The New Small : How A New Breed Of Businesses Is Harnessing The Power Of Emerging Technologies

There are several emerging technologies that could help the company to gain a competitive advantage.

Bygrave, W.D. & Zacharakis, A. (2014). Entrepreneurship, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-118-58289-3

Over the past few years technology has caused significant changes in the way enterprises conduct business.

The explosion of technology innovations within recent years has created a multitude of new and exciting ways for companies to conduct business. We now have technologies such as robotic manufacturing, electronic mail, online videoconferencing, and global networks to connect everyone and everything. Small and medium businesses are now able to cross all traditional boundaries that limited them in the past. Technology has fundamentally altered the way businesses are structured and changed the ways in which managers perform their duties. Communication is essential for any business and for a business to survive in this modern environment managers must effectively manage all of these technologies (Robbins, and Coulter 60).

Big business versus small business has been an issue since business started. Small businesses need to have a solid structure and a large backing of consumers to survive against big business. Josh Novak had a successful model for Glow-Foods and International Food Group (IFG) saw that. They were so impressed with his IT plan at Glow-Foods, they offered him a job at their IT office with a team to help their demographic. Josh was excited yet hesitant as he knew IFG was

In 1955, Fortune magazine identified 500 of the largest companies at that time; 60 years later only 71 of the 500 still were operating (Perry, 2015). Why did 429 companies fail to succeed after 60 years? A lack of adapting to evolving technology is a common denominator in many of their falls from the top. Blockbuster, Dell, Sun Microsystems and Sears all enjoyed enviable success which after time led to unenviable stumbles due to their lack of embracing and adapting to the evolving technology in their fields. Technology is not just a means for millennials to socialize, rather technology is setting the tone for current and future business models, urging businesses to invest more in gadgets, software etc . that will build a stronger team and provide more advanced products to the end user. Businesses have evolved since the onset of the internet expanding from the traditional storefront brick and mortar to the ability to sell to the masses by utilizing the internet to market worldwide. As technology continues to advance, communication to clients allows client relations to better track trends and be available instantly to answer client disputes through the use of SMS or provide answers to common questions allowing clients to shop at their leisure. Technology has not just become a means for providing better service and better manufactured products but allows businesses the competitive edge. Research suggests that businesses must be aware of and familiar with technological

As businesses are growing in the U.S. as well as other countries around the world, the need for technology is also growing.

These investors understand that innovation is what separates winners from losers in the long-term (Drake, 2014, p. 30). Research shows that many ventures wind up within their initial three years of operation (Benn, Dunphy, and Griffiths, 2014, p.4). For example, a closer analysis of the technological world shows how emerging technologies have led to the demise of some global corporations and the rapid rise of emerging businesses. Indeed, failure to adapt to the new world of technological advancement and innovation has led to many businesses losing their market dominance to new players (West, Salter, Vanhaverbeke, and Chesbrough, 2014, p. 806). Therefore, sophisticated investors know that to remain sustainable in the long-term, businesspersons launching new ventures must demonstrate how they intend to use innovation to create competitive advantages in their relevant markets or

The new small entrants are coming out with completely new idea which eats out of the existing segment of buyers. For an example, Heelying Shoes’ unique shoe with imbedded and detachable wheel turned out to be a success. They sold 1 million pairs in the first year of operations.

In the MIT article, Carroll and Mui reviewed and consolidated a pattern of innovation they summarize as “Think big, start small, fail quickly, scale fast.” This approach is consistent with Lean Startup™ approaches as well as the classic Lean Manufacturing approaches widely understood in manufacturing. We modified the original mantra to “Think Big. Start Small. Learn Quick. Scale Fast/Move On.”

Small businesses are mighty minnows, reflecting the competitive spirit that a market economy needs for efficiency; they provide an outlet for entrepreneurial talents, a wider range of consumer goods and services, a check to monopoly inefficiency a source of innovation, and a seedbed for new industries; they allow an economy to be more adaptable to structural change through continuous initiatives embodying new technologies, skills, processes, or products (Ibielski 1997, p. 1).

Tidd and Bessant (2009) argued that “Unless an organization is able to move into further innovation, it risks being left behind as others take the lead in changing their offerings, their operational processes or the underlying models that drive their business”.

« Do you adapt or redesign your business model for the Internet?If you don’t want your unprofitable customers someone else will »

In the Academy Marketing Studies Journal, it states,“Since 2008 the number of small businesses using social media has doubles as their leader seek to create visibility and awareness, to identify and attract new customers, and to reinforce or change their companies respective perceived brand images.” Since marketing trends follow social media so closely, financial crisis can occur if businesses are unable to adapt to their target audience’s needs. If the business wishes to thrive and continue to evolve with modern trends, then an awareness of ever changing strategies is critical to success. Small business owners start off with a concept and a goal of meeting a need in their community to the best of their ability, however, recently large corporations have become more prevalent in meeting those same needs at a larger scale. Therefore, small businesses have encountered a higher number of crisis because they could not compete with the larger corporations. The Journal of Entrepreneurship Development states, “A system is considered to be strong when its smallest individual components are strong, self organized and controllable… a well organized small scale industry in the strong quantum for large scale production.” This article highlights a concept that the nations likelihood for experiencing financial crisis is attributed to the strength of its small scale industry. Small size enterprises have been especially hit hard by global crisis due to their size and limited resources, and

In this article authors have explained the nature of disruptive technology and argued that the leading companies ignore the importance to identify and nurture the technology at right time. They lose the battle to new entrants, who develop and commercialize those technology well ahead and capture the market before incumbent realize the importance of disruptive technology in business. Innovation is the driver for any industry growth and it has been observed that industries able to innovate as well as maintain current customer satisfied are successful.