Being smart: creating opportunities from global trends

Both public and private sector organisations are now operating in a fast-changing world where the combination of economic, social and technological trends is disrupting business as usual.

The financial crisis has had a profound impact both on the corporate economic landscape and on governments who have been forced to consider very different solutions to familiar problems. Those changes are being accompanied by rapidly improving technological capabilities that provide us with inexpensive powerful computing devices and uninterrupted broadband access that lets us connect billions of everyday devices and applications. At the same time, broader concerns about issues such as climate change and the environment are beginning to shape the political and business agenda. 

If there is a common thread to all these trends, it is the way they are leading to an increasingly interconnected world. It is a world where an investor in Hong Kong or Frankfurt suffers when subprime real estate fails in Florida, or where a teenager can keep in touch with her friends on Facebook wherever they live, or where climate change presents a truly global problem needing a global solution.

It is vital that individuals and organisations recognise and react appropriately to these trends. They present significant challenges but also many opportunities to develop solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. In particular, there are exciting developments emerging from the way technology can now harness massive amounts of data and connect them up. From managing congestion on the roads; to using telehealth to improve care for elderly people; to using smart meters to reduce CO2 emissions, connecting data in smart ways can provide new products and services.

Until now, individual organisations have held their own limited store of user and customer data. In a connected world they can access significant quantities of accurate, real-time data from across the surrounding environment. The challenge is to find ways of using that information to improve and develop both existing and new services. Already, we are seeing developments ranging from digital oil fields where access to real-time data reduces costs and improves productivity to mobile banking that gives customers greater access to services on the move. Looking more broadly, smart cities are being developed that can connect up many different municipal services in high-speed digital networks.

These developments underline that the fundamental capabilities to provide these services are available now and, with chips, devices and bandwidth becoming increasingly cheaper in real terms, these solutions are becoming ever more affordable.

That means organisations need to recognise that change is coming and seize the opportunities of that change. This is about more than simply adopting new technology. It will require an understanding of the range of global trends that are changing the way we live and work, and of the connections between them. To succeed in this intelligent, interconnected world, organisations will need a smart combination of strategy, technology and infrastructure.

To speak to a PA expert on what smart means for your organisation, please contact us now.