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Technology breakthroughs

In our latest Global CEO Survey, business leaders told us technology is one of the biggest

disrupting forces in their organisations. One aspect is that the time it takes to go from

breakthrough technology to mass-market application is collapsing. In the S, it took the

telephone !" years to reach half the population. #he smartphone did it in under $% years.

#he price of ne& technologies is falling e'ually rapidly( since )%%$, the cost of *+

se'uencing per genome has plunged from S"m to less than S",%%%. t the same time,

digitisation via the internet has created e/traordinary value, as e/emplified by Google. nd

social media is steadily strengthening its position as a dominant force in the day-to-day lives of

people across the globe, enabling many of the &orld0s top brands to capitalise on it to deepen

their relationships &ith customers.

Indeed, the impacts of digital disruption are no& so pervasive that no business in any sector 1

from the smallest family business to the largest multinational 1 is immune from them. nd the

pace of technological advances hasn0t slackened at all during the past year. 2ar from it.

ccording to 3I# #echnology 4evie&, in )%$5 alone &e0ve seen breakthroughs in technologies

ranging from agricultural drones that enable higher crop yields, to 6neuromorphic0 chips

configured like human brains7 from microscale 8* printing of an ever &ider range of products,

to agile robots that can &alk or even run across uneven terrain7 and from ultra-accurate, big

data-enabled &eather forecasts that &ill boost the contribution from rene&able energy, to

genome editing that &ill help tackle previously baffling brain disorders.

ll of these advances either help to solve comple/ problems or open up ne& &ays of using

technology 1 or both. nd in each field the progress to date is 9ust the start.

So, &hat0s ne/t: Over the ne/t decade, &e think the transformative potential of digital for

consumers &ill play out in three &aves(

The First Digital Wave:&e0ll see more and more companies adopt 6e-commerce0 or add

a &eb channel to their e/isting portfolio. In this &ave, even fairly traditional organisations &ill

make this move.

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The Second Digital Wave:digital &ill move beyond a channel to an 6economy of

outcomes0. #hat means &e0ll see businesses teaming up &ith the consumer to find an outcome.

good e/ample &ould be that a number of companies today are involved in helping us live healthier

lifestyles.

The Third Digital Wave:this &ill be driven by consumers taking back their digital

identity and e/tracting value from it. ;ou0ll see consumers o&ning their digital brand and e/pecting

organisations to kno& &hat they &ant and to really deal &ith them as individuals.

cross these successive &aves, companies &ill find value by uniting four aspects of digital(

Social, 3obile, nalytics and Cloud. 2or businesses, having a digital strategy &ill no longer be

enough. Instead, they0ll need a business strategy fit for the digital age.