Are you aware of the impact created by digital disruption on B2B companies? If not, check out this blog today!
Technological advancements are bringing massive changes in everything around us. It has paved the path for unexpected disruptions across culture, market, industry, processes, and whatnot. Earlier the sellers had more power to dictate a buyer’s journey over products and services. Now technology has turned the table completely and made customers more in power for the entire journey. Every decision in a business now needs to be made from the point of view of customers rather than the business itself.
Digital disruption affects every industry and every business, including B2B companies. Do you know what impact digital disruption can put on B2B companies? If not, check out this blog today!
First thing first, do you know what disruptive technology is?
To make sure we are on the same page, let us first describe what we mean when we talk about technology bringing disruption to B2B companies. The term disruptive innovation finds its first mention in a book written by Clayton Christensen. The book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail’ talks about innovative technologies that have the potential to transform an industry completely.
In the simplest terms, disruptive technology, is the newly introduced technology that can completely change an existing system and how people interact with them. In strict business terms, these are the technologies that transform how consumers interact with a business and buy its products and services.
Do you need some examples to understand the above explanation? Okay! Let us give you a few examples for your clarity.
#1 Fax Machine – The introduction of the fax machine provided a new way of communication that was much fast and more efficient than the existing ones. This transformed the way businesses communicated. This was a disruptive technology.
#2 Internet – The Internet is one of the massively disruptive innovations. Before the internet era, businesses relied on magazines, newspapers, radio, and television for advertisements. The internet was not just another medium for advertising. It transformed the entire system of advertising. Earlier advertisements were product-centric internet paved the path to making it customer-centric.
#3 Mobile Phone – The introduction of mobile phones to the general masses compelled businesses to pay more attention to customers’ individuality. The entire customer journey mapping process had to be transformed because of this disruptive technology.
The list is not exceptionally long. We can divide disruptive innovation impacting B2B companies into three categories.
Any of these categories of innovations can prove disruptive for B2B businesses. The current disruptive innovations that are impacting B2B companies include –
Technology and digital shifts in the business model have fueled many changes. A lot of these changes have the possibility to bring disruption. The biggest disruption brought in by the digital shift is the shifting of power. Now, customers are getting more attention than ever. They are the center point around which every process and every decision needs to be built.
While customers have been in focus for B2C companies for a long time now. B2B companies are also getting into the zone. Accept it or not, the disruption has already been caused, and B2B companies need to shift their plans and priorities accordingly.
Before we dive deeper into the impact of digital disruption and ways to handle them, it is important to understand the basics. These changes being experienced in the market stem from B2C business shifts, ultimately impacting B2B companies. Some of the drivers of these shifts include –
It is important to note that disruption should not be seen in poor light. One needs to gauge the impact of any disruptive innovation on your core business operation and find the opportunities for growth and success created by such disruption. You should also know that early birds get the worm in most cases. So, the businesses that understand and adopt the new technological advancements become the early runners and winners in most cases.
Here are the ways you can use digital disruption for the advantage of your B2B Company.
When we look back, we can see how disruptive innovations made things better for us. So, we do not need to be skeptical about the current disruption. Instead, we need to utilize the disruptions to push us forward on the path of growth and success.21
Digital disruptions are transforming everything around, including B2B organizations. Some of the front-runners are already leveraging the benefits. If you are still not ready, you may lag behind. So make sure you understand the impact of digital disruption on the core of your business and utilize every opportunity that it is creating for your B2B Company.