Firms must embrace digital disruption
They must change their attitude and embark on the adventure of creative destruction - destroy today to secure the future of their business tomorrow.
ALIBABA'S chairman Jack Ma, in a speech to entrepreneurs earlier this year, extolled the virtue of business agility and adaptability in today's fast-changing markets and highlighted several trends revolving around technology that would impact businesses of the future: from leveraging big data and cloud computing as core tenets in the age of creation to always embracing new digital technology to stay ahead.
Mr Ma cited Hong Kong as an example of a city-state that can capitalise on technology to remain competitive. "Hong Kong needs to use its IT infrastructure well. In the past, the city relied on real estate. But in 20 years, if the city still relies on real estate, then it isn't real estate's fault - it's because young people haven't taken action to change that by first changing themselves," he said.
Mr Ma - who takes his inspiration from successful tech contemporaries like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Jerry Yang - is no stranger to embracing digital disruption to create new business models, being China's most successful Internet entrepreneur.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Columns
‘Competition for talent’ a poor excuse to keep key executives’ pay under wraps
OCBC should put its properties into a Reit and distribute the trust’s units to shareholders
Why a stronger US dollar is dangerous
An overstimulated US economy is asking for trouble
Too many property agents? Cap commissions on home sales
Time to study broadening of private market access