The future indeed is digital, and in that digital place would the marketplace of the future play out. Two cases:
Restaurants in the US: I like TGI Friday’s but one by one, they have closed all their locations within miles where I live. But it is not just TGI; other restaurants are struggling. Red Lobster and Coastal Grill have recently filed for bankruptcy protection. What is going on? Inflation because a family of four may need to drop at least $80 for a decent meal moment. You can also blame digital where some people now produce food, and wait for you to call, to be delivered something really terrible, but called food, to you. But that is winning many people because it seems cheaper. They call it a virtual kitchen business model, and it is delivery-only.
Pharmacies in the US: Every year, more stores close around you. From CVS to RiteAid to Walgreens, it seems these companies are destined for the history museums. I do not believe they have any chance to remain, and will likely go in the ways of Circuit City and Radio Shack of electronics. Why is this happening? Ecommerce giants like Amazon and some pharmacy focused e-pharmacies can ship to your door, making leaving your home unnecessary. As that redesign happens, the best days of physical pharmacies are gone.
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Good People, everything is going digital if you are thinking of the long-term. While you still have to be relevant today in the meatspace, you must develop a playbook for the digital future. For Nigeria, a truly functioning national postal service like the extremely efficient one of old, will unlock huge opportunities for the nation, especially if we hope to connect the rural and urban communities in trade and commerce. I vote for a great NIPOST.
Of course, that digital future may not be self-evident, but if you are paying attention, you might not have visited a bank branch in the last 6 months. Everything is going digital and the people who are leading that will capture the value of the future. That is not to say that the meatspace is not viable today; the physical space remains a place to make tons of money in business. Why not, Nigeria invented a business model where you buy the currency (Naira) when you want to deposit or withdraw via the POS agency business model, explaining that the physical marketplace remains entrenched.
Yet, that will not last over time because the destination of the world of business is moving to one direction: digital. This is in line with Pythagoras postulation that the world is numbers, and in a world of numbers, digital helps you to better understand everything about your world, explaining the core reason why AI will deliver better competitive advantages to firms because with AI, you can more efficiently process your business world of numbers (yes, data) better. When that happens, a huge competitive positioning emerges. Simply, you will make money in the physical space today, but in the near future, the digital sphere is where the world of business will converge.
The ancestral Igbo noted that “uwa bu ahia” [the world is a marketplace], and the best marketplaces of the future will be in the digital spheres. #buildDigital
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There is no place called the future, almost all the future preparations and postulations are lived in the present, because you can only live in the present. When you are unprepared or underprepared, you assign or shift the living moments to the future, as a way of giving yourself some time to meet up. What will eventually come as future are some people’s past and present, just as Nigeria is even yet live out some people’s past…
We will also witness a time when many of the things that are abandoned today will be offered as premium services, making those who never enjoyed such past feel as though as they are blazing a trail. It’s all business! What is constant is figuring how to make money and plugging yourself fully in, the rest are stories and forms.
With all the talks about digital, neither cost of rent nor transportation is getting cheaper, yet we are getting higher doses of digital supplements. You have to figure out where the true power lies, and not really where they tell you it is. Whether meatspace or digital, the world is/will still be run by few people, you are either one of them or their customer.