The gig economy is not a new phenomenon—freelancers have been around for a while. So have consultants, temps. The gig economy has been under scrutiny for the past couple of years because technology has lowered barriers to entry so much that “gigs” have become easily accessible to an unprecedented number of people.
The gig economy is not a new phenomenon—freelancers have been around for a while. So have consultants, temps. The gig economy has been under scrutiny for the past couple of years because technology has lowered barriers to entry so much that “gigs” have become easily accessible to an unprecedented number of people.
Last updated: February 21, 2023
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The gig economy is not a new phenomenon—freelancers have been around for a while. So have consultants, temps. The gig economy has been under scrutiny for the past couple of years because technology has lowered barriers to entry so much that “gigs” have become easily accessible to an unprecedented number of people.
2020 & 2021 zoomed by, and we are now beginning in 2022. Covid19 pandemic is has shaken many sectors in an unprecedented way. Some sectors thrive, but most face much uncertainty. Overall, the key takeaway from the previous year entering into 2022 are:
Covid-19 drove changes in consumer behavior so rapidly, and we witness the massive surge in e-commerce penetration in 2020. It is still going strong as the world has slowly opened up.
What began as a necessity for safety has turned into disruption and evolution. It changes the way we work, eat, shop, and live. Digital tools have their merit with the situation. From organizing a team ZOOM meeting to project management using ClickUp to ordering food delivery using Grabs food. Companies that have adopted this swiftly and effectively earlier on prove to be on the advantage side. Digital transformation has become a must rather than a need for some industries. Brands need to learn how to take advantage of the situation.
We noticed the ‘great resignation’ last year. The reasons for quitting or dropping out of the labor force vary. The top reasons cited by experts continue to be lack of adequate childcare and health concerns about Covid, now exacerbated by Omicron. There are just as many reasons to suspect that many quit searching for better work opportunities, self-employment, or, simply, higher pay.
We foresee more people trying out gig and remote work, especially with more younger people entering the workforce. In their book, The Human Cloud, Matthew Mottola, and Matthew Coatney argue that traditional full-time employment will be a thing of the past, as organizations shift to hiring people on a contract basis – with those contractors working remotely.
Compounded with the above changes, work organization needs to adapt to the changes and take advantage of the new environments. Traditionally, organizations have been very hierarchical and rigid in their structures. A hybrid working environment and freelance workers (gig workers) can benefit from the flatter, more agile structures that allow the business to reorganize teams and respond to change quickly.
This is the age of flatter organizational structures, more like flexible communities rather than a top-down pyramid structure.
Today’s consumers are seeking a more meaningful connection with brands. And this need for connection has given rise to authenticity as a business trend in its own right. Authenticity helps to foster human connections – because, as humans, we like to see brands (and business leaders) display important human qualities like honesty, reliability, empathy, compassion, humility, and maybe even a bit of vulnerability and fear. We want brands (and leaders) to care about issues and stand for more than just turning a profit.
We live in a time where pretty much anything can be achieved by outsourcing. The global business world has never been so integrated. Moreover, it is an excellent job because it is great to work together to solve critical business challenges. Indeed, it will become increasingly difficult to succeed without really close partnerships with other organizations in the future. In practice, this means greater supply chain integration, more data integration and sharing of data between organizations, and even cooperation between competitors.
Source: INC, Financial time Forbes, Entrepreneur,Humanresourcesonline, Theguardian
Pricing is the simplest way to communicate the product value to customers. As price significantly influences both the profitability and the strategy of a company as well as those of its competitors, it is necessary to strategically set the price while thoroughly understanding the actions of customers, competitors, as well as the company’s internal actions.
The price of a product is affected by a variety of elements. However, among these, the three factors representing internal costs, the competitive environment, and customer value are essential.
The price of a product should be set above its costs in order to generate profit. Cost generally consists of fixed costs (expenses independent of sales) and variable costs (expenses that are proportional to sales). A business organization should accurately grasp its cost structure, as it reveals the number of products needed to be sold in order to generate profit.
In a competitive environment, a business organization will not be able to set product prices solely based on internal circumstances, and its pricing decisions will inevitably be affected by competitor prices. If a company wants to minimize the impact on the competitive environment, it should clearly differentiate its product from those of its competitors in terms of design, function, brand, services, etc. In addition, the market position of a company may also limit its ability to set prices. A leading business organization generally refrains itself from initiating price wars (although it may be feasible to do so if it foresees it will crush the competitors) as to prevent the market from shrinking. Whereas, companies below the market leader will be forced to either follow the market leader or to differentiate its products without pursuing the No. 1 position in the market.
