Digital Darwinism: Why Caribbean businesses are in trouble. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and it seems that many Caribbean businesses are struggling to keep up. With the emergence of new technology and evolving consumer behavior, some companies find themselves in a digital Darwinian environment where only the fittest survive. In this blog post, we will discuss how Caribbean businesses can avoid extinction by adapting or becoming extinct.
What is digital Darwinism?
Digital Darwinism is the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than some companies’ ability to adapt.
How does the region survive Digital Darwinism?
To survive Digital Darwinism, Caribbean businesses need to adapt or become extinct. Adaptation is a must in the face of new technologies and evolving consumer behavior that occur at an ever-increasing pace. There are three steps companies should follow to evolve with digital technology: identify, initiate and innovate – which we will discuss below.
*Identify what changes need to be made
*Initiate change by implementing a plan for adapting products and services based on these findings
*Innovate by creating innovative solutions through technological innovation as new technologies develop over time (e.g., when computers were invented people soon realized they should have been using networks instead)
THE KEYS TO ADAPTING TO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION!!!
The digital revolution has imposed new business models, new payment methods, new ways of buying, finding information, communicating and relating in which there is no place for the Shakespearean dilemma “to be or not to be” — on a digital level — if we want to survive in the caribbean. A look back over recent years should suffice to show how big companies that did not keep up with the times are no longer with us. To avoid following in their footsteps many others have accepted the importance of evolving in digital terms.
This aside, no digital conversion will be a success without adopting a user-centric business strategy and, to achieve this, you must know about it. How? By analysing the information generated. If adequately processed, the thousands of gigabytes of data generated every day will be worth their weight in gold. And although many companies may believe that big data is only available to big companies, any enterprise, large or small, can access data mining if they invest in suitable profiles and tools.
How to go about transforming your business in a competitive market?
The digital era has given rise to the new form of Darwinism, where technology is constantly changing and impacting society. This change can be seen in many ways such as changes in people (customers etc) or how markets are advancing with this evolution taking place. To thrive during this time period many companies invested heavily into their own transformation so that they may evolve from traditional practices to modern ones which will allow them a more competitive edge over other businesses who have not yet made these investments themselves.
The words “digital transformation” are thrown around by people without specifically understanding their meaning. After researching the topic and speaking with those leaders in charge of change, I was able to come up with a definition based on what I heard time and time again- digital transformation is when businesses realign technology, business models, processes for better customer service through new value creation. This means that companies must stay at pace with trends such as social media or AI exploitation for example; if not they will quickly become obsolete because switching costs are minimal these days compared to decades ago where there would be significant investments into hardware/software before finally having any type of return from it whatsoever. It’s important to note though how many other factors go into this process like human capital, strategy & customer experience.
One of the key insights I learned in my research and experience is that mature companies establish purpose to create alignment. In a world where customers are demanding more, organizations have evolved through five progressive stages driven by customer experience (CX). Through the lens of CX, digital transformation has become an enterprise-wide change initiative with collaboration between marketing teams and IT departments at each stage for successful changes.
In order to stay relevant, organizations must take a more active approach in the digital era. They will have no choice but to experiment with new ways of doing things-from how they do business and serve customers all the way down through their technology and process for getting work done.
- Present and Active: Pockets of experimentation are driving digital literacy and creativity, albeit disparately, throughout the organization while aiming to improve and amplify specific touchpoints and processes.
- Strategic: Individual groups recognize the strength in collaboration as their research, work, and shared insights contribute to new strategic roadmaps that plan for digital transformation ownership, efforts, and investments.
- Innovative and Adaptive: Digital transformation becomes a way of business as executives and strategists recognize that change is constant. A new ecosystem is established to identify and act upon technology and market trends in pilot and, eventually, at scale.
- Formalized: Experimentation becomes intentional while executing at more promising and capable levels. Initiatives become bolder, and, as a result, change agents seek executive support for new resources and technology.
- Converged: A dedicated digital transformation team forms to guide strategy and operations based on business and customer- centric goals. The new infrastructure of the organization takes shape as roles, expertise, models, processes, and systems to support transformation are solidified.
Digital Darwinism is a term that has been coined to describe the rapid pace at which technology changes are transforming business. It’s not just businesses in developed countries who have to worry about this phenomenon, Caribbean companies must also contend with it too. There are many ways for your company to survive digital Darwinism; some of them include embracing change, investing time in R&D, finding new niche markets or products, using automation where possible and last but not least – consulting with an expert on how best to proceed! If you’re interested in learning more about what Digital Darwinism means for your business specifically please contact me directly as I would be happy to consult with you on any aspect of your digital transformation projects.
