And no, don’t build your business strategy on FOMO.
Are you currently experiencing the fear of missing out (FOMO) on new technology? You might currently hunker down with your teams to finalize your strategy for 2024. What’s on your whiteboard? MITS? CSaaS? AI? LLM? RPA? GenAI? PA?
Are we having a disconnect here? Okay, let me write it out:
- Managed IT services
- Cybersecurity as a service
- Artificial intelligence
- Large language models
- Robotic process automation
- Generative artificial intelligence
- Process automation
Because these technologies are super hyped, many of us feel we’re missing out if we don’t jump on them. But do you have to? Can you?
I’ve been to several conferences recently, seen new hardware and software, and heard of many recent trends. However, I have met only a handful of individuals and organizations that are genuinely ready for what we might as well call Industry 5.0, which refers to people working alongside robots and smart machines.
I haven’t met people who could show me a roadmap for the average knowledgeable member of our industry to get from where we are today to where we supposedly should be tomorrow. But where are “we” today? You are probably in a different place than your competitor; I’m in another place than my best friend, and so on. Are we all successfully helping our customers to be successful? Yes, we are! So why are we so afraid of missing out? Are the new trends reminding us of something? If anything, for me, there are the two most important guiding principles of my life: “The only constant is change,” and “Never stop learning.”
2024 – Learning for Industry 5.0
With that rant over, on to the 2024 watchlist. Get back to school. Not literally but embrace education 100% in 2024. Educate yourself and your team on what is out there, and how you and your customers can benefit. After all, you don’t want to be cornered in the next QBR meeting by questions such as, “Don’t you think RBA could help us improve our productivity?” Or “How about we add AI and PA to our CRM to improve our CCM strategy?” Or “We heard the latest bolt-on to MITS is SOC2 certification; oh, and are you sure the software you’re selling us is NIST compliant?”
There you have it again: more acronyms, automation, and security talk. And why would your clients not talk about it? The news outlets are full of it. And yes, security is an issue, and yes, we all want to save a penny with automation and be better at communicating with others.
And the only answer to all of this is learning. I recently discovered the AWS Skillbuilder platform, which offers almost everything you need to get started with everything in the cloud, AI, security, and more. But there are more platforms, Coursera and Class Central, to name a few. You may also want to talk to your OEMs and vendors; almost everyone offers a learning platform, and you can join most of them for low or no cost.
Things to Remember
- Don’t jump on a trend for a trend’s sake.
- Look to your customer journey maps for inspiration.
- Keep an eye out for the latest trends, learn about them, and evaluate them.
- Attend a course or two on the major trends—cybersecurity, AI, genAI, and large language models (LLM)—to
- understand what they are, what they do, and how you can benefit from them.
- (Re)Learn everything about digital transformation, office imaging, and production printing—hardware and software.
- Evaluate your team and upskill or partner with other teams for more excellent offerings and success.
- Stop FOMO, it doesn’t get you anywhere.
- Stick to your grandma’s recipes for the holiday meals, they are the best.
Happy holidays and a prosperous 2024!
