Part 6 of the six-part blog series “Facts on the Future of Business“
Innovation in the business world is accelerating exponentially, with new disruptive technologies and trends emerging that are fundamentally changing how businesses and the global economy operate. To adapt, thrive, and innovate, we all need to be aware of these evolutionary technologies and trends and understand the opportunities or threats they might present to our organizations, our careers, and society on a whole.
With this in mind, I recently had the opportunity to compile 99 Facts on the Future of Business in the Digital Economy. This presentation includes facts, predictions, and research findings on some of the most impactful technologies and trends that are driving the future of business in the Digital Economy.
To help you more easily find facts for specific topics, I have grouped the facts into six subsets. Below is the sixth of these:
New value opportunities![]()
Digital supply chains can reduce supply chain process costs by 50%, reduce procurement costs by 20%, and increase revenue by 10%.
Source: “Digital Supply Chains: A Frontside Flip,” The Center for Global Enterprise.
Companies with 50% or more of their revenues from digital ecosystems achieve 32% higher revenue growth and 27% higher profit margins.
Source: “Thriving in an Increasingly Digital Ecosystem,” MIT Sloan Management Review.
During their operation, the NASA space shuttles cost $60,000 per kilogram to get their payload into low Earth orbit.
Source: “Back to the Moon – Getting There Faster for Less,” National Space Society.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy will cost an estimated $447 per kilogram to get its payload into low Earth orbit.
Source: “Increasing the Profit Ratio,” The Space Review.
Platforms![]()
82% of executives believe platforms will be the glue that brings organizations together in the digital economy. The top 15 public platforms already have a market capitalization of $2.6 trillion.
Source: “Accenture Technology Vision 2016,” Accenture.
By 2020, over 80% of the G500 will be digital services suppliers through Industry Collaborative Cloud (ICC) platforms.
Source: “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions,” IDC Research Inc.
The world’s biggest banks have taken the first steps to moving onto blockchains, the technology introduced to the world by the virtual currency bitcoin.
Source: “Wall Street Clearinghouse to Adopt Bitcoin Technology,” The New York Times.
By 2027, blockchains could store as much as 10% of global GDP.
Source: “Making The Next Moves With Blockchain,” D!gitalist Magazine.
Africa is leapfrogging the developed world’s traditional banking systems through fast adoption of mobile and Internet-based technology, and is poised to take advantage of the disruptive opportunity that blockchains offer.
Source: “The Blockchain Opportunity, How Crypto-currencies and Tokens Could Scale Disruptive Solutions Across Africa,” BitHub.Africa.
Car sharing could reduce the number of cars needed by 90% in 2035, resulting in only 17% as many cars as there are today.
Source: “Self-Driving Cars Are a Disaster for the Car Industry, but Great for the Rest of Us,” Seeking Alpha.
Millennials are more than twice as willing to car-share as Generation Xers, and five times more likely than baby boomers.
Source: “Cars 2025,” Goldman Sachs.
Airbnb usage is projected to grow 1,165% by 2025, reaching one billion “room nights.” Key growth factors include Airbnb’s high levels of repeat customers, and significant word of mouth, as more than 80% of customers are likely to recommend Airbnb to friends.
Source: “One Wall Street Firm Expects Airbnb to Book a Billion Nights a Year Within a Decade,” Bloomberg.
Once fully available, 5G data speeds will be 1,000-times faster than today. This revolutionary leap will enable ubiquitous connections across the Internet of Things, engagement across virtual environments with only millisecond latency, and whole new Big Data applications and services.
Source: “2017 Predictions: Behind the Scenes with 5G – 2017 Lays Groundwork for Telecom Revolution,” Canadian Wireless Trade Show.
Automation and circumventing technologies![]()
Self-driving trucks are hauling iron ore in Australia, convoying across Europe, and appearing on roadways across the globe. And because they offer business savings, self-driving trucks are expected to be more rapidly adopted than self-driving cars.
Source: “Self-Driving Trucks: What’s the Future for America’s 3.5 Million Truckers?” The Guardian.
Amazon uses 30,000 Kiva robots in its global warehouses, which reduces operating expenses by approximately 20%. Bringing robots to its distribution centers that have not yet implemented them, would save Amazon a further $2.5 billion.
Source: “How Amazon Triggered a Robot Arms Race,” Bloomberg Technology.
88% of U.S. consumers say free shipping makes them more likely to shop online, and 79% would select drones as a delivery option if it meant they could receive packages within an hour.
Source: “Reinventing Retail: What Businesses Need to Know for 2016 Whitepaper,” Walker Sands Communications.
Taxi drones will start flying passengers in Dubai in July 2017. Passengers will select destinations on a touch screen and will be able to travel up to 30 minutes at a top speed of around 100 kph.
Source: “Taxi Drones Set for July Launch of Passenger Service Over Dubai,” RT News.
Only 13% of U.S. and Canadian manufacturing jobs recently lost were lost due to international trade. 85% of the job losses stemmed from productivity growth — another way of saying machines replaced human workers.
Source: “Industrial Robots Will Replace Manufacturing Jobs — and That’s a Good Thing,” TechCrunch.
The European Union is proposing new laws that require robots to be equipped with emergency “kill switches” and to be programmed in accordance to Isaac Asimov’s “laws of robotics,” stipulating that robots must never harm a human.
Source: “Europe Calls for Mandatory ‘Kill Switches’ on Robots,” CNN.
By 2030, 25% of Dubai’s buildings will be 3D-printed.
Source: “25% of Dubai’s Buildings Will Be 3D Printed by 2030: Mohammed,” Emirates24|7.
Patients dying while waiting for an organ donor could soon be a thing of the past. By 2030, organs will be biologically 3D-printed on demand.
Source: “Healthcare in 2030: Goodbye Hospital, Hello Home-Spital,” World Economic Forum.
To view all of the 99 Facts on the Future of Business in the Digital Economy, check out the Slideshare or other subsets below.
To see the rest of the series, check out our page “Facts on the Future of Business” every Thursday, where we will cover these six topics:
- The value imperative to embrace the digital economy
- Technologies driving the digital economy
- Customer experience and marketing in digital economy
- The future of work in the digital economy
- Purpose and sustainability in the digital economy
- Supply networks in the digital economy