Digital evolution: future-proofing with tech  

Sometimes referred to as ‘digital Darwinism’, there’s a tendency for brands who don’t keep up with innovation and market expectation shifts to disappear without a trace. So what can organisations do to adapt, and ensure they future-proof themselves? 

Perhaps one of the best-known stories of digital Darwinism involves a brand that almost everybody knew back in the 1990s: video and DVD rental store chain Blockbuster. The brand dominated the home entertainment sector, and with more than 9,000 stores around the world it was a part of many a movie night for its 65 million registered customers. 

Then, in the early 2000s, a series of challenges hit the business. Largest competitor Netflix – which began as a DVD-mailing rental model, which crucially had a flat monthly fee and no late fees – offered greater convenience than the Blockbuster bricks-and-mortar model, and began to pivot into online streaming. Having been slow to react to the initial competition from Netflix, Blockbuster again failed to make the right move. With the hole left in revenues caused by discontinuing unpopular late fees in an effort to be competitive, the rush to establish a digital platform to catch up with competitors, and its significant debt, Blockbuster’s ultimate demise was unavoidable 

Technology: you snooze, you lose 
Blockbuster doesn’t stand alone, either. A number of other well-known brands saw their downfall after executives failed to keep ahead of the technology curve – there’s even a Radio 4 programme, Toast, which highlights the struggles of brands which didn’t heed the writing on the wall in time (including Blockbuster). Quite a few of its stories have turned out to be technology related. 

There are certainly a number of such tales of tech woe out there. Kodak felt that digital photography wasn’t a threat to its film cameras and discovered the hard way that this was not the case, while Polaroid made similar mistakes; Borders Group bookstores didn’t respond as speedily to music streaming and e-book innovations as their main competitor Barnes & Noble, and suffered the consequences, while HMV was similarly slow to reinvent themselves; Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry didn’t make a quick enough shift to developing smartphone products; Toys R Us missed the opportunity to develop its own e-commerce presence and drowned in debt and stiff online competition. 

Workplace tech for competitive advantage 
Although these well-known brands are the most noticeable victims of technology marching on without them, it’s not only consumer-aimed products and services that can be hobbled by lagging behind in attitudes to technology.  

At Aura, we bring the transformative power of consumer technology to the world of work, facilitating better business outcomes to organisations in a wide variety of sectors. In fact, it’s not just a case of keeping up with technology, but using tech solutions strategically to meet specific business objectives, elevating stakeholder experiences and future-proofing the organisation. 

Strategic objectives facilitated by tech 
We have clients whose objectives are sustainability-related (for example, Mizuho Bank), as well as those looking to improve productivity and well-being and enable more effective collaboration and hybrid working practices (Société Générale, Scania). In addition, we have helped numerous luxury retail brands to not just meet but exceed customer expectations (learn more at www.aurafutures.com/retail), supported a whole variety of educational establishments in fulfilling student demand for tech-enabled spaces (for example, UCL and City University), as well as augmented the customer experiences at conference centres, museums and sports clubs. 

What all these organisations have in common is a forward-thinking attitude that technology can ease pain points, keep pace with customer expectations (or go above and beyond, perhaps even offering the next step-change in service level), and improve competitiveness.  

Find out how we can help your business fulfil its potential, get in touch today

Keep In Touch

For more information about Aura, and to discuss your specific business requirements, please get in touch.

Call Us Today

+44 207 2 400 800

Enquire

Contact Form

Linkedin

AuraFutures