The disruptive trends that are bound to shake up your industry a critical element

The C-suite is heavily discussing defences around traditional cash cows and market share attrition from an increasing assault by newcomers riding on the back of new technology or different ways of work.

The term disruption is on the lips of these executives many of whom have been blindsided or remained cocky in the face of change. The narrative that then gets pushed tends to paint a negative picture of the effects of adoption of new technology even when the benefits are obvious and much needed.

Here are some of the spaces where we will see continued pushback as the tectonic shifts happen.

Financial services

The bankers have fought a good fight since the birth of mobile money and they have lost multiple rounds of that war. The distributed ledger and now regulation has them back on the drawing board. Their upper hand currently still lies in the fact that at a certain volume of business, regulation has created a moat that protects their turf, but who knows how long that advantage will last.

Transport and logistics

Connecting people to their opportunities of livelihood is a massive and hugely profitable business the world over.
Locally operators have thrived in the madness that is the transit industry, cartels have entrenched themselves and the consumer is worse for wear having no alternatives from which to choose. A shake up is eminent.

Telecommunications

Operators are rethinking their role and looking to move from being dump pipes and getting in on some of the action. We see investments into last mile home connectivity, mobility startups and even content.

Perhaps soon the “tele” will be dropped for a more apt description of InfoCommunications as the fine line disappears and they begin eating hitherto partner’s lunch.

Insurance

The low coverage of insurance products leaves the sector reeking of opportunity and I blame the crutch that they have been limping on as an industry collective, to this phrase “insurance is sold and not bought” a self-fulfilling prophecy that informs product design. Figuring out distribution, closing the consumer knowledge gap, transparency, dynamic pricing and automation is where this moving to.

Disruption is helping create the future and it is not a zero sum game. Where traditional jobs are being taken over by bots of the hardware and software kind, artificial intelligence systems and self-learning neural networks, big data among other cutting edge tech, we are seeing the human role morph into new spaces that were previously invisible to us.

Disruption happens daily in every considerable vertical and it is part of any developing market evolution in pursuit of maximised efficiency and value realisation.

At the end of the day it is a good maxim by which to live and often times leaves us in a better place.

Mbugua is CEO of Symbiotic www.mbuguanjihia.com | @mbuguanjihia