Future proofing with a purpose
The world of business is changing rapidly and it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts to future-proof your brokerage and stay relevant.
This is particularly acute in the financial services industry where new business is hard to come by. Speaking at the 2015 Santam Conference, futurist Anton Musgrave gave his insights into the world as we are experiencing it now.
Not an ordinary world
Musgrave pointed out that the world is volatile, uncertain and complex at the moment. Events such as Asian stocks market losing ground and becoming volatile is at times unheard of. The world is going through a period of churning – a concept in Hindi culture where either highly negative or highly positive things come about. A lot of this outcome depends on our choices. The future is a result of the choices we make today and how we choose to think about the future.
“Companies fail because they simply miss the future. We are so busy dealing with the present that we often forget to pause and think about the future. We don’t have enough curiosity; we don’t make enough time available. Stop using popular methods such as SWOT and competitor analysis – you are analysing your business of yesterday. Ask yourself what kind of business you want five years from now,” said Musgrave.
Dramatic changes
Musgrave used the example of Naspers to illustrate how industries are changing in South Africa. The media house is worth and estimated R850 billion – that is more than the gold and platinum mining industries put together. Naspers started as a print media company but now diversified into digital avenues like internet and TV media as well.
Futurists suggest that eventually most vehicles will be autonomous, which will hugely impact on the two biggest employment verticals in the world: agriculture and transport. Autonomous vehicles are already being used in agriculture in the US. As change happens in one industry, others will be affected too.
“As the internet of things is spreading, businesses need to wrap their heads around the massive complexity of all this new data, and the opportunities it creates. From pregnant moms with data chips that track the development of unborn babies to organs submitting data, there is a huge explosion of information that can be harnessed to propel your business, if you understand how to use this information to create value for your clients,” said Musgrave.
New world order
Everything is driven by algorithms these days as behaviour is tracked based on mathematical formulas. For example if 300 people ask Google the same thing, they will get 300 different search results because Google personalises results based on what it thinks you like.
This order will be driven by young minds. “Experts predict that three billion new minds will join the global economy in the next 10 years, which means trillions of dollars of buying power that cannot be ignored. What does this generation want? They want to feel relevant and they want flexibility. They are online 24/7 and expect brands to respond to them within minutes, not days.
Retain the human factor
The way in which clients interact with companies has changed. Gone are the days of picking up a phone and asking an expert when Google can solve most problems if the correct search is done.
“We have to ask ourselves what it is that humans can offer that robots or the internet cannot? The answer is creativity, empathy and innovation,” Musgrave said. He challenged intermediaries to think about the engagement model in their own business. How can you show empathy, be more involved in your community and be more connected to the world around you?
In closing, Musgrave mentioned the well-known Simon Sinek book Start With Why. It asks why some people and organisations are more innovative than others? “The answer is simple; they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way; the complete opposite of what everyone else does.”
