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"It's now easier for David to take on Goliath": Forrester Research senior analyst explains digital disruption

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

October 31, 2013 | 5 min read

“Digital disruption means everyone on the playing field has an equal chance," according to Forrester Research senior analyst Anthony Mullen ahead of The Drum’s 4 Minute Warning conference this December.

Anthony Mullen will be speaking at 4 Minute Warning

Speaking to The Drum, Mullen discussed his imminent appearence at the conference where he will be highlighting five macro trends that could reshape businesses beyond all recognition and continued to explain: "It’s now easier for both large and small companies to make waves and that can be in products and processes as well. It’s not always about software. In essence it’s making it easier for David to take on Goliath.”

His presentation will explore whether current business models are sustainable with the digital revolution explosion, which Mullen confirmed his belief that for too long large organisations had been ignoring digital disruption allowing for small start-ups, or digital disruptors, to slowly take away chunks of their business.

“It’s now cheaper to disrupt and no matter your business size you can be much more powerful than ever before, tapping into distribution networks and social networks. It’s about being better, stronger and faster than your competitors. Lifting a whole set of digital technologies and software isn’t what sets digital disruptors apart - digital is just a tool, a means to an end – it’s seeing a human need and highlighting what that is, noticing what people want and what they currently get and then moving quickly to improve that.

According to Mullen large businesses size and legacy had left them “more reticent to change” whereas start-ups are not “tied down by legacy systems making it easier to change and making them more nimble”. And despite large organisations slowly waking up to digital disruption Mullen warns: “Having an innovation team isn’t suddenly going to fix everything.”

In order to disrupt the disruptors Mullen suggests larger businesses look to the digital tools and data they have at their disposal as well as their employees.

He added: “It’s no longer feasible to hire someone with one set of skills; you need to be looking at people with secondary skills that can then be used across different domains and can be used collaboratively. In businesses just now only about five per cent of data is used, so that means there is 95 per cent sitting unused and sometimes you don’t need new tools to innovate, you need to be more effective with what you have.”

Of his talk at 4 Minute Warning Mullen revealed that his five macro trends “should help businesses understand the small things and frame them.” One discussion point on the day will be “the expansion into the third dimension” and how QR codes were merely a “transitional mode for linking the real world with the digital world” with things like maps suddenly moving into the third dimension.

Mullen explained: “We no longer measure on X and Y co-ordinates, it’s X, Y and Z. You’re no longer merely in John Lewis; you’re in John Lewis and on the third floor.”

Another point set for discussion is what digital disruption means for trust, which “obviously leads into privacy, but that’s a subset topic. On Disruption Day I’ll be moving away from rants about privacy and into the area of trust models.”

Another macro trend set to be discussed on 4 December is “noise and ambiance”, Mullen highlighted: “With so many devices and means of connection, eventually we need to find a way to manage it all or it’ll all just become like one giant blinking Tokyo high street. We need to find a way to make all of these devices effective and ambient, because the reality is thumbs won’t be able to keep up with it all. We need to start discussing an ‘internet of things’, it’s not just about smartphones and tablets it becomes about your car, house, front door, shoes, luggage tag, it all has the ability to become connected and we need to work out a way to manage the noise.”

If you want to find out more about digital disruption and discuss the trends that are likely to impact your business then join The Drum on Disruption Day for our annual 4 Minute Warning conference. Held at SapientNitro in London on 4 December, joining Anthony Mullen on the day will be R/GA VP and executive creative director, George Prest; Ambarish Mitra, Blippar founder and CEO; Seetheunseen materials alchemist Lauren Bowker; and many others. The full line-up and agenda as well as ticketing information can be found on the 4 Minute Warning site.

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