So far I have covered the internal dynamic changes that will be required in your organization of the future as Disruption continues to emerge and change the world environment that is aided today by social media, internet and inter-connectivity. Fair to say if you are building customer service and trying to build your business then the inter-connectivity with your customer is also likely to increase.
Customer inter-connectivity in Disruption has many repercussions for your business relationship - these are important and you should be considering these now before Disruption severs or interferes with your customer relationships.
Firstly there is B2B and B2C (that is business to business and business to customer, respectively) - these are electronic dependencies and interfaces between your organization and your customers, banks, suppliers and many others. The level of integration and sophistication may at some point reduce your costs or costs of your stakeholders so may become compelling - once integrated it will be costly for either party to update and change systems and interfaces, essentially you will be locked into a complex system of integrated electronic system interfaces.
Not all managers of small to medium size businesses will have the skills to integrate all of the systems required in B2B and B2C - they will likely need to hire in the help and then depend on specialists to keep it all working, up to date and free of hacking. You may feel quite uncomfortable at this point - but the electronic interfaced world is here and your stakeholders will expect and probably demand that you integrate this way. If you reject their advances you may lose business or be pushed to the outer, so engaging and taking on this challenge may be essential.
A second implication of B2B and B2C is that there will be less people involved, you may even down size during the change - yet we know humans like human company and like service that is responsive. At some point AI and robots may be able to fill this gap but it is not yet here - so you have a job to keep the right staff, with the right skills and keep the customer happy whilst dealing more and more in electronic means via AI etc.
It seems that the manager of the future needs to have exceptional skills in managing this change process, dealing with customer demands, supplier changes, staffing changes and skill gaps. If you have not considered the new age of Disruption and AI then the time to start thinking about the issues is now - leaving it till later will likely expose your organization to the risk that your competitors and customers advance and leave you behind.
If you are a Leader or seeking to be one in the future - you need to read, read, read about Disruption NOW ! Those that fail to understand and adjust will fall behind.
Feel free to ask Dr Mat over a chat or email on Leadership, Management or change issues, advice, consulting or mentoring that you may seek.
These and other related topics feature in Dr Mats book titled "Leading and Managing Change in the Age of Disruption and Artificial Intelligence" - written for the modern professional, student and academic - anyone wanting to be ahead on modern Leadership and Management issues.
Immediately available through Amazon (kindle version, hard copy not too far away) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1787563685 . This book has been strongly endorsed - so use this link to review the endorsements, or to
preview the book for Ch1, table of contents and the preface from Amazon (kindle version button) - consider buying this book or recommend it to professional colleagues or friends/family, students and academics.
Consider your own specific situation and seek professional advice before acting directly in reaction to any of the tips on this website, they are intended as general advice only.