“Only by discarding the baggage of certainty and embracing uncertainty can we make progress”

As 2014 came to a close, a number of articles reminded me of technology and business trends I have observed over my career providing businesses with new technology. The first was a report about research carried out by Epson showing that 85% of European businesses believe new technology provides a competitive advantage, yet half say fear of failure prevents its implementation.

More recently this month, news that Bertrand Piccard had started out on his ‘risky’ attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a solar powered plane led me to his TED lecture on Solar Impulse. Piccard, psychiatrist and adventurer, makes the point in this lecture that it is only by discarding the baggage of certainty and embracing uncertainty that we make progress.

Finally I have been reading Maribel Lopez’s recently published ‘Right Time Experiences’ and in Part 1 aptly entitled ‘Adapt or Fail’, Maribel makes it quite clear that with the changing technological landscape and the impact that is having on customer expectations, while it is reasonable to worry about failure, “businesses must change or risk extinction.’ Customers (and employees) increasingly expect companies to respond to issues and opportunities in real-time. While there is comfort hanging on to old fashioned systems and processes, competitors and new start-ups will be leveraging new technologies to meet those new expectations. Can you afford to wait? Tomorrow’s market leaders are investing now in new technologies to meet the new customer landscape.

As Piccard would say, “stepping beyond the ice” embraces needed change. But you can mitigate against risk because new cloud based technologies can be implemented in small incremental steps instead of the big-ticket IT projects of old. Maxoptra planning and scheduling software provides a low risk, ‘new technology’ approach to providing the services that Lopez predicted customers will need and which we have seen as the driving reasons for our customers to adopt Maxoptra. Consider right now the real-time visibility a dynamic routing and scheduling solution like Maxoptra can offer your business and if you dare to step beyond the ice …….and to see how Piccard progresses follow this link https://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii