Business Tomorrow: Another Day with a Difference

Business Tomorrow: Another Day with a Difference

Dr BK Mukhopadhyay

A noted magement economist and an intertiol commentator on business and economic affairs. He may be reached at m.bibhas@gmail.com

At least it is heartening to note that India is aiming to be among the top 30 countries in the world in terms of ease of doing business. India, presently a $2 trillion economy, has been hoping to turn the same into a $4-5 trillion economy in near future 

No doubt, efforts are on. But the situation is so deem that we have to run not simply crawling. It is being rightly observed that ‘while innovators in the US are focusing on top one billion population of the world, Indian entrepreneurs could concentrate on the needs of remaining 5 billion people living in developing countries’.
Initiatives like ‘Skill India’ ‘Make in India’ and ‘Mudra Bank’ no doubt are turning the hitherto ‘tough impression’ into an ‘achievable one’ at least! Recent initiatives, including e-biz portal, Goods and Services Tax, mobile platform for setting up business, and working with States to improve ease of doing business no doubt reflecting some silver lining.  
Obvious enough, ongoing suggestions like focusing on India-specific problems in areas like waste magement and solar power, developing domestic venture capital industry to fund innovations relevant to especially the developing world, are realistic keeping in view the latent forces in these sectors.
Change is where the Reality is
On this score Charles Darwin’s words must count: “It’s neither the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survive; it is the one most adaptable to change.” 
What about the ongoing facts and circumstances globally? Are we not now living in a chaotic transition period to a new age defined by global competition, rampant change, faster flow of information and communication, increasing business complexity, and pervasive globalization? Thus, the question remains: how to move ahead over time? Is there any short cut way? Why does the small remain small? 
The pace of change has become so rapid that it took a different type of firms to be domint and marked entirely new era of business. This new environment is also characterized by ‘more far-reaching technological advances, and a consumer who has adjusted to this quicker pace and whose fickle preferences are revised with the speed of a television commercial'. 
Not Myopic But Farsightedness
Clearly, so far as the business world is concerned, nothing can be taken for granted for survival. Little did we think that the airlines could compete with the   railways, the then sanctioned housing loans turning to be a giant sub-prime crisis and great recession would be visiting the biggies at a time when mankind wishes to look at the other plants to find out the existence of the counterpart. 
So, complexities galore: business space, technologies, processes, business models as well have turned out to be more complex — new characteristics are added frequently (subtracted infrequently). The dimensions of business space keep increasing, adding complexity, while at the same time furnishing attractive new opportunities for those who can successfully vigate in the new environment. This complexity, in turn, also inhibits greater size and greater value creation.
Side by side, in the emerging era of over-communication and hyper-competition, people are overwhelmed by choice — choice of information, ideas, products, and services. Information is becoming readily available around the globe at an unprecedented pace. Customers, competitors, and innovators have instant access to each other.  The result: technological change, especially change in information and communication technology, delivered the Information Age and converted it to the Knowledge Age. 
Especially, in this age of innovention (innovation plus invention) the structure of trade vis-à-vis competition has been changing at a fast and consistent rate, where one technology is being replaced by the other treating the globe as an extended village. Intense competition has become a way of life simultaneously with the implicit and explicit risk factors. On the one hand the challenge is there to retain the customer, while on the other the fears of unexpected loss arising out of the complex risk factors loom large. That is why any scanning of intertiol business environment is crucial on the part of an upcoming business venture. 
Jet-speeded changes in competition, technology, and workforce values are compelling organizations to search for new and more human ways of increasing productivity and competitiveness. The biggest changes have been due to the impact of information and communication technology. The ability to access vast information resources within a matter of minutes and to communicate across huge distances at ever lower costs and improving quality and convenience is transforming the way people and companies interact. Virtually, it is becoming harder to achieve market leadership and to stay on top.
Time has arrived when we note that even the best of professiols need a team of effective information magers for ensuring an optimal productivity, an effective system of interl control skills to provide inputs to quicken the process of decision making. An attitudil change is a must in such a context as the ture of business has been becoming more and more complex. 
Today’s business means, clearly, becoming an intertiol player as nothing of such kind could succeed if the same remains restricted to a frog-in-the-well form. It is something like accepting that ‘the ship looks good when parked at the harbour’ but the same is not meant for remaining so. Business without risk is virtually preparing omelet without breaking the egg. 
The upshot: the challenges businesses has been facing may be summarized as: uncertainty about the future, fincial risk magement, monitoring performance, regulation and compliance, knowledge magement, competencies and recruiting the right talent, technology, exploding data, and delighting the customers, among others.
Can India better the position in the coming years?

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