Harley Cannard is a digitalpreneur, public figure, educator, public speaker, e-commerce industry consultant to some of the worlds most influential brands, personal trainer, and founding CEO of AMZ Automation Australia. Harley Cannard has disrupted industries and transformed ideas into million dollar businesses with his expertise.
Avoiding catastrophe is often a more powerful motivator than a promised reward’– says Harley Cannard. For decades, business leaders have been told that by harnessing the power of eCommerce and internet-enabled technologies provided by social media, they can transform their operations and scale growth. Now, in the wake of an economic downturn to rival anything seen in our lifetime, the changes we were all told were inevitable are now coming to pass.
Here are three changes prophesied in the last two decades set to transform business, and ways you can get ahead of the curve to ensure business survival.
1. Mobiles won’t just be communication devices
Back in the late 2000’s, as the iPhone started taking the world by storm, a string of books was published (by academics, so they didn’t register on most people’s radar), claiming that within a decade, nearly all business could be, and would be, performed on mobile phones. Sites like eBay and then giants like Amazon made that prophecy much easier to believe, but it took a forced sector-wide collapse to show how ready the world was to make retail a hand-held experience. The revenue resilience of footwear retailers at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns provides an excellent case study for skeptics who still believe that bricks-and-mortar shopfronts are what drives business.
Survival tip: Mr Cannard says ‘Don’t bother bucking this trend unless you’re ready to make your real-world retail store an amazing experience.’
There will still be a place for physical stores, but the trip better be worth it. Given the incredible ease, efficiency, and enjoyment online shopping can offer, for most investing in eCommerce is a much smarter idea than trying to salvage a rent-accruing store no-one’s travelling to.
2. Facebook will transform the social world.
‘I remember when Facebook launched its IPO in 2012 and share-prices took a sharp plummet, pundits everywhere claimed the promises of social media had been oversold. How wrong they have proven to be. Just this previous week Facebook introduced and launched has launched its new Facebook Shop, which is designed to help smaller businesses create an online store thats as seamless as shopify without even needing to have a website. ’- Harley Cannard
Instead, through strategic acquisitions and smart adaptions, Facebook is fulfilling the prophecy of its founder to not just be a platform, but be across all of them. One can barely imagine what life would have been like in 2020 without Facebook. It became the social lifeblood of millions and a vital information source, buying and selling hub, and replacement community. As the platform becomes savvier at balancing the increasing demands put on it to perform multiple, meaningful roles, you can bet its role in keeping us all connected will only enlarge Survival.
A tip from Harley Cannard ‘Stop being too cool to advertise on Facebook. Social media marketing made everyone think that simply by posting some cool content, your brand would become the hippest thing since… well… Facebook. Then conspiracy theorists told us that remarketing strategies would reveal the insidious side of social media and everyone would turn off. The opposite is true: Facebook offers some of the best advertising ROI in the game and now with the introduction of Facebook Shops there is no stopping anyone.’
3. AI will be everywhere and do everything
‘For those who grew up with the Terminator franchise, Artificial Intelligence meant the end of the world. Skylink, T100, Judgement Day. Remember those times’– says Harley Cannard.
For the developers and technologists working in the field, it meant a smoother-running, automated world where human error could become a thing of the past. As industries contract and groan under the unprecedented pressures to streamline and maximise efficiencies, there appears to be an AI solution for basically every business need.
Mr Cannard says- ‘From conversational platforms performing customer service roles, supply chain bots locating the best logistics deals, or marketing software that drives better customer experiences, AI is rapidly replacing humans in each business function. Even HR, the most human of all operational silos, will soon be filled by super-intuitive, electronic empaths like Samantha from Her.’
When asked about a survival tip for our readers Mr Cannard said- Start getting AI-wise. Adopting an ostrich strategy and pretending nothing has changed will simply leave you and your business more vulnerable to competitors who start adopting and integrating AI sooner. Alternatively, invest in advice. Much like the now obsolete shopfront, investing in old-world solutions is simply wishful thinking. Something AI doesn’t do either.
Instagram : https://instagram.com/harls_cannard