2020 – beginning of a new decade

2020 – beginning of a new decade

Technology has been changing the world as we know it, and in quite a fast pace over the past two decades.  Ten years ago the world was completely a different place, technology, as we know it today, wasn’t at our fingertips.  This past decade has made quite a difference in how the new digital world will be transformed.   As we enter 2020, beginning of a new decade, one thing is certain: technology consumption and integration will continue to rise as we develop an information now culture.  Today we are at a chasm and its time to focus and turn all those initiatives that you have been working on into a full-fledged digital transformation strategy.  This means that a lot of us need to reinvent ourselves in order to understand how the disruptions that the digital transformation will bring to the businesses as we know them today, can create growth opportunities and in a lot of cases help sustain businesses. 

For many business sectors, its all doom and gloom, despite humming economic conditions.  While some companies are taking over the world, others are losing their footing. Titans that have etched their names into the history books are now struggling like never before.  The advent of technology and lack of technical leadership are the two root causes of the demise.  The business landscape is littered with cautionary tales of huge companies that failed due to lack of innovation and technology adoption. 

Kodak, a technology company that dominated the photographic film market during most of the 20th century blows its chance to lead the digital photography revolution as they were in denial for tool long.  Sears, Roebuck and Company, colloquially known as Sears  was the largest mail order catalog business which ended up filling bankruptcy in 2018; whereby amazon leveraged technology and the user experience to capture the market.  Blockbuster expanded globally through the 90’s, however competition from Netflix, Redbox, Video & Gaming on demand led to their demise.  Nokia, Xerox, IBM, Blackberry, Myspace, Commodore, RadioShack, Motorola, Palm, PanAm, Netscape, Mapquest, Atari, Tower Records, Compaq, Enron, America Online, The Sharper Image, Tivo, Pebble are some of the companies that have suffered through innovation failure and not moving forward with a digital transformation strategy.  2020 and beyond, business sustainability and growth will require digital transformation.  

Today, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon are the five most valuable publicly traded companies in the world relegating General Electric, Shell, Exxon, PetroChina & PetroBras.  The composition of the recent list clearly illustrates how important digital economy has become,  

Technology is constantly evolving, making its path forward towards speed, sophistication and ease of use. Larger, smarter cities, driverless cars, embedded mixed reality and intelligent services are some of the topical ideas for the future; however we are not that far off.  These are some of the technologies and platforms that are going to change the world within the next decade.  

• Big Data
• Quantum Computing
• Block Chain
• 5G
• Cloud
• Edge Computing
• Streaming Services
  • Music
  • Video
  • Voice Interfaces
• AI – Artificial Intelligence
• ML – Machine Learning
• RPA – Robotic Process Automation 
• Cognitive Technology 
• NLP – Natural Language Processing
• Facial Recognition
• Virtual & Augmented Reality 
• Perspective Analysis
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Internet of Things

Some of these technologies are going to work as foundation for further enhancements that might lead us into flying cars, roads over rivers, hyper fast loops, gesture based computing, space tourism,  regenerative medicine,  health nanobots and much more.  We are privileged to be living in a time where science and technology can assist us and make our lives easier and rethink the way we go about our daily lives.  Technology has the power to do many things and changing the world is one of them.  One might think, the transformation will take ages and these advancements might not happen in their life time.  In reality, it is just a decade from now and we can already know what will be possible to have by that time.  

The future holds unparalleled visions of progress and intrigue for the curious.  One certainty is the continual forward march of the technological progress.  It is not a question of if, but when.