The fast are eating the slow

Yesterday, the big ate the small. Now the fast eat the slow.

I am here to tell you, that if you aren't mobile, you aren't 'fast' which means you may not be competitive and are at risk of not being around in the next five years.

I know, that is a slightly grim way to look at things, but I am not a lone warrior. Andrew Penn, CEO of Telstra, stated, "In the future, if a business is not mobile-first and digital to the core, if it does not present on an app or an icon on a customer's handset, then effectively it will simply not exist."

For example, 57 per cent of the companies on the 1995 Fortune 500 list aren't there today. For the ones that have achieved business utopia and are on the list, the CEO's of these companies identified the greatest challenge for their company. They found "the rapid pace of technological change." According to those CEOs their companies would change more in the next five years than in the past five.

The competitive landscape has intensified on an unprecedented scale, with only the "fastest and smartest" thriving and the rest being sidelined or reduced to irrelevancy.

Basically, if you are not thriving, you are dying.

If these statistics and opinions from those in know are anything to go by, then whether you're a government agency or enterprise and you are focused on your business or the community you serve reaching their potential then you must have a strategy and execution plan to transform into a mobile first organisation.

If your company is to thrive and become a truly mobile first organisation, they need to do more than put a shiny smart phone in the hands of their employees. They need to:

* Invest heavily in technology or find a partner like Telstra who are focused on delivering business outcomes as a services, such as Forms-as-a-Service.

* Digitise legacy platforms to accelerate innovation and capitalise on new opportunities

* Empower their increasingly mobile work forces with tools and real time information for flawless collaboration

* Respond to customers better, drive loyalty and personalise service

We are talking major cultural and technological changes however you are not alone and Telstra can support you on this journey. This takes time to design, develop, implement and achieve...

Speed has become the new competitive differentiator, whether in innovation, speed to market, or executing critical decisions. This requires a permanent organizational shift in the way employees work and, more importantly, collaborate.