Samavesh 2018

The boundaries between the digital and physical worlds continue to blur with profound implications in the way we do business. Technologies such as mobile, cloud, big data analytics and AI can speed up activities and lead to cost savings in the company’s current business model. But these gains can be quickly matched by competitors. Instead, to be able to create and capture sustainable value, companies may have to re-think their business models to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by ‘digitalisation’. For example, Hilton took a century to build its portfolio of hotels; Airbnb capitalised on residential housing to build an even larger portfolio in just 5% of the time.

Demonetisation showcased how quickly a new payment model like Paytm was adopted and became mainstream, adding convenience and security, especially amongst millennials. A recent Forrester Consulting research study that asked decision-makers about strategic priorities for their businesses, found that the number one priority was improving customer experience, followed by growing revenues, improving differentiation and reducing costs. In the digital era, companies would have to do these things differently. What is the nature of work being done by consultants in this space? What opportunities do they see evolving? What innovative approaches to running businesses do they foresee? The consulting conclave gave valuable imsights while answering these questions. 

Digital initiatives have made inroads into every industry and its integration into the traditional companies is changing the face of the workplace and defining the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Banks are undergoing major transformation given the digitalisation wave, and other plug-and-play service providers are taking over the financial services industry function by function. Banks are responding by improving payment systems with the introduction of UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and opening up to adopting the open banking ecosystem, giving access to application programming interfaces (APIs) for third-party payment providers. In terms of currency markets, we are seeing the evolution of crypto currencies. Corporates are witnessing newer ways of raising funds through crowdsourcing, blockchain based solutions for payments, tech-supported infrastructure for loan approval and disbursal, peer to peer lending and smart contracts for ensuring and enforcing performance among others. Customers are making payments using digital transfer apps created on top of distributed ledgers, which are enabling seamless payments possible amongst the payment cycle from customers to producers to finally suppliers.

From various corners of the financial world we are seeing unbundling of products, services and processes. Undoubtedly, being digitally-ready is touted as another performance benchmark for the survival and growth of corporates and banks. This new way of doing business brings about a new set of regulatory and security challenges. The broader question that we have to answer is, are we ready to embrace the new way of doing business?

The Finance Conclave at Samavesh 2018, answered some issues including the following questions:

• What is the digital readiness of the finance function and services?
• Are we prepared to handle the regulatory complications arising from going digital?
• Which functions are more likely to get disrupted in terms of execution and delivery?
• What is the future outlook in terms of jobs in the financial services space?

With the advancement of digital technology, supply chains are undergoing disruptive transformations. As we are in Industry 4.0, referred to as 'the fourth industrial revolution', people, devices and machines are connected in the virtual world by means of digital technology. Application of digital technologies such as Block chain, 3D printing, AI, Internet of Things, Automation, Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) and Cloud computing has made supply chains more accessible and data driven.

As the thrust for customisation of products and services is gaining momentum, the use of these advanced technologies is the need of the hour for companies to stay relevant in the industry.

The pace with which these technologies are penetrating in businesses, it is imperative that modern day companies master the art of adopting digital technologies for supply chain & manufacturing processes.

The world today is witnessing an unprecedented explosion in emerging technologies, particularly in the digital domain. These technologies have had a colossal impact on the conventional way of doing business and have stirred the world of marketing as well. Over the past decade, digital marketing practices have unlocked several new avenues for revenue, growth and business expansion.

A lot of today’s marketing campaigns consist of social media campaigns, email newsletters, blog post writing and pay-per-click ads. While all this is great for reaching the tech-savvy individuals, a vast majority of the intended audience still remains unreached because if one takes a closer look, they will realise that not everyone is online. It’s difficult for digital marketing to replace the touch and feel aspect of conventional marketing.

With the advent of digital, it is no longer a simple mix of brick and mortar integration, or even bricks and clicks integration.

Rather, with the advance of social media, mobile media, always-on communications, the Internet of Things and multi-channel markets, the new catchphrase is 'omnichannel'. Some important questions that were answered at the conclave were:

• Has digital marketing simply become a tool for cost cutting?
• How do you determine the optimal marketing mix?
• How do you assign focus and budgets to digital marketing vis-a-vis other elements of the marketing mix?
• How do you make digital reinforce the other elements of the conventional marketing mix?
• How does one figure out how and where customers want to buy from them? What is the right mix of customer interfaces?
• How is omni-channel changing B2B markets?