Roundtable for IT leader on riding the Digital Juggernaut

Speaking at the 13^th Annual CIOL C-Change award roundtable Jayesh Ghatge, Market Partner, ThoughtWorks India, highlighted the five pillars for digital growth:

Economy, Social, Tech, Institutions and Environment.   

Tech mega trends

3D printing is going to be big and we all know that. Amazon has already filed a patent for just in time delivery where the product is printed on the way while being shipped to the customer by using predictive analytics.

Autonomous transportation, Cloud solutions, Digital platforms, “Always on” connectivity, IoT, Advanced robotics and Digital currency are going to be the major disruptors in the market economy.

Sensor economy (IoT)

Internet of things is going to be a force to reckon with and we all are aware of it. Driven by sensor economy Internet of things will transform into Internet of people, services and data.

Forces in the digital economy

According to Moore’s law with the advent of technology things are getting smaller, cheaper and widely available for the masses. With the growth of the middle class our society is going to get networked completely. Brands like UBER, AIRBNB, Tesla and Amazon have challenged the notion of how a business is done. Uber is the best example of sharing economy while Tesla is driven by green economy.

Where is the innovation?

There is a common notion that Indian e-commerce marketplace has done nothing innovative and that they have simply copied the western model of marketplace and implemented the same in India. Though, the challenge of adopting the western model of market place in India was huge as something that works in Bangalore is not supposed to work in other place. Myntra is one of the best examples of digital disruption. Their app model was an innovation and by adopting it they proved that by challenging the set norm businesses can lead the digital transformation pack.

Pitfalls on Digital Journey

Inaction and lack of sponsorship are few of the main impediments that can hamper a digital journey. Also, many times businesses have an inadequate understanding of economic, social, and demographic shifts which needs to be addressed separately.

From real-estate to automobiles, CIO’s and thought leaders came together on this platform to share their views and their digital journey so far.  Few insights are as follows:

• Technology is getting disruptive every moment
• Longevity of an idea in the market is important for analyzing the short term benefit or long term benefit of any goal.
• Stock exchange is not allowed to approach the end user directly and the dealing is through broker due to regulations. We have to enable the broker so that they can provide the consumer with required benefits.
• Digital distribution network is the need of the hour to study what exactly the market wants.
• Minimizing paperwork for members and then end users.    
• Reducing the current business to increase the footprint of future business.
• Working closely with disruptors is necessary.
• Never before IT and businesses came forward to talk about the problems jointly. IT and businesses need to work as a team as the goal/vision is common.
• In general insurance there is a cultural shift and most of the business earlier was in paper form but now everything is on portal which provides better customer experience.
• People are moving from PC based transaction to mobile based transaction but security is the main concern.
• Many companies shy away from data science. If they get the data science right then they can get their big data strategy right.
• Myntra is using product customization by deploying algorithm due to which fashion designers are no longer required for developing apparel.
• India has jumped directly from analogue to smart.
• 70 % of Indian battery market is unorganized and is running on local market.
• Alignment required between market, employees, technology, and business.