CEO of Axiom Intel, Kola Oyeyemi has urged business owners, industry leaders, and brand guardians who want to maintain their relevance and improve the financial performance of their organizations have been tasked with reinventing their organizations to enable them to take advantage of newer and more exciting opportunities brought on by technological advancements.
Making the point at the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria’s (NIMN) recent 2022 Annual Marketing Conference in Lagos, the experts from various fields of the country’s Integrated Marketing Communications space said it was “becoming increasingly dangerous” for business owners to stick with outdated business models in a rapidly evolving, tech-driven environment.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Driving Business Sustainability in The Age of Data and Technology’, the Keynote Speaker and Chief Executive Officer, Axiom Intel, Mr. Kola Oyeyemi, stated that the traditional belief that the advent of technology would improve the lives of many at the expense of ‘a smaller few’, is being doubted. Tech advancements, he argued, have continued to take its toll on many businesses, due to the failure of those businesses to take advantage of the benefits inherent in such techs.
Therefore, Oyeyemi suggested that it is now essential to examine business sustainability from the standpoint of performance fundamentals due to the boom of data and highly disruptive technology.
The former General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, described the issue of disruptive technologies as “unsettling,” noting that while technology might improve operational and financial efficiencies, it can also hasten a business’ downfall and extinction, if not utilized.
“This is like riding a wild tiger. Any error can be very fatal. Technology can help you drive operational and financial efficiencies. However, technology can also accelerate your extinction,” he stated.
“This is one of the most visible examples of Creative Destruction. The smart-phone took mobility of life and business to a whole new level and created a convergence of industries into this powerful device,” he added.
As a “barbarian from outside” the sector, Oyeyemi further forewarned that such disruption it would cause firms might not necessarily be through intra-business competition.
He argued that the introduction of the first smart phone device by IBM in 1992 and the development of the internet had permanently changed the face of business and interpersonal interactions. He used the advent of Smartphone technology and its accompanying disruptions as an example.
“This is one of the most visible examples of Creative Destruction. The smart-phone took mobility of life and business to a whole new level and created a convergence of industries into this powerful device,” he added.
The former president of the Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) claimed that the convergence has caused the early demise or mutation of many sectors, with the Smartphone changing or causing to change over 14 traditional industries.
He listed some of the sectors affected as banking, insurance, watch, print production, broadcast, gaming, retail brick and mortar channels, music production and distribution, video production and distribution, and more.
The well-known marketing expert ascribed this disruption to the fact that new technologies disregard established norms of conduct and traditional sources of competitive advantage.
“They are barbarians who have pulled down old structures and systems and created a whole new frame for competitiveness beyond industries,” he stated.
Oyeyemi advised business leaders to be mindful of organizational rigidity since it hinders innovation and ecosystem thinking and may ultimately cause a company to go out of business.
Joyce Ibukun Adeyemo, the Marketing Coordinator for Allied Foods (Burger King), emphasized the importance of disruptive marketing in her presentation. Joyce was also a panelist at the conference.
“This is because it helps you refreshen your products in the eye of your customer, and creatively give you a competitive advantage,” she stated.
The conference, according to Mr. Idorenyen Enang, President and Chairman of Council, NIMN, who also spoke at the gathering, is a forum for stakeholders in the country’s marketing industry to exchange ideas.
In order to improve the practice and work with sister professional bodies to benefit its members more, he explained, it was decided to award the fellowship of the marketing institute to 17 notable practitioners, some of whom were chosen from sister professional bodies.
