The world is spinning at an alarming pace-its unbelievable!Some things which were impossible 20 years ago have been made possible. Take for instance 1998 when the first cellphone was brought into the country. I remember well the Mango package by Telecel, a phone which was dismissed by many sceptics. You see, we had been used to the old phones for more than 20 years and could not understand why we needed to change to the cell phones. Even though i could afford to buy the new tele communication toys in town, I chose to ignore it because I really did not see much value in it.
Fast forward to 2018 and what do we see? An alarming rate of change which has resulted in the emergence of big global corporates such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook-the list is endless. The richest person in Zimbabwe at the time was Mutumwa Mawere but 20 years down the line we have Dr Strive Masiyiwa.
What does this point to? Dear reader, the writing is on the wall…..the future is technology! Grasp technology and you will have a competitive advantage-ignore it and you can only do so at your own peril.
My missed opportunities in 1998 were to grab the Mango Cellphone and become a sales agent, become a cellphone shop owner. There are plenty of other opportunities lost because i was not forward looking with technology at the centre. I was a student intern working for NCR Zimbabwe, a technological hub at the time working as a cost accountant. NCR Zimbabwe at the time owned 280 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at the time which was a 99% monopoly in the country. My role included calculating the up and down time of ATM machines-preparing management reports and costing to banks. During spare time i would join engineers in repairing ATMs. I rue the missed chances of grabbing opportunities in the tech field. My focus was finishing my attachment, going back to college and finish my degree program. My focus was on doing articles, complete and get a good job. Entrepreneurship never crossed my mind and i never asked what the introduction of the cellphones meant for the future.
Speed and Opportunities
The first Mango product would lead to a smart phone which we enjoy today. In the 20 years the phone has transformed to include and replaced the camera man. If you were around in the 80/90s then you should be aware of the influential role that the camera man played in taking photos. This was a profession which employed thousands of people in Zimbabwe-most of them now replaced by the smart phone.
The M-Pesa in Kenya disrupted the banking sector and opened opportunities for platforms such as Ecocash which now hold more money deposits than the traditional mortar and building banking system.
If you mentioned in 1998 that one day people will phone to UK or USA for free, then you would have been taken to a mental institution for evaluation. If you mentioned that the Mango product was going to give rise to a multi- billion dollar industry called Facebook then you were to be considered a patient for Ingutsheni!
In 1998 we played music on cassettes and i remember my big collection of music which i stored on my briefcase. If you had told me that the mango phone was going to store my music then i would have dismissed you as insane.
I can go on and on and talking about impossible things that have been made possible since 1998. What is shocking is the pace of development in under 20 years. The endless opportunities that has been created-from Amazon to Facebook. I remember opening my first email address with Yahoo-it did not cross my mind at the time that the free facility was infact a marketing platform that would create billions of dollars for its founders.
Future Projections
Talking about the past helped you to grasp the dark cloud of ignorance that clouded the nation in the late 90s. The ignorance led us to missing out on future opportunities as we resisted new technological trends. We should perhaps have studied what was happening in the developed world?
Now looking at the next 20 years what do we project? Your starting point is writing everything that is said to be impossible and all the monopolies that exist:
- Increased use of drones in Zimbabwe including transporting people?
- People adopting the use of new currency such as Bitcoins rendering the RBZ useless?
- Schools and Universities replaced by online educational institutions?
- Government Bodies replaced by online entities?
- Presidential and Parliamentary elections conducted online?
- Medical Doctors and replaced by Online Platforms?
- More people employed online than on conventional jobs?
The list above can be added to more than a thousand and what does this tell us? The online or digital market presents immense opportunities to those who grab and adopt. The future is digital and old ways of doing business no longer work. More professions will be replaced or rendered useless! We are already seeing it with newspapers where people are resorting to various social media options for news. Professions which are highly paid today may not be so in the next 5-10 years. Professions that take 4-5 years of study may be replaced by those that take 2-3 days.
What does this mean for you?
- Watch closely developments in the technological world
- Compare and contrast what is happening in various countries especially the developed world
- Upgrade your skills so that you remain relevant
- Do not dismiss any technology; you can only do so at your own peril
- Always look for opportunities and risks created by new technology
- If you are slow or old to adopt new technology, then surround yourself with those that know it
- Include technology strategy in your overall company strategy-view it as a competitive advantage
- Technology is creating new markets-how will you benefit from new markets created?
So get ready for another 20 years that will shock to death those who first witnessed the Mango phone in 1998. In 2038, Zimbabwe will be a completely new country and those ruling it will be those that grasped the technological revolution.
The future is digital and this is why Masiyiwa said the internet of things will be more valuable than real estate!
