There are many benefits to utilising emerging technologies, but companies must also be aware of the risks, argues Peter Davies...
Business leaders in large and small companies have to take emerging technologies seriously for a number of reasons.
Because they can potentially be disruptive of existing business models, emerging technologies can causing rapid obsolescence of current products and processes. This can be particularly threatening to SMEs with little diversity in their products. And yet the technology can also offer major competitive advantages if grasped quickly enough.
Product designers have a crucial role to play. It is at the stage of the design concept that the maximum opportunity exists to integrate several emerging technologies into new design freedoms. Here, imagineering is the key skill.
More specifically, designers of commercial services, such as banking and insurance, will use advances in digital technology to simplify customers' interaction with them. Face-to-face transactions will continue to reduce but it has to be done in such a way that the less technically literate customer groups are not sidelined.
Those in public services such as education, health and civic amenity are likely to see some of the most revolutionary changes engendered by internet and portable communications technology. Users of services will increasingly expect a 24/7 availability and will increasingly reject a one-size-fits-all approach. Traditional public services will need to respond to this demand for flexibility while using new technology to control their costs.