“The future depends on what you do today”- Mahatma Gandhi
Jonathan Taylor follows up his trip to the launch of Karsan’s latest autonomous bus project with some of his thoughts on the potentially disruptive eff ect of the technology on the industry
Only one of the joys of being in business is the opportunity it provides to create something new, get it right and make a success of it, usually with some healthy mistakes and failures along the way.
These constant improvements are the result of market competition, forcing every business to innovate or refine its product or service offerings. But sometimes a new player or an innovation can cause an entire industry to experience technical or systemic ‘earthquakes,’ resulting in disruptive changes to their markets. When major change occurs, it is a good idea to be with, or preferably ahead, of the curve. Several industries have experienced disruptive new technologies. Businesses which don’t realise what’s happening and fail to take advantage often don’t survive. Digitalisation radically changed photography. Kodak, the market leader at the time, didn’t innovate and didn’t survive. Digital currencies and assets are disrupting the old financial world, and major financial institutions which ignore the change could become less relevant and may not survive. A recent CBW internal discussion about possible disruption in our industry ended with us deciding to take the topic public and publish various views on the subject. Of course, we didn’t all agree on what the future holds, but we did agree that the possible futures we talked about deserve some serious thought. As I had instigated the discussion, CBW’s Editor nominated me to pen the first article on the subject, so here are some of my thoughts. They are thoughts rather than beliefs.
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