The world has undergone a major change with covid19 and the various geo-political or socio-economic situations that arose in it. It also is impacted by change in business models or the technological advances that are happening daily. This has impacted almost all industries to different extents but one of the major challenged one is the Hi-tech industry. In the hi-tech industry space, changes are happening not only in the technological front but also in the way business is executed. It is very difficult to individually identify each trend or challenge as there are so interlinked that one has a direct impact over another.
Each of the hi-tech organizations had their niche areas and the R&D or operations were totally focused on it. But currently when we look at various large hi-tech organizations, they tend to move from their core competencies into a highly cross tracked customer experience i.e a company focused on hard drive now also focusses on cloud-based storage solutions & services. So, the 1st trend is ‘Expand Product Line & Increase Revenue Options’.
We also see a change in business models from a Product-based Model to a Consumption based Model. The industry is slowly transitioning from a selling product to selling solutions and finally selling outcomes. I would say it is becoming a conglomerate of products, services and platform solutions which is nothing but a Service model where everything that the consumer needs come in as a service. That is not all, it also brings in a customer experience bundling as a differentiator to build in Customers for life. This might need a change in the operating model, market strategy and in most cases expand the landscape.
The other big problem which I would say is enhanced with Covid19 to a larger extent is the Supply Chain Volatility. The continued chip shortage in the semiconductor market has created a major imbalance in not only the hi-tech markets but the dependent ones as automotive. And the chip manufacturing plants being mainly present in south-east area and with the restriction of movement of goods due to Covid19 has caused many next level factories to go idle. To avoid this, localization of chip production close to the next level of manufacturing was a necessity. Also, there is a need for a collaborative platform with suppliers & contract manufacturers with full visibility of stock positions with blockchain. And again, a collaboration between R&D and sourcing accelerates new or updated products time to market. Intelligent supply chain networks through real-time collaboration between stakeholders is the solution to the problem.
With the ever-changing technological advancements and the need for job skill upliftment, there is again Worker Shortage that is impacting the industry. This needs investment in terms of workforce skill gap analysis and talent development plans.
Geo-political Tensions also triggered the worker shortage or the supply chain volatility. Segmented supply chains, regulatory compliance rules, data & technology security also increased the problems even more.
These technological developments needed organizations to go on a Cloud Transformation journey in order to refresh technology stack and next generation ERP solutions. This was also needed to the change of business models and the need to adopt best practices in order to sustain in this highly competitive market. Covid19 also brought in the need for online retail & delivery services thus triggering the need for E-Commerce platforms. There is also now a need of automation to strengthen the workforce of the future by performing more tasks and replace human workers in routine tasks when needed. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning reviews existing data and built algorithms for best possible outcome. Smart Devices with 5G networks help organizations setup Internet of Things where entire value chains from design to production and supply chain can be connected for more flexible and efficient execution.
With the changing world, there has been a high Focus on Environment with hi-tech manufacturers running aggressive sustainability programs to reduce the impact on the environment. There has been strict rules & regulations in this area.
As time goes on, we would see some more changes that happen in the world. Also, with enhancements in technologies with the ever-evolving R&D we might see more trends or challenges in the days to come. But there are certain principles as above, which will still remain, and the industry would find better ways to evolve over and above them.
Stay Tuned for more on this.
