Technology drives business in all its forms – from innovative new products and processes that generate efficiencies to creating competitive advantages – it goes companies of all sizes and types, even those run out of home offices.
Organizations that excel are human enterprises that successfully integrate their technology functions with all areas of the company, ensuring each initiative has a noticeable financial impact and is built around an environment conducive to innovation.
Innovation
Business environments constantly shift, necessitating companies to embrace innovation to stay competitive. While creation may require collaboration and partnerships, organizations that leverage technology for innovation may experience substantial gains.
Innovation refers to any change to an existing product, service, or business model to create something entirely new. It can result from several factors combining, including technological advances and an environment that promotes creative thought.
Innovative business leaders who understand how new technologies impact how their companies operate can lead to significant innovation. Such leaders tend to be lifelong learners who love challenging assumptions. Such leaders can identify opportunities that others miss, leading to the creation of unique products and services.
Education and training programs can foster an innovative mindset. At the University of Redlands’s School of Business & Society, students are encouraged to think creatively while receiving instruction on advanced technological tools that will allow them to flourish in today’s technology-driven business environment.
Innovation encompasses many activities, but success relies on creating something of value to customers that meets their needs and wants. This may involve developing a product or service or implementing new business processes – among others.
One of the primary innovation methods involves recognizing and responding to consumer pain points. This may involve explicit and latent pain points that are easier for companies to detect; innovation that addresses both types can provide immense value to customers by helping solve everyday problems more easily.
Innovation can be a lengthy process, yet it is integral to business success. Organizations can utilize digital technology to expedite this process and shorten development times into finalized products and services by weeks or even months. Furthermore, digital tools can also increase employee productivity which speeds up overall innovation processes within organizations.
Automation
Automation involves decreasing human intervention in a process, typically to enhance customer experiences, reduce team stress and ensure compliance. Automation also frees employees to focus on other, more important work rather than mundane or repetitive tasks that take up their time and attention. Automation may be performed unattended (without human involvement) or attended, depending on its complexity; examples range from household thermostats with simple on/off control signals to complex industrial control systems containing millions of input measurements and output control signals.
Implementing an effective automation strategy requires careful thought and consideration of which technologies best fit your business and why. Communicating with stakeholders across your enterprise to identify areas which will have the greatest effect on customer engagement, growth, efficiency, safety and quality.
Basic automation uses technology to digitize tasks and eliminate repetitive or monotonous work, freeing humans up for more important or high-value work. This type of automation can be found across many industries and business processes – IT, customer service, marketing, sales, and commerce to name just a few examples.
Advanced automation takes this technology one step further by employing artificial intelligence (AI) for machine learning and decision-making that uses real-time customer data with automated actions to deliver personalized customer experiences on a large scale while decreasing time to market and increasing efficiency.
Automotive industries rely heavily on automation technologies to streamline processes and increase productivity, while automated systems in manufacturing help create more precise products, improve medical devices and pharmaceuticals, reduce errors rates, and protect workers when they interact with equipment. Some automation systems even incorporate safety features to keep employees from harming themselves when handling equipment.
Automation tools have proven effective at fighting burnout and increasing employee happiness by giving employees more time for meaningful projects and strengthening relationships between colleagues. A recent study discovered that nearly 80% of employees reported being more satisfied with their jobs since implementing automation tools into their workday.
Reaching a Global Audience
Businesses aiming to reach global audiences often rely on technology as a solution. From increasing social media presence and sales generation, to localizing websites, using email and social media marketing, and creating targeted ads in different languages – technology provides tools that make reaching global audiences easy. Businesses using such strategies will quickly build customer bases, increase revenues, and establish themselves as global brands.
The world is becoming smaller, and businesses must reach as many people as possible to remain competitive. Technology is pivotal in reaching this global audience and will only become more critical as we become ever more interconnected. Utilizing it in classroom can also help students understand the significance of connecting with people from various parts of the globe.
Businesses must remain current on technology trends in order to remain relevant and remain competitive in today’s global marketplace. While some innovations won’t last long, others will have an immense effect on our daily lives for years afterward. New technologies spur competition between companies which benefits consumers with better, more cost-effective products.
Technology also enables businesses to operate from any location worldwide, creating a global marketplace where companies of all sizes (even those operated from someone’s living room) can compete and thrive. From selling products globally or offering online services globally, technology makes reaching global audiences simpler and more cost-effective for businesses.
No matter the nature of a business, having an effective plan for reaching global audiences is essential to its success. This should include setting specific campaign goals, selecting target countries, and developing a timeline to achieve success. A successful technology drive demands hard work; by following these steps businesses can reach global audiences while meeting their business goals and succeed.
Organizational Change
Many leaders approach change with caution. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” can often be heard among leaders who would instead maintain business as usual than take a chance on trying something different that may or may not work out. Yet companies must adapt to stay competitive – this means making sure the appropriate technologies are in place that enable organizational transformation to happen effectively and successfully.
Organizations that switch from manual processes to automated ones can experience dramatic effects on how employees work together. Depending on how the new system operates and its workflow characteristics, such a change could significantly alter team structures, job roles, hierarchies and compensation structures; to effectively implement such changes requires leadership involvement at every step along the way and frequent and clear communications about what this change means for individual team members and how it may alter their daily responsibilities.
Leaders should assess whether teams are ready to adopt new technology and identify any potential barriers that might impede this change initiative, then create proactive plans to overcome them – such as providing training or setting up clear communication channels, setting clear next steps, or assigning change champions.
As part of your rewards culture, it can also be beneficial to recognize those who support new technology as part of their rewards package. This could involve financial incentives or simply acknowledging employees publicly for demonstrating desired behaviors – something which can reinforce and ensure that these new norms become standard amongst your team members moving forward.
As part of a change, it’s also crucial to communicate its results to employees. Doing this gives employees confidence that their decision was the right one and shows your appreciation of their input while working to improve. A company offering how much money it saved by switching to automation tools or reducing accidents through adopting new safety policies could inspire others to embrace what you’ve made.
