Nov
Grandpa Grandpa, What Are These?
The year is 2025. A 4 year old walks up to grandpa with some coins that she found in the crevices of the couch and asks “Grandpa, Grandpa…What are these?” The same thing can happen when the child sees an ATM and asks what it is. Does it have to happen to only a child as I myself have not been to an ATM since March 2020 and cannot remember the last time I used a coin; I also do not see any need for it in the near future. The world is rapidly moving to a cashless contactless state, where Venmo, Zelle and other virtual banking brands are making sure that cashless reality becomes our default state.
THE CASHLESS WORLD
Now these changes are happening rapidly in front of us, it surely has the potential to change more than our individual lives.
- Financial Institutions:
- With 100% transactions being trackable and a totally different way to secure one’s wealth, will it change the role financial institutions play?
- With clients rarely visiting physical locations, why will they pay any fees for banks to have offices at main and main?
- Retail, restaurants and other hospitality brands:
- Will the cashless world change the price sensitivity of our entire population? Does that mean businesses need to change the pricing strategy?
- Law Enforcement:
- Crime rates will change and criminals will think differently as individuals and institutions will not be carrying cash. How will law enforcement evolve in a world of cashless crimes?
- Social Changes:
- How will it impact Salvation Army Santas, children operating lemonade stands, or the homeless person seeking help at the intersection?
- Finally, how will a Super Bowl game start without a coin toss, as people will not know what a coin is?
CHANGES ARE HAPPENING EVERYWHERE
The bigger question is what other changes are happening right in front of us and what can your business do to embrace and stay ahead of it?
- 100% Streaming: More than 70% of the population is now streaming sports[1], and streaming in many cases means the viewer has total control of how to skip ads or choose the medium that allows them to watch ad-free. How will this impact the advertising world in future events, mega events like the Super Bowl in year 2025 and beyond?
- Real Estate: Driven by brands like
Redfin, Opendoor, one can buy or sell a home today without any real estate agent showing. What will be the impact of this on real estate agents who thrive on collecting nearly 6% of a sale? - Free Wifi: Remember the time when we paid an obscene amount of money for international phone calls. Now with WhatsApp, calls around the world are free. At what point will Wi-Fi be available the same way? India has plans to launch a public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface which will be known as PM-WANI, a free tool for the entire country of 1.38 Billion. The rest of the world cannot be far behind. How will that change global economy?
- Education System: Google recently made a huge announcement that it is launching Google Career Certificates, a selection of professional courses that teach candidates how to perform in-demand jobs. These courses will teach foundational skills that can help job-seekers immediately find employment and are designed to be completed in about six months. How will this change the traditional universities where students pay very high Dollars (driven by loans) to get a degree that takes years? Even today, companies hiring you may only seek proof of your degree but hardly anyone asks for a transcript. Does that mean As, Bs and Cs on a transcript does not matter anymore, and what you take to a job is all that matters?
- Healthcare: MediCardia Health is building the healthcare platform of tomorrow, to drive digital transformation in where all your medical history will be visually accessible to your doctor when you walk in. It is about time your physician knows everything about your past. How will businesses like this impact the current dated medical records system where it takes days to share access of medical records with consulting physicians? How will it change the control the insurance industry has on how we get healthcare?
- Business Offices: The pandemic gave everyone a taste of working from home, what will VR technology do to the office? Will we walk around a virtual office from our couch at home. Chat beside a virtual water cooler. How will it impact shared workplace business like WeWork.
- Automobiles: Uber and Lyft have revolutionized the taxi industry, will they completely change the car once autonomous driving takes over. With businesses like Turo.com creating the world’s largest car sharing marketplace, will car ownership be a thing of the past? If you do own a car will it be out taking people to and from work and school while you are home? Maybe your car will go get your lunch instead of DoorDash delivering?
WHAT CAN YOU DO THRIVE IN THIS RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD?
Now imagine all these changes are all happening, rapidly and all at once. And then add a layer of AI that makes these super-smart and new-age biometric access (no passwords to remember ever) that will rapidly increase the reach of all this. Whoa! I feel overwhelmed just thinking of them. I believe the Secret to Win Big in this new world will be defined by how you stay ahead of the changes and be the force in your industry to be the leader who navigates not just your brand but your total industry to define the new normal.
At ZenMango we believe that every business, more today than ever before, has a Billion Dollar idea. How businesses study outside industries to learn what works and bring it to their industry, how to understand the underlying behavior changes consumers worldwide are going through, all will drive the Billion Dollar idea to success. Denial or hesitation will not work, as opportunities will come and vanish at lightning speed. So what is your Secret to Win Big?
A PERSONAL ASK
As we approach the 10th year of our newsletter, would love feedback from what you love about the newsletter and what can we do to do better. Please email me at arjun@zenmango.com. Thank you.