Customer value represents “the price that customers acknowledge as being just” and serves as the upper limit in price setting. Customer value is difficult to determine, but it is also a concept that puts to test research and other marketing skills. A business organization should first recognize the difference between the technical value (the value estimated through internal calculations) and the customer value. And, it should approach customers through accurate communication of the product features and other similar actions.
Standard pricing methods can be categorized according to which factors that they most emphasized on, whether it is cost, customer value (demand) or the competitive environment.
This category includes in turn several types of pricing methods, such as: “cost-plus pricing” in which case the final price is determined after the desired profit is added to the total production costs; “mark-up pricing:”, determined by adding a certain amount of money to the cost price of a product; and “target pricing”, which refers to setting the price in order to ensure that a certain rate of profitability is maintained, based on the projected scope of the business.
This category includes the “perceived value pricing” method, according to which the price is determined based on measuring how users perceive the value of the product and the “differential pricing” method, in which case the price of the same product is set differently for each customer segment, are part of this category.
This category includes the “going-rate pricing” method, which refers to setting the price to match the average price of the company’s business industry, the “bid pricing” method, according to which the purchase is made from the manufacturer with the lowest price among all competitors, as well as various other methods.
A product with a market demand that is significantly influenced by changes in its market price is described as having “high price elasticity”. Meanwhile, a product whose demand remains relatively unaffected by price changes has “low price elasticity”. Price elasticity is generally considered to be low for essential commodities and high for easy-to-replace items but it can vary depending on the customer segment. In addition, in certain circumstances price elasticity may vary even within the same customer segment.
In general, product costs determine the lower limit of price setting. However, the sales levels, at which the “marginal profit” (sales minus variable costs) is equal to the fixed costs of the product, are referred to as “break-even sales”. Whether sales are able to exceed the break-even point or not is an important criterion in price setting, especially for the cases in which fixed costs (such as manufacturing equipment) account for the majority of the overall cost.
The launch price of a new product affects how fast the product can penetrate the market. Therefore, forecasts of price elasticity, future market share, etc. must be taken into consideration when setting the price for a new product.
Skimming Pricing is intended to quickly recover the investment by setting a high price during the early stages of the product launch. This method is applied in areas where the target market is limited in scope, the price elasticity is expected to be low with respect to target customer demand, and there are few, if any, competitors.
Penetration pricing involves launching the product at a price low enough to discourage competitors from matching it, and is meant for customer segments with a high price elasticity of demand. It is based on the premise that the cost per unit will decline dramatically in line with growing sales volume, due to economies of scale and experience curve effects. This pricing method is applied when launching a new product on a market where existing competitors are unaware of the considerably large amount of potential needs, which have not been tapped into yet.
Digital Transformation is a transformation of a business to adapt and leverage digital technologies. Conclusion: there are many upsides of the transformation as it opens up possibilities that were not possible before, such as geography restriction of clientele, speed of delivering services, and more. This involves modifying existing business processes, culture, and customer experiences.
There are two stances, defense, and opportunity.
Defense stance. With the changes of environments & behavior of consumers due to the advent of technology, the digital transformation ensures the business stays relevant to the market demand and survives the changes.
On the other hand, opportunity stance. As previously mentioned above, on the upside of the Digital transformation. For example, how Netflix came up with the Squid Game series by tapping into their customers’ behaviors database.
Digital transformation is more relevant to a company that started before the digital age, but it is also relevant to new ventures today! Technology enables many tools which have become accessible to everyone. For instant social media, OOT chats apps, the payment system have become a norm today, and practically many people have a second life within the digital ecosystem. Therefore, how consumers interact with tools, people, & life changed how they engage with your brand and services. As a brand, if we are not part of their life in this ecosystem, another brand will be very high. Opportunity cost here is a high stake one.
Many ventures, new or old, failed in their attempt for digital transformation. According to the Mckinsey survey, less than 30% of digital transformation initiatives fell short. Only 16 percent of respondents say their organizations’ digital transformations have successfully improved performance and also equipped them to sustain changes in the long term. An additional 7 percent say that performance improved but that those improvements were not sustained.
Digital transformation is more than just the tools. Hundreds of SaaS products and services popping up in recent years do not help the confusion. Each claim how they can transform your business around in a simple integration. Plug & play! Unfortunately, great tools without the change of other elements in the organization will not work. Imagine letting a regular driver drive an F1 car. Imagine what will happen?
