Page 101 - Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

80 ◾ Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

their business. These factors represent many aspects, the most important of
which include the following:

◾◾ Technology. The adage “change is the only constant” is perhaps most
pertinent now and applies more to technology than any other aspect of
society. Not only is the rate at which technology changes exponential
but the pace or the frequency of the cycle of change is also follow-
ing an exponential curve. This change spans all types of technologies,
including computing, storage, networking, mobile access, nanotechnol-
ogy, digital biomedicine, artificial intelligence, pico-technology, internet
of things, crypto-currency, autonomous robots and cars. Unless you
have a close eye on the technological trends likely to impact your busi-
ness model, you run the risk of being disrupted. These technological
trends, if leveraged properly, also present an opportunity to craft inno-
vative solutions. Understanding the near-term and long-term technol-
ogy trends will also help you take advantage of emerging technologies
to build your business model around.

◾◾ Business Models. Traditional business models are giving way to new
models which are upending centuries-old ways of doing business. Some
of the examples include the following:
– Online retailing, which incurred fractionally lower cost for every dol-
lar of revenue it earns compared to traditional brick-and-mortar retail
operations.
– Peer-to-peer business model, such as the ones exploited by Uber, Lyft
and AirBNB, have upended traditional taxi operations and rental car
companies by matching consumers and providers with extra capacity
(in their cars or homes) to consumers who need to use that capacity
in a user-friendly manner using smart phones.
– Digital platforms such as Amazon Web Services are uprooting tradi-
tional IT infrastructure companies and IT departments at enterprises
as well as enabling start-ups to prototype and build their compa-
nies on scalable and practically unlimited computing, storage and
networking capacities. Other examples of digital platforms include
search platform like Google and social platforms such as Facebook
and Twitter. These platforms are used by hundreds of millions and
even billions of people around the world. They have uprooted
the traditional advertising business model with their exponentially
superior capabilities in micro-targeting and allow businesses to