Nothing lasts forever. Just look at the list of “invincible” businesses which have gone disappeared in recent years. This includes once-ubiquitous companies such as Blockbuster and Kodak.
While you might think that this won’t happen to your business, you’d be wrong. In fact, technology has already had a massive impact on just about every industry and if you are not updating your processes then you run the risk of becoming obsolete. But you don’t need to be resigned to obsolescence and here are a few ways to tell if your business is trapped in the dark ages.
You See Technology as a Necessary Evil
You might have moved beyond an AOL email address and a MySpace page, but do you view technology as more of a hindrance than an enabler? Then you are probably not using technology to help make your business more competitive. In fact, the way you are using it is probably holding your business behind.
While tech-skepticism is not uncommon, it can get in the way of moving your business forward. As such, you will need to overcome your dread and find ways to harness the power of technology. In fact, it could be as simple as using SEO to optimize your blog, as this would drive more customers to your business.
You View Technology as Chore
Unfortunately, this happens all too often in companies large and small. Management views technology as nothing more than a tick the box item and not as a way to help everyone in the organization. The results are that tech functions are often treated as a glorified help desk rather than working with people to make it easier for them to do their job.
If this sounds like your company, the good news it’s never too late to change your approach. It starts by realizing that you need to change course if you want to drag your business out of the dark ages.
From there you can work with your team to better understand your processes and then decide the best way to use technology to make them more efficient. Doing so will not only change how technology is viewed in your company but will make for a more cohesive working environment.
For example, you could find that your Human Resource functions haven’t changed much since the 1980s. This could include how you manage employee leave. If this is the case, then you could utilize solutions similar to Reed Group absence management to make your life easier.
Management Has Not Included Tech in Their Plans
This is a clear signal that you are not utilizing technology to improve your business. In fact, you are not even thinking about how technology can help. While you might think that this is the norm in your industry, you should think again. Business such as floral shops, hair salons, and even restaurants are utilizing technology in different ways, so why aren’t you?
All is not lost If you do find yourself in this predicament. Instead, work with your team to stark including measurements for tech transformation in your business. This could be as simple as tracking process times, including those for administrative tasks. From there start looking at ways you can streamline these jobs by using technology.
This could even include looking at IoT trends which could change your life or the life of your customers. Remember, the change starts with you and if management has not included tech in their plans up to this point, there is nothing stopping them from doing so in the future.
Complacency About How Things Are Done
After all, this is how “we” have always done things; or so the thinking goes. But just because something worked 10, 20, or 30 years ago doesn’t mean that it should continue to be how things are done today.
Instead, you need to be willing to start thinking about problems differently. You could decide to through people and money at a problem but what good will that do in the long run.
As such, try to look for ways to improve the situation that doesn’t require dramatically increasing headcount or passing on costs to customers. Doing so will get you and your business on a path to becoming more agile and this will serve you well as the technology continues to disrupt markets.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, continuing to follow the old way of doing things is a recipe for disaster. Instead, learn about what works best for your business and then find ways to use technology to enhance these capabilities. This will help to take your business out of the stone age and into the 21st century.
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