Data in a world of consumers

We listen to many times the concept of "Digital Transformation" without explaining it, and why now. Transformation will not result from doing things incrementally better, but by doing things fundamentally differently.

So let's look at the big picture...

We live in a consumer-driven economy, where each time more consumers can get what they want, when they want and where they want. Differentiation is not just a question of quality, price, value or convenience, but a result of subjective outcomes like happiness, confidence, control and protection. Consumers expect new types of experiences, with easier, personal, simple and relevant touch points, where privacy, security and trust are assumed and assured. They don't want to be influenced, they want to be inspired, guided, educated.

Today, in our digital economy, digital leaders are already tranforming their products into services, and selling outcomes like happiness, beauty, security, confidence, comfort even when you recognise products in their core (e.g. Under Armour, Apple, Red Bull). The traditional value chains are dying, they were sequential, time-lagged and inflexible and we live in a world of real-time, dynamic, on-demand and agile processes, where customers can find timely, tailored and relevant experiences, well orchestrated.

By 2020, leveraging the coverage of internet, smartphones and the appearence of smart things (IoT), the capability for consumers to communicate with each other and things, all the time and in real time, will generate unparalleled number of insights, making business conscient of the speed of the moment. These "moments" will rely on the ability to sense, analyze, optimize and act in real-time signals generated by the interaction of people, technology and things, in a agile and flexible way, allowing business processes to shift and adapt as needs and market opportunities changes.

In the digital economy, the volume, velocity, and fluidity of data – internal, customer, consumer, sensor, and more – are transforming business. Value is transitioning from owning or selling data to leveraging it to sense, analyze, optimize, and act in the moment to deliver compelling and relevant value from insights based on real-time data. The businesses that can right size, not one size, and can balance supply and demand in real time to deliver dynamic pricing (not cheapest), tailored services, and hyper-local segmentation will lead. Real-time insights would also create opportunities to eliminate processes like forecasting and inventory that drive excess of working capital.

In resume, structured operations designed to produce efficiency at scale, based in real-time data, transform to dynamic processes that enable agility at speed.

Please remember that transformation will not result from doing things incrementally better, that's improvement, but by doing things fundamentally differently.