The real challenge for companies today is not embracing change but adapting to the unprecedented pace of change. Decisions on engaging disruptive technologies posing both opportunities and competitive pressures are a critical consideration facing companies today. Navigating through the myriad of issues is complex and use cases are often not adequately defined and scoped.
TECHNOLOGY
Keeping abreast of innovations in technology can be daunting: Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning, Quantum Computing to name a few. Distilling the appropriate technologies (or combination thereof) and applying them to your business is where many companies falter. Management tends to underestimate time and resource competencies needed to onboard new technologies, while overestimating ROIs and immediacy of business adoption both internally and externally.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Nowhere is the potential for disruption more evident and rapid as in financial services. Yet it is also perhaps the most resistant to sweeping changes due to the implications to existing economic and social structures.
For example current efforts at financial inclusion for the many unbanked in the world, and the possibility of mass adoption of decentralized digital currencies would each result in seismic shifts in economic development and empowerment especially in developing economies.
This poses challenges across the entire ecosystem. Policy makers understandably urge caution as adoption of new digital technologies tend to move faster than the legislative processes, while industry incumbents balance bringing new products and services to complement their legacy business vs. losing market share to new entrants.
