The Digital Revolution to drive Business@100Mbps
Jim McKerlie | December 9, 2009
The Digital Revolution is having a profound impact worldwide in terms of social, economic, psychological, technological, and regulatory changes and interactions. Not since the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions have we seen such fundamental changes occurring in and unlike these “evolutionary” events the Digital Revolution is happening at breakneck speed.
In a discussion paper I have recently authored, entitled ‘business@100Mbps – A View of the Firm of the Future’, I identified the ‘Portents of Change’ impacting business as a result of the Digital Revolution. The Portents of Change are driven primarily by the new ways in which information will be generated, shared, distributed, accessed, consumed and used. These Portents of Change will define a new set of business rules that the Firm of the Future will have to contend with in order to be competitive and sustainable.
The National Broadband Network (NBN) has the potential to drive advancements in productivity, innovation and international competitiveness and as such will be a strong contributor to our economic prosperity. But will businesses, large and small, take advantage of this opportunity?
The need for business leaders to make a profit and in fact their success and tenure as leaders of individual businesses is very much tied to profitability and share holder value creation. Inherently this provides a counterincentive to be an early adopter of business innovations that require longer terms to generate ROI and carry the risk of unproven and undefined benefits. The (understandable) cautiousness of business decision makers may mean business in general will lag the public sector and consumers in the uptake of broadband driven services. This would be even more the case with the economically significant SME sector, where access to the knowledge and funds required to even contemplate such an investment decision is often lacking. There is a real chance the business sector would be slow to enjoy the benefits in productivity, innovation and competitiveness.
The Government will need to look at policies that help de-risk business decisions about using services underpinned by broadband. These policies will need to include education, investment incentives (grants or tax relief) for adoption and even using some of government’s purchasing power to deal only with “broadband compliant” businesses.
The end game is irrefutable. The Portents of Change will impact business but for Australia to get a ROI on this nation building investment, Government will need to consider more than upgrading the cables.
‘business@100Mbps – A View of the Firm of the Future’ can be downloaded from www.bullseyereports.com.au.
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Jim McKerlie is the Group CEO of the Bullseye Group. He has had an extensive career in international management, consulting and the media, including being the lead consultant on the Broadband Services Experts Group demand study that led to the Federal Government’s ‘Networking Australia’s Future’ policy in 1993. Jim will be participating in a panel discussion today at the ‘Realising our broadband future’ event. Hosted by the Government, the event will help map the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia’s high speed broadband future.
Follow Jim on Twitter at @mckerlie.
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