to the business thereby accelerating the process. Since then electricity became the center of every procedure and at the core of everything the business does.

The drivers of business

To term technology as the driver is not acceptable because each idea that has come up in terms of competitive advantage has been through human leadership, goals/vision and a culture that promotes this growth. However, human leadership, culture and vision (the drivers) ideas should work together in conjunction with technology ( the enabler). Technology has assisted in creating a competitive advantage for the users and paving way for the leaders to create a world of sustainable growth.

Customer Experience

Technology alone has not been a game changer for business, its advancement along with the customer experience has been drastic. The role technology plays in the lives of the consumers is the central role that it has played. While the evolution of technology has affected both the consumers and the enterprises, what has been put in the hands of the individualist is the origin of the real technological evolution. The changes brought into a human being's life with the introduction of the personal computer have been the real change.

Possession of a computer was followed by a succession of technological changes that increasingly made technology an inevitable part of our daily lives, commerce, and society. We have become inseparable from the technological advancements that have been creeping up on every minute task.


Final thoughts

There has been an acceleration in the use of technology, in parallel with a rapidly and radically improving interface, further advancing the functionality and usability of the technology. The enablers and the drivers to make a successful business should meet in the middle. Through continuous leadership greater outcomes have been achieved and personal growth can be witnessed.

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