• About Dr. Alea Fairchild
  • Engaging with Dr. Fairchild
  • Videos

Alea Fairchild – Strategic Views

Alea Fairchild – Strategic Views

Tag Archives: business models

So what does ‘the After’ look like?

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by afairchild in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

business models, COVID-19, Predictions, process change

A good friend from high school calls the period after we stop lockdown “the After”. As I teach university as well as run a think-tank, the discussion comes up about business models in ‘the After’. How will airlines operate with enhanced social distancing? What happens with restaurants, can they change seating plans to have a “corona immune” section? Will the emphasis be on local business sustainability, to the determinant of Amazon? Are we moving from the experience economy to the cooperative economy?

I have a couple of immediate predictions:

Countries that now rebuild tech infrastructure (5G, IoT, contactless payment, etc) will get further ahead in bulletproofing their economies. WFH will be a reality for many years, and the platforms to do so need to be better scaled.

Governments that re-skill the population to 21st century work forms will survive more fully in the long term. Automation is king, protection of poorly trained workers benefits no one.

Supply chain agility will continue to be a big thing, as companies who quickly and without prompting converted to face mask, PPE and surgical scrubs will be remembered as innovators and their brands will benefit. (CSR)

Personal privacy will take a hit in the near term, but to the benefit of society as long as there is oversight on how the data is used.

You can bailout whomever you like, but if the consumer does not feel that was a worthwhile action, it will impact consumption. Not only elephants never forget…

Supporting local industry will be a priority for many communities who will remember what it was like to have scarcity at a time of crisis.

Much more to come, business model process innovation is my favorite thing next to chocolate……

Advertisement

How will COVID-19 test your organization’s resilience? Can a pandemic create new business models?

08 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by afairchild in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

business models, coronavirus, COVID-19, innovation, pandemic

I had a great concall this morning (yes, on a Sunday) about how organizations are approaching the possibility of the virus impacting their infrastructure. The tech giants are asking for home working, and the educational institutions are looking for virtual and remote learning.

But there are several business models here that are going to be damaged.

First is the model of insurance. As seen by SXSW this week, the organizers held off cancellation hoping that Austin would ask for it first. This is because the insurance company did not see the virus as an Act of God or natural disaster. As more and more companies will take financial hits going forward, how will insurers be pressured into adapting existing types of policies to cover (or not) pandemics?

The next is the model of conference calling. Many of the mainstream providers (Zoom, Cisco with WebEx, Google) have tried to take advantage to building the business with free 90 day trials during this period. But the uptake of Zoom recently has started to impact the quality and bandwidth provided for calls, as noticed by several users this week. Is there enough infrastructure for everyone to go virtual? I see an opportunity here for other models that exist (virtual universities, virutal events in the form of an electronic open day) to take hold.

The third model is the sick leave model, focusing on the amount of time off that a contracted employee can take. I know I had to take sick days for a family member being ill last week, and have already used up my days for the six month allocation period. Hourly workers, and those who work on freelance contracts, will be badly hit. Will people change what they do for work based on a pandemic? Certain industries will be short of workers if this is the case.

The final model I want to discuss is the retail high street. If we have social distancing, how we shop and how we eat out will change completely. E-commerce models still need fulfillment, and if workers cannot work in warehouses or shipping, we have a fulfillment problem. Will 3D printers be the answer that you can make your own? Will be there be fixed locations to pick up your goods with quarantine information available as to its preparers?

Will we have virtual dinner parties, or be exchanging recipes for self quarantine kitchens? Or will you book a restaurant based on distance from other diners and with a health certificate from the kitchen staff? (Note: already happening with delivered food in China, comes with temperature reading from kitchen preparer as well as delivery person.)

Having stocked up on canned goods and toilet paper, I am not as ready as I would like, but already thinking past this season until next Fall…… Can we turn this into an innovation moment?


Evolution of business models

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by afairchild in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Big data, business models, go-to-market, Hubspot, hybrid cloud management, IoT

This is the time of year where pundits such as myself start hyping what we think will be happening next year in order to predict trends and patterns and show we know what we are doing. 😉

For me, the trend to watch is the evolution of business models, both in technology and in go-to-market strategies.  Because too much is changing in the industry for things to continue in a static pattern of how we sell, what we sell and how we engage.  Too much is being asked of technology, and not enough is done in process change of how we use the technology.  Or, as shown this week in France, how the technology is being used by others in ways we did not foresee where private communication abilities are used in ways we do not expect.

