Life is an ever changing roller coaster. You need to go here, then there, right, left, and straight. Not to mention the inevitable twisting, turning, and the feeling that you could fly of the track at any moment. Sometimes you even need to do a u-turn or a loop-de-loo circle. Yes, life is always changing, but I find it no different in the business world. Over the past year my business world has changed. I went from working long hours building a business, to working even longer hours after selling my business…feels good right? Sometimes.
Technology has changed our lives forever in unanticipated ways especially in the business realm. The way we communicate with customers and how we market products has changed dramatically over the years. We now have social media and most of our communication with our clients is done over the Internet. Businesses have moved from downtowns to giant business parks. We are living in a time of change in technology that is unprecedented in type and velocity.
Here are five ways that business roles have changed due to technology:
Communication
Gone is the time where you would walk in a store and talk to someone about a product. My business evolved over the years from person to person sales to more online sales. As that occured, I’ve found that the whole world has changed to the same model
Groceries and retail businesses are the places of business that are left for face to face interactions. However, many retail stores and most national chain stores have their own website; and have a store page that allows you to order right online without speaking to a single person. Ordering online has even started to be big business with some grocery and business supply stores. Look at Amazon. You can even buy a car on Amazon. The new transmission of communication between customer and companies has began to change to the hiring of customer service reps rather than cashiers or sales people for purchases. Most people now do their shopping online. At the very least the customer spends a minimum effort in researching products and services online.
The Integration of Chief Social Media Officers
The bigger companies can no longer afford not to have a Chief Social Media Officer; or at least a team that is in charge of all the social media efforts. Companies are using social media such as, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat, just to name a few, for reaching out to or studying their target audience. As part of ad campaigns companies post commercials, pictures, GIF’s, videos, and promo codes. Some social media sites have started including online stores to their pages which will allow you to buy directly from their site. These companies also use their sites to monitor the trends and to even set new trends. The teams that are in charge of the social media campaigns are vastly important nowadays. 10 years ago they were almost nonexistent.
The role of Marketing
Marketing has drastically changed due to technology. Tech has come creating catchy posters, pictures, videos, GIF’s, and audio recordings,(to name a few), and it is so much easier to capture the attention of a likely customers, and frankly the ad work is better. Programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, AutoCAD, and Adobe Premiere allow graphic artists, architects, and engineers the possibility of creating products that are genuinely interesting, with such ease and accessibility that they can create anything anywhere.
Graphic artists can be much more bold, yet precise with their renderings. Marketing, though more complex in concept and scope, is so much more interesting and it is easier to the effect that you want. There are more options in the type of creations that can be presented for marketing departments because of their access to better technology. Marketing and business roles change, and will continue to change as our technology evolves.
Location
The location, location, location of businesses has changed because of technology. A customer may not have noticed the change of where the business are located now, but the business owners have. Businesses are moving out of the downtown areas separated here and there by retail, to business parks. Business parks are are presenting themselves as the way to cater to everything and everyone in the business scene.
Big companies like, Adobe, Facebook, Apple, and Google, have created massive business campuses that are dedicated to their businesses as a whole. Some of these businesses have become a community in their own right. These campuses could not be contained, integrated, nor function smoothly in a downtown venue so they choose to move to a locale with the room to spread out. By moving out of the downtown areas, these businesses have more options with size, features and even product capabilities and capacity. They are able to house their employees and the extraneous amenities for these employees in an atmosphere that is more conducive to the creativity aspects of their businesses – and to productivity.
Manufacturing products
The growth of technology has caused an explosion in the online marketing world. As well, more and more businesses are starting to do their manufacturing overseas. The products themselves are cheaper to make overseas and the work is accomplished with less employees that have to be paid the larger wages and be provided with the expensive, expected benefits. Almost any company can go overseas for the manufacturing of their products. The overseas markets and manufacturing have grown in size and in the work quality.
It hasn’t always been this way; previously, only the much larger companies had the resources and technology, as well as the connections and funds to be able to set up the type of operation for production that could be sustained by foreign markets and manufacturing. It has only been recently that we are now beginning to see a slight trend in moving some of the manufacturing back to domestic. Technology has also now opened global markets for greater opportunity in growth.
Business roles change due to new technology – and, of course, due to the invention of, and the improvement of old tech. Technology will continue to change, which will drive business growth; in turn causing the business to change roles in business to develop in unexpected ways. Technology is a way of life now, and the changes in technology have become a constant factor in the work and play – that we call life and business.
