It's time to re-evaluate your position in business

Mobile strategy is a recent addition to the myriad of strategies a company must have in order to thrive in the current business landscape. It didn’t exist a generation ago, as with most of the current technologies that are part of our lives today.

Companies and business leaders are having to rearrange their business processes in order to adapt to new practices. One question you might be asking yourself is ‘why should I change my business approach?’ Oftentimes, the reason is simply because you must because of new business models emerging out of new technologies.

Understand what’s happening around you

The Economist newspaper published an article mentioning that the media industry, one of the industries hit the hardest by new technologies, is finally generating profit again, after over a decade of declining revenue. The article mentions that in 2008, “around 12% of consumer spending on media and entertainment products was devoted to digital ones; it should reach around half by 2017”.

McKinsey & Company published a report where they say that today, e-commerce accounts for a mere 5% of all retail sales. This number is likely to grow following the pattern indicated by the former prediction.

We understand the world is changing at incredible speed and, perhaps, we need to stop for a moment and look around and ask: ‘How are you going to be in business in one year’s time, or three?’ The media industry has struggled for a long time, trying to make sense of and trying to adapt to new developments. And some well-established companies didn’t make the cut.

One for the money: no longer

More and more people today are becoming entrepreneurs, inventing ways of making their business successful. The current narrative in business is challenging the old, established ways. Companies and business leaders need different ways of thinking because today, business isn’t simply about making money and profits. Sustainability, corporate responsibility and ethics dominate big companies’ agendas. People start businesses today because it’s what they want to spend their time doing and focusing on.

The Apprentice BBC TV show has raised an interesting debate: most sales people we come across don’t feel the stereotypical types represented in the show fit the description of a successful modern entrepreneur. This too is a model that’s being challenged today.

Modern entrepreneurs are giving way to a ‘new business order’. The current business landscape is changing, can you see the signs?