The importance of adapting to change

I was privileged to host Techspectations, Kerala’s largest Digital Summit a few days ago. I got a ring-side view of the amazing insights offered by the speakers, many of whom are stalwarts in the digital and entrepreneurial world. I wanted to pick up one very important point that I learned from a person who heads the World’s largest social network in South Asia. 

As an example, he pointed out to the face that five years ago, the traffic for Facebook was predominantly from desktop computers and only a smattering from Mobile. But in 2016, over 90 per cent of traffic comes from mobile phones which is a sea shift. This huge shift was possible because Facebook was able to see the trend very early on and invested time and effort into building a mobile first approach. It paid off immensely and how. He also pointed out that the next big shift will come from offering immersive, interactive experience. Virtual reality and augmented reality is an area that Facebook is majorly focusing on. That explains why they plopped a couple of billion dollars to buy Oculus, the virtual reality company. One slide that really stood out for me in his presentation was a photograph of Sun Microsystems’ entrance wall which had its huge logo. The wall now is grown with weeds and unkempt. This is a visual indication of what can happen to a company that does not adapt to changing times. Incidentally, Facebook has purchased the old office space of Sun Microsystem to build their new campus but have left the dilapidated entrance wall with unkempt weeds as a reminder to their employees what would happen to Facebook if it did not keep innovating. This is a powerful lesson for each of us and a stark reminder to us that while it’s important to keep our noses to the grind wheel and work hard, it’s also important to keep one eye in the future for changing user behaviour and changing trends. Keep checking back on this weekly column to learn more about great insights from people who really keep a pulse in the digital world.