Agile, Analytical and Mobile: Start-Up Characteristics Enterprises Should Emulate

Dmitri Chen, Chief Operating Officer and VP Specialty Sales, Dell EMC Asia Pacific and Japan, argues that large companies have to be agile, flexible, and innovative like start-ups.The shift to digital is transforming industries around the world. Large businesses are especially feeling the pressure to innovate like a start-up and deliver like an enterprise.Start-ups are leveraging technology to rapidly change the way we work and live, disrupting business models in an unprecedented way and challenging the status quo. Thanks to pervasive mobile-cloud technology, nimble innovators and upstart start-ups now have fast, easy access to a global network of “shared” online resources, including talent, capital, and a connected worldwide marketplace. These new companies have little to lose as they aggressively embrace new business models that will change the rules of the game.Recent research commissioned by Dell Technologies reveals that an overwhelming 83% of businesses across Asia Pacific believe digital start-ups will pose a threat to their organisation, either now or in the future. More than half (52%) of businesses surveyed fear they may become obsolete in the next three to five years due to competition from digital-born start-ups, significantly higher than the global average of about 45%.Having the right digital strategy can transform an organisation from merely surviving to thriving in the world today. To successfully navigate through the murky waters of the digital era, forward-looking businesses are already adopting the characteristics of start-ups. This challenges incumbent businesses to move towards a structure that is agile, flexible and increasingly collaborative, aligning around customer and business objectives.Innovate in agile waysStart-ups have the luxury of leveraging cloud-based and software-based technologies right from the start; established enterprises must modernise and automate their infrastructure, and transform their data centre operation into a cloud environment – one that is fully automated and self-serviced.Surprisingly, Dell Technologies research revealed that more than three quarters of organisations surveyed are struggling to evolve their data centres, with 77% saying they are being held back by too many traditional applications; citing a lack of budget and resources as the top barrier to progress. They also face the challenge of reducing sprawl and spend, while bringing systems up-to-date.A modern data centre must be software-defined, cloud-enabled, while leveraging technologies like Flash. Flash provides the speed and performance required by next-generation applications in a cost effective manner. A software defined model automates the configuration and deployment of IT services, delivering greater business agility and flexibility. Next, being cloud-enabled means that data centers can take advantage of public cloud economics.As businesses invariably move online, the modern data centre will become the foundation of the brand of each company, and the means to deliver stellar service as competitive advantage.Unique and personalised experiences with analytics A key reason that start-ups are successful is that they focus on the customer, delivering stellar experiences to drive loyalty. In today’s digital world, there is no lack of available data on customer preferences and behaviors. Established businesses must be able to collect, manage and harness, both structured and unstructured data and turn them into insights that can propel businesses decisions. The speed at which these insights can be generated and then leveraged into business strategies is essential for management and growth. Real-time predictive analytics can save business time and cost and enable businesses to drive richer customer experiences.Building a data lake where organisations can store their current data, and scale capacity, performance or protection as their business data grows is essential to achieving the level of insight into customer behavior that drives decisions.According to Dell Technologies research, around six in ten companies are unable to meet customers’ top demands, such as better security and 24/7 faster access to services and information. Nearly two-thirds (65%) confess to not acting on intelligence in real-time.A mobile, diverse workforce                                              Today, people carry supercomputers in their pockets. They have fingertip access to information on virtually anything they wish, and interact with each other through multiple social channels. This always-on connectivity presents an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to tap into the digital savviness of the workforce and find ways to serve customers that once seemed impossible. The ability to capitalise on this opportunity separates the most forward-looking organisations from their competition and the start-ups that businesses so fear.With the present rate of technological change, many enterprises may be daunted by the challenges. By emulating the characteristics of start-up, enterprises can become more agile, flexible and more nimble to leap-frog ahead of the next disruption and continue to deliver like an enterprise. In this manner, enterprises will have a say in creating their own future and business leaders can be less afraid of future disruption.