Module 14 Discussion

Module 14 Discussion

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Jobs are undergoing significant change and hence the need for businesses to adjust accordingly. There are several global business environments that are likely to develop over the next decade. Businesses thus need to make accommodations to these changes for them to stay on track. Companies which prepare accordingly have a high change of having a competitive advantage.

Some of the global business environments expected to change include a cashless society. It is clear that digital transactions are slowly taking over business transactions. There is a very high chance that in the next 10 years we will be a cashless economy. The Global Findex database projects an annual rise of the cashless transactions by about 21% in the emerging markets and by over 7% in the developed markets. Secondly, there is a global reskilling race. The sad fact is that the skilled and unskilled workforce is running out caused by political trends and immigration policies. This is slowly leading to replacement of artificial labour loss by robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies as well. Many jobs might disappear in the next 10 years and thus it is important for businesses to reskill their workers amid these changes.

Based on the changes that are expected, businesses need to be ready to ensure they get ready for some restructuring. The onset of cashless transactions is likely to lead to increased bank fraud hence debt. Businesses thus need to ensure they begin strengthening their capabilities for cyber security (Ritala et al 2018). They as well need to make assessments of the cashless methods which are suitable for their business models. In the case where the labour is replaced with technology, the business needs to make a determination of the sectors of its business which are evolving, the job functions that need upskilling and where the business can invest money in retraining and reskilling. Finally, they need to outsource outside talent to enable them close the identified skill gap. It is important to hire the people with tech knowledge, particularly the ones who are familiar with the future technologies such as blockchain and AI.

There are some strategies that businesses will need to adopt for them to work best in the changing business environment. First, they need to promote accountability. It is fairly easy to attribute the business’s success to hard work and even easier to attribute failure to bad lack. Adaptable organizations however need to ensure they incorporate a culture of accountability. According to Ritala et al (2018), accountability helps the employees to understand that the decisions they make are able to impact the business in various ways. Businesses also need to ingrain learning. By these they need to work smarter for them to survive in the market once the change takes shape. Working efficiently and effectively is very important but there is need to assess the market needs thus working smart will be helpful in this situation.

A company like Amazon has already tried to foresee the changing business dynamics and has set strategies to match the market needs when the change occurs. For instance, they have started promoting their products on Alexa as they believe a lot of people now are shopping by voice thus having a competitive advantage (Hahn et al 2018). Secondly, they are working towards Amazon-branded bank accounts. This would help them avoid some burdensome regulations and work towards securing their finances.

The business environment undergoes constant change due to the changing customer needs as well as technological advances. Businesses thus need to brace themselves for the changes that are likely to take place in the future for them to be able to survive in the business market as well as be able to keep their personnel in the job market. There is the need to additional training for their employees to enable them adjust better and ensure maintenance of competitive advantage. Several companies and businesses have already started planning for change that is evidently quite inevitable.

References

Hahn, Y., Kim, D., & Youn, M. K. (2018). A Brief Analysis of Amazon and Distribution Strategy. The Journal of Distribution Science, 16(4), 17-20.

Ritala, P., Huotari, P., Bocken, N., Albareda, L., & Puumalainen, K. (2018). Sustainable business model adoption among S&P 500 firms: A longitudinal content analysis study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 170, 216-226.