Why Should Businesses Embrace Disruption?

Customers today are much different from yesterday’s customers. The way we discover, communicate, and connect with businesses is dramatically different than just a few years ago, and the customers of tomorrow will be different still.

Technology evolves quickly, and the rate of change has incredible implications for the business world. These changes not only disrupt roles, structures, competitive environments, and the markets and societies in which businesses operate, but also the overall evolution of customer behavior, values, and expectations.

It’s becoming difficult for businesses to navigate what customers want and expect. Many institutions view recent shifts as a time of ‘Digital Darwinism’ — an era where technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt. Often bound by resource constraints, budgets, and even fear of the unknown, many institutions shy away from necessary digital transformation.

It’s natural for businesses to hesitate – change is difficult, and the road to digital transformation at the current rate of disruption is far from easy. As a result, much of business today is geared around the status quo or business as usual. Fear of the unknown leads many businesses to disregard the current state of digital maturity within legacy systems and solution sets and ultimately strains the customer experience.

This ever-changing wave of technology brings challenges, but it’s an important movement in the business realm. Businesses need to get outside their comfort zones to better understand the customer experience and how it might need to change in the future. Disruption forces businesses to look beyond their traditional norms and adapt their strategies as technology and consumer behavior evolve. While it can be argued that financial technology or “fintech” contributes to disruption, this sector is also key to finding solutions that can help businesses overcome technology challenges and uncover opportunities to improve operations.

Digital transformation can help businesses better relate to and engage with customers along the entire value chain. Albeit a difficult obstacle to embrace, digital transformation can help businesses grow, discover new market opportunities, and scale efficiently. Embracing disruption ultimately fuels strategic changes within internal systems while creating unique solutions to meet the needs of today’s digital customers.

Ultimately, the only constant is change - technology is not going away, so it’s time for businesses to embrace it. Disruption, change, and digital transformation is all integral to the future of business and necessary to meet customer expectations. Emerging technology can, and should, be integrated into business strategies to help meet these modern challenges. Even the smallest investments in digital transformation can help improve customer adoption rates, customer retention, and the overall digital experience. Seen as an obstacle, technology can bring a lot of frustration; it’s up to each business, however, to figure out how to harness technology to remain relevant and uncover new possibilities.