Thriving in the digital ecosystem now needs collaboration even with competing companies amid the increasing interconnectivity, a consultancy service firm said.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in its recent report, found out that senior leaders across the globe are anticipating growth from new digital offerings in the next four years.
TCS Philippines Country Lead Shiju Varghese said the same trend has been experienced in the country, noting the accelerated shift in digital to cope amid the pandemic.
“Local leaders continue to find holistic and safe solutions to empower businesses, employees and consumers today and beyond,” Varghese said.
As such, “operating successfully in digital ecosystem will require working with companies that are competitors today, or will be in the future, and which will own key pieces of the digital ecosystem infrastructure. No company can be a self-sufficient island anymore in a digitally interconnected world,” TCS said.
According to the TCS study, majority or 80 percent of the “leader” respondents—or companies that booked higher-than-average growth in revenue and profit during 2015-2019 period—understood the need to partner with competitors.
Among the areas of collaboration include sales, marketing, research and development, production, distribution and customer service.
Apart from anticipated revenue growth from digital products and services, the leaders are also seeing “greater digital marketing, sales and service processes.”
“The ability to participate with competitors and partners in cross-industry digital ecosystems with new, more highly digital products and services will be essential to seize new, revenue-driving opportunities in the mid-2020s,” the report explained.
In addition, over half of the leaders also said they consider the digital ecosystem when crafting strategies and plan to expand collaborations as 56 percent of their revenues will be sourced from digital offerings.
The following industries, the study noted, develop their strategies “through a digital ecosystems lens”: securities and investment companies, retail, banking and credit institutions, technology, insurance and telecommunications.
Meanwhile, the consultancy firm stressed that companies should implement a more consumer-centric policy to access more opportunities in the digital ecosystem.
The firms must collect and analyze consumer data to further understand the market, the report added.
“Gaining insights from their customers—about their experiences, their preferences, their openness to new offerings, their position in relation to a company’s marketing messages—is essential for companies strengthening existing revenue streams and determining how to build new ones,” TCS explained.
According to the survey, the majority said they are improving the use of customer data to have better products and services and to develop new offerings.
“Customer data is the essential fuel of modern businesses; the best ones collect more data, analyze it better, and are quicker and better at acting on it,” TCS added.
For the study, TCS surveyed over 1,200 chief executive officers and senior executives from North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. They came from different sectors, including retail, manufacturing, insurance, banking and financial and health care.