In terms of technology, we have enabled access so much so that the users are in control, not the IT department nor the government trying to restrict or audit what we do or say.  This can be seen in hybrid cloud structures, in how we use mobile technology, and in how restructured communication has usurped traditional structured forms of dialogue.  For example, Twitter as a faster source of news than the news channels.  Policing the new forms of communication has become difficult.  I work with an educational organization that has no internal policy on Facebook communication, so much so that the main users got together to agree on a structured policy before the institution even thought about mandating one.  There is shadow IT, and there is also shadow communications.  And frankly, one drives the other.

One of the points I want to make here is that communication is driving many technological shifts.  Or as the Microsoft ad says, it is not the technology that is mobile, it is you.   How we work, when we work, and how we communicate is pushing the technology to work in different ways for us.   We have not had major technological breakthroughs, rather we have pushed the limits of how we work to the point the technology has had to adapt.

A good example is the storing of data.  As I am writing this blog post, the system is saving my work every few minutes automatically. More of what is created is saved and tracked, adding much more data storage available and larger digital footprint is created.  We have had to adopt faster means of storing and processing to the front of the network, thus one of the trends for 2016 is the use of flash as a primary storage technology going forward.  Part of the driver for this is cost and performance, but another main portion of this is process change and digital process transformation.

Another evolution of business models is the use of multiple cloud methods for business processes.  For me, hybrid cloud in 2016 will have shades of the outsourcing trends of the 1990s, where ultimately consumers and enterprises will have to decide if managing their own data is a core competency of theirs or not.  And many, facing privacy concerns and performance irritations, will take their data back in-house.

Privacy and security have become more significant concerns, thus one of the ongoing trends in Europe in 2016 is the push for cyber insurance. Businesses outside the United States are rapidly discovering what U.S. businesses and their customers have known for a few years: that a data breach is not a matter of if, but when, as shown by the September introduction of the International Cyber Consortium of insurers providing robust data breach cover to businesses domiciled outside the United States with revenues in excess of $5 billion. But systemic risks and exposure accumulation are limiting insurers’ ability to provide large corporates with the size of limits they need to cover their cyber risks, with a push for governments to step in and provide support.  Here is where evolution of insurance models is helped by big data and analytics. Using big data and modelling, insurers can learn what companies are using which cloud or network structures and platforms in order to show the connections that exist [between insured companies] and build up a probable maximum loss.  Insurers want to find out how enterprises cost and monitor aggregate risk as part of their cyber insurance coverage. So risk monitoring is a fairly big trend for 2016.

Cloud management, risk monitoring, and digital process transformation are all key themes for me in 2016, along with the evolution of privacy and security being baked into the IT infrastructure as to be always present and always on. This includes the addition of IoT into the framework.  Things as well as people will be engaging at all times.

The other portion of my views for 2016 is how we reach our audiences in our go-to-market strategies.  Traditional forms of communication are being overshadowed by all of the screaming and yelling done on social media.  Social media reminds of the saying “if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”.  Very few of us are engaging on social media, most are trumpeting their wares and not engaging in dialog and feedback with those who are supposed to be listening.   “Old school” users of Twitter engage, those who came later just use it as a posting board.   Facebook is becoming more of people shouting at each other, and not actively sharing with each other.  This is why many young people are moving away from the platform to other more mobile apps geared more for the mobile lifestyle.   And we are watching less video these days, so catching the eye of a viewer is becoming more challenging.

Social media tools that highlight engagement and feedback, versus amplification of the message, are the ones to watch in 2016. It is about integration, innovation & automation to maximise potential engagement.  A personal favorite for me is Hubspot. 

I hope this gives you a flavor of what I am working on at present.  Feel free to reach out to engage me in a discussion on the topics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • Organizational Resilience:   Compliance risk strategy for 2023
  • Is 2023 the year of maximalism?
  • Two key trends for 2023
  • Innovation in reuse of existing built spaces
  • Creating workplace process orchestration

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • August 2013

Categories

  • Uncategorized

Recent Comments

edith32lamar on Why we love the Olympics
Iva Keller on Evolution of business mod…
Yves Van Seters on Apple Automotive? Revamping a…
Prediction check: 20… on Predictions for 2014 – a…

Contact me:

+32 495 228 150
M-F 9-4

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Alea Fairchild - Strategic Views
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Alea Fairchild - Strategic Views
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...