Business survival and the Internet !

As long ago as the 1990's there have been predictions on the way the internet is going. The change that we have seen to date is nothing to what is coming in the next few years and the future. It is not always safe to predict the future but if you consider the way the internet has influenced our lives to date it is not difficult to predict the changes that will come. Changes that affect everything we do and the way we live.

I am not referring to the movement towards social media and the latest trends in business promotion but the way the internet is influencing how people live, interact and pursue their daily activities. The changes the internet has brought that influence and affects the way we all interact socially and in business. Like the printing press and education that changed society in the past, the journey will be difficult, some will resist, many will gain and many will lose.

The effect the internet has had to date is small, only taken up by those who see the possibilities. Only a small minority who are engaged are actually influencing the creation of trends that are seen as the greatest thing or the next killer application.

The vast majority of internet users are joining unaware of the consequences and not sure of the possibilities but want to be part of it, the ‘me too people’.

A sales medium or something else?

Business owners see the internet as another sales medium, individuals see it as many things: A place to meet, a place to share, a place to learn, a place to make purchases. These are all the positive facets, we also have to think of the ‘dark side’ a place to corrupt, a place to mislead, a place to steal, a place to groom.

I have been researching the effects the internet has had on the retail industry in the last 10 years and the results are quite scary for those who occupy the High Street. At speaking events - across the UK and in Europe - I have been sharing with audiences about the changes that have taken place and are yet to come. It has frightened many but the evidence is irrefutable.

Too many of the old schools, in Business, the Press and Politics do not comprehend the enormity the internet will have in everything we do. Business, society and life will never be the same again.

The vast majority of business owners are reacting to the technology created by the web developers and trends internet users create by their volume and curiosity. These businesses are jumping on the band wagon hoping they won’t get left behind. The movers and shakers are the likes of Amazon and eBay - and don’t get it right every time – They are the ones who thought it through from the beginning and are now reaping the rewards.

Online Retail

The retail industry has a lot of catching up to do. They are still applying old business models to the internet. It is not the High Street it is the Internet, it is new and in most cases it is the blind leading the blind. Business owners are reliant on web designers and developers to find the solution to their needs but these are not business people or marketers. They simply take the clients money and build a website from a template and then put the clients content into it. No consideration has been made for the people who will be using the website.

The News

The press are also applying old business models to the delivery and monetisation of the news using the internet and they are failing rapidly. There was an interesting commentary by a journalist who was deriding bloggers on the BBC last evening. He has not realised that the mainstream press have lost out to a fast moving agile sub culture that is gaining momentum from the need of the user for faster and more responsive news. Not from across the world but from local events and issues. Watch out as twitter takes over from the press for local news and postings form amateur journalists on every street corner armed with a mobile phone, a blog and a twitter feed.

Social media

Society has already changed beyond recognition and we will see more of this in the next few years. Some governments have already tried to stop the march of the internet by blocking and filtering information. However, like the hacker each time you put in a firewall the hacker sees it as a challenge to get around.

The vast majority of social media users are blissfully unaware of the consequences of their actions, they are feeding the speed of change by joining. On social networks you can see everything you would expect in a soap opera. I have seen the early development of a love story to an acrimonious divorce. There has been the offer of a job to the public sacking of an employee because they connected to their new boss when they started in the job and then published a diatribe of how bad it was working in the company. This is not fiction it is the real thing, happening in real time and far more relative than the six week soap story. Does this mean the end of the soap opera as we know it?

The future

We are at the beginning of the story, I cannot predict with any accuracy of what technology or trend will spring out of the next great website. One thing I can be sure it will happen because the technology, the will, and the momentum are there.

The internet is a self service environment and whatever way you want to use it you have to take this into consideration. The question that business owners should be asking themselves is: What do users want? Can we provide it in an easy and timely way that meets their needs and wants?

Who will survive?

It is not really about the strong surviving but about the ones who can see, those people who have the broad knowledge from many sectors and are open to the challenges that the internet brings. They are not the young but the wise, the ‘T’ shaped people with a wide knowledge base which is focused on a core area, the internet.

Kind regards

Nigel T Packer