According to an article from a Forbes publication, The six pillars of digital transformation are experiences, people, change, innovation, leadership, and culture. Let us take a look at each pillar and understand the backbone of the digital transformation.
Before adopting new technology, a deep understanding of your customer experience CX is vital. Why the company needs the tool? What are the consequences of the CX as of the technology? These expectations should be the basis of any investment, instead of asking their customers to change to fit new processes, perhaps losing them altogether in the process. The only way to do this is to focus first on the customer’s experience. This is why companies like Disney, Apple, Starbucks, and Nike have become iconic in their respective industries. They lead with experiences and create deep connections with their customers that go far beyond a product or service.
Are you and your organization ready for digital transformation? Ultimately it is the people who run the organization and the customer we cater to. People likely will be the most critical part of the six pillars of digital transformation. Without the right talent or focusing on your employees, your organization will struggle. The key is to use this technology to create meaningful experiences that are more profound for employees, customers, and others – still connecting humans to humans.
Any transformation will fail without proper change management. Change in as mentioned above: mindset, ways of things even to the leadership role. Managing change is the hardest thing in an organization. You cannot force it, and if you do, the results are short-term at best.
Change management is a process that must be planned & run meticulously and swiftly. One of the go-to frameworks of change is Kotter’s 8 steps of change management. Communicate your expectations to your employees. Develop a strategy to encourage change and deal with pushback simultaneously. Provide the necessary tools and environment for employees to embrace and succeed in this change. Doing this effectively will lead you to the next of the six pillars of digital transformation.
Transformation and innovation are not the same. Both go hand in hand. You cannot run things the way you are after technology transformation. It does not work this way. Here are the areas of innovation: Operational innovation, Product innovation, Business model innovation, Strategic Innovation, and Management innovation.
Innovations are not accidental. It has to be cultivated within the organization. Top management must fully support innovation initiatives and the company must have a process and system to nurture and manage innovation.
Leadership can come in many forms, but it must come from the top if you want the organization to change. The saying that you have heard a million times is true, you must lead by example. In an article for Forbes last year, it was found that most tech initiatives fail when the CEO is not involved. However, the CEO should not only be involved, by he or she should lead.
Leaders should be proactive and on the lookout for things coming down the pipeline. As technology moves quickly, there is no time to wait. You should also bring order as a leader instead of going with the flow. As much as technology can sound like the perfect plan, take your time to scrutinize all options. Think differently than the rest and lead others within your company to do the same. Don’t just follow the digital transformation crowd – lead it.
You may be surprised that the first thing to transform for a digital transformation initiative will be culture transformation. It makes complete sense. Culture determines how we do things and how people are motivated to push when there are challenges. After all, the people will manage and deal with the new technologies implementation. By creating an open space where employee and customer experiences reign supreme, where people matter most, change is planned for and innovation takes center stage, you will lead your organization into a culture that transforms on its own.
Strategy is a broad term. It commonly describes any thinking that looks at the “big picture.” There are three levels of strategy to be considered:
When putting on the strategy hat, you must ask yourself, “At what level do I wish to think? Functional, business, or corporate?”
Functional strategies are those operational methods and “value-Adding” activities that management chooses for its business. The functional strategy of Altria Group’s Philip Morris, for example, has been to lower costs by utilizing the most advanced processing technologies. If Philip Morris felt vulnerable to a single tobacco supplier, an excellent functional strategy would dictate that it use multiple suppliers.
Business strategies are those battle plans used to fight the competition in the industry in which a company currently participates. They are on a higher level than functional strategies, but there is an overlap between how a company operates and competes.
Philip Morris’s business strategy has been to beat its competition by crowding store shelves with many different brands and spending heavily on advertising to promote its brands. Using these strategies, large tobacco companies preserve market share and prevent competitors from gaining a foothold in their industry.
The corporate strategy looks at the whole gamut of business opportunity is Philip Morris’s corporate name change to Altria makes it clear Altria’s corporate strategy has led the company to diversify away from tobacco products and toward consumer goods. Altria’s executives reviewed the tobacco industry’s growth potential, the legal environment, and the increased health awareness among consumers and concluded that it was wise to be in more “healthful” businesses.
Is purchases of General Foods, Kraft, Nabisco, and Miller Brewing were made with that corporate strategy in mind. In 2002, Altria changed their “healthy opinion of Miller and sold it to SAB, which formed SAB Miller.
Source: The Ten-Day MBA
