I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest book Digital: Disrupt or Die. It’s an exciting discourse about the emerging Digital-First World and technologies that are disrupting our society, our industries, and our markets—driving a transformation that will be well underway by the year 2020. Most importantly, it offers a blueprint for how companies can successfully reinvent themselves to better serve their customer,
gain competitive advantage, and lead in their industry.
With the changes that are coming, the choice is clear. Winners will embrace digital technologies, capitalize on opportunity, and reinvent themselves as digital enterprises. Losers will fall to the wayside and become obsolete. As outlined in my new book, here are the top 10 things you need to know about 2020:
1. Disruption is coming, and it’s coming fast. In a recent survey, 93 percent of global business executives believe digital will disrupt their business in the next 12 months. And they expect the change to be radical and complete—reaching all parts of the organization.
2. The world has gone mobile—hyper connectivity is here to stay. Today, 91 percent of people on the planet (or roughly 6 billion) have a mobile phone and, for 50 percent of them, mobile is their primary connection to the Internet. By 2020, the number will increase to 8 billion. Soon more people will access the Internet on mobile devices than on personal computers; eight out of ten digital shoppers will be mobile shoppers.
3. Business is moving decidedly to the cloud. By 2017, 50 percent of large enterprises will adopt a hybrid cloud computing model with data stored partially on cloud servers and partially on site.
4. The Internet of Things (IoT) will extend connectivity to everyone, everything, everywhere. By 2020, the number of connected devices will range from 25 billion (three times the world’s population) to as many as 1 trillion devices (120 times the population).
5. Mobile, social, cloud, the IoT, and data analytic technologies are converging to create a new platform for communication and information exchange. This new platform will increase the volume of information and introduce new formats to the enterprise.
6. In a Digital-First World, information will be the new currency. The value of information will move beyond optimizing performance to creating new products and services, and opening up new sales channels. Consumer data will be the biggest differentiator in the next two to three years. Whoever unlocks the reams of data and uses it strategically will win.
7. As digital technologies evolve, so will the information security threat. Security breaches will continue to increase. The number of cyber-attacks on organizations is already impacting spending on information security. Worldwide investment is expected to reach $76.9 billion in 2015.
8. Good governance is good business. In a recent study, 95 percent of organizations correlate strong information management with business success. It is estimated that by 2016, 20 percent of CIOs in regulated industries will lose their jobs for failing to implement the discipline of information governance successfully.
9. Smart businesses will cater to Generation Z. By 2020, they will comprise 50 percent of your workforce. They will expect to work in ways that are open, social, mobile, and flexible.
They will want to use the same tools in the workplace that they use at home to communicate, collaborate, and share information. Since they are key implementers of your digital strategy, you need to recruit them and build a digital enterprise to empower them.
10. The future belongs to digital innovators. On average, digital leaders are 26 percent more profitable than their industry competitors. They generate 9 percent more revenue through their employees and physical assets. Organizations that disrupt their business and leverage digital technology will gain a competitive edge.
Are you ready for 2020? Read my new book Digital: Disrupt or Die and discover how EIM can help you simply, transform and accelerate.
