Like watching a beautiful butterfly suddenly jumps out of a cocoon, isn’t it fun to be in the moment of watching a new and different picture of future unfolds right in front of our eyes? In fact we are in that moment today for many of the life-changing innovations.
No matter we like it or not, within or beyond our current imaginations, the massive flood of the Internet of Things(IoT, in much broader and expanded sense) are surely coming. The waves have already started. They are going to explode rapidly and display in gigantic scale in the business world and people’s daily life very soon. With the current speed of technology advancement, within a decade or less, we will all be living in the new world of ubiquitous connectivity and taking it as a norm.
The IoT flood will affect many areas of the enterprises and consumers. For an impacted traditional “terrestrial” business enterprise, how can it survive the new flood and the new world? The answer is likely as: not by building a Noah’s Ark, but by transforming the business into a swim-able creature, or an amphibian. Keep in mind it will be competitive in the water and finding a niche will be tough.
TriStrategist thinks a business can “swim” in these fashions in the IoT-flooded world:
– Infrastructure players (Including those private, public and hybrid cloud providers, but they need increasingly data-friendly platforms and network bandwidth.)
– IoT Technology stack providers (Foundation/common protocols, high-level adaptable programming languages and development tools, etc. Today’s existing platform-dependent technology stacks are not adaptable or friendly enough for quick IoT solution needs.)
– Smart IoT product/device providers and solution providers (There are many startups or existing businesses today in this area targeting specific enterprise or consumer needs. More will come.)
– BigData analytics and data intelligence providers (Certainly. )
Although all these fashions can be positioned for future revenue generations, upfront investment cost, margins and competitive landscapes can all differ in the long run. How strong, smart and versatile a business can be and can roam comfortably in the new world may well depend on the vision, strength and focus of the business in the current transformation process, and of course their pocket depth. The “Do-it-all Strategy” or the “Waterloo Strategy”*** can either lead to quick failures for smaller companies, or the failure to achieve economy-of-scale timely for larger enterprises, which can be equally dangerous in a very competitive and fast-changing world.
***[See our earlier blog on “6 Common Business Strategy Errors]