If you keep up with business news, you are probably familiar with the pessimistic model of technology’s role in business: technology is a threat to traditional businesses and it will be the end of many long-standing companies. This mindset has become ingrained into every aspect of our business outlook, but that pushes the thought toward a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe technology will ruin your business, it might. But if you embrace it, it may bring you even more success.
Be open to change
Are you, as a business owner, open to change? Are you willing to accept the direction that business is heading and take it in stride? If not, it may be time to change your mindset. Like all good things, businesses evolve and you have to embrace this. Perhaps this means restructuring your staff when new technology seems to make some roles obsolete, or changing some product offerings to keep up with the growing demands of the technology era. Once you are open to change, the staff you lead will follow and ideas will begin to flourish. Technological changes have been happening for centuries, and even though it is hard to bear at times, it almost always brings good as well. Your business will adapt if you are willing to let it.
“Focus on how you can integrate technology into your business in order to grow it.”
Creativity is key to technology implementation
Instead of focusing on how to prevent technology from intruding on your business, focus on how you can integrate technology into your business in order to grow it. Can it be used to increase productivity, shorten order times, or increase the welfare of your employees? If you can see the opportunities that technology brings, then you are in a place of endless possibility; you just have to be able (and willing) to see it.
Review your staff investment
Part of the reason that the negative representation of technology’s growth within business has been so prevalent is that it instantly brought the idea that it would eliminate many jobs. There are, however, many caveats to this thought. While technology is able to eliminate some jobs, it is not currently able to eliminate all of them. Tech must be repaired and overseen. Creative innovation cannot be completed by a computer, and people still prefer to speak to a person than to a computer when they call a help center. The approach to technology increase should not be “who will be removed?”, but rather, “where will they be moved to?”.
“Technology may replace some jobs, but those jobs will always hold importance when it comes to employee training and preparation.”
On a similar note, there is high value in training employees at a low-level job. Each employee has to start somewhere, and there are very few professions where a fresh new worker is ready to do the work that would normally be expected of them after several years at a company. Technology may replace some jobs, but those jobs will always hold importance when it comes to employee training and preparation. You (usually) have to begin at the bottom so that you understand the whole system once you reach the top, and you cannot do that if technology is the platform that puts you there.
Embrace the technological evolution
The argument presented here is essentially that the ‘solution’ to the so-called technological revolution is simply to change our mindset. If we see technology as an ally, it quickly ceases to be a threat.
If you are curious about how you can embrace technology in your business, contacting a professional may help. From accounting to advice, professionals may give you the leg-up you need to bring your business success in this rapidly changing world!
