Evaluation of Technological Advancement and Business Landscape Essay

This essay delves into the megatrend of technological advancement and its profound influence on the business landscape. It begins with a general introduction to megatrends, emphasizing their importance in shaping societal and organizational operations and their role in sustainable development. The essay then focuses on technological advancements, particularly in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and evaluates their impact on businesses, using Ocado Group Plc as a case study. It explores the opportunities and threats presented by these advancements, including digital transformation, e-commerce, and automation, and how they affect efficiency, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage. The essay also discusses the challenges businesses face, such as integrating new technologies, cybersecurity, and the need for employee training. Furthermore, it highlights how companies like Ocado Group have leveraged technology to gain a competitive edge through innovations in automation, customer service, and fraud detection. The essay concludes by underscoring the critical need for businesses to adapt to technological changes to thrive in a dynamic environment.

Megatrends

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of technological advancement and how it influence the business landscape............1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Megatrends can be described as global shifts that brings varied changes in our society as
well as ways organisations perform their operations (Avarello, 2018). They are considered as
forces that aid in shaping business lives with norms related to socio-economic aspects. They are
considered as important as they impact the foundations of forces related to world which is
considered as pivotal in bringing future to shape. These are essential for maintaining as well as
fulfilling sustainable development goals. This essay is based on a megatrend which is flourishing
rapidly in businesses and other related fields whose title is technological advancement. In order
to gain valuable insights about technological advancements and its impact on business
operations, Ocado Group Plc have been taken into consideration. Ocado Group Plc is a UK
based license grocery technology company which was established in 2000 and has its
headquarters at Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
This essay consisted of explanation of technological advancement and its impact on business
operations. This also encompasses of an evaluation of technological advancements and its
influence on innovative practices of chosen organisation.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation of technological advancement and how it influence the business landscape
Rapid advancement of technology especially in the areas of artificial intelligence and
machine learning is considered as one of the leading megatrends in today’s world. Evolution of
technological advancements brings varied opportunities as well as threats for businesses
(Boschetto Doorly, 2020). Apart from business organisations, these are used in almost every
field such as medicine, health care, nanotechnology, communication, education, agriculture and
many more. At one side, it has made organisations to bring varied innovative practices which aid
layman in dealing with complexities and obstructions faced by them in their routine life. While at
other end, it has made disruptions in people’s life. Technological advancements has help people
to use social media sites but made them forget about significance of being social with others.
Technological advancement is considered as significant for businesses as through this they
can cater increased demand of goods and services from massive people on a global scale
(Sobiecki, 2021). Adoption of technological advancements make business organisations
comfortable as well as convenient and enhance their scope for improvement along with make
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reach to large number of customers. They are considered as advantageous for organisations in
order to cater the needs of their customers and make them satisfied with their efficiency. Digital
transformation help business organisations in creating their viability as well as identifiable brand
image in the industry. Emergence of internet services as well as e-commerce practices aid
businesses in reaching to a large number of customers and revenue streams.
This has helped business organisations in saving their time, cost and efforts on repetitive
activities. Business use various softwares like Zoom, Slack and Google Docs which help
employees in performing their jobs on a routine basis (Varis, 2018). Project management
software aid business houses in tracking their progress in a strategic manner. Through advanced
technologies, organisational managers can collect, store, retrieve and assimilate huge data in
their system for a long period of time. This all can be done through adoption of technological
advancements in business operations and it help them in securing competitive edge.
Digitalisation of business operations is considered as an opportunity as through this several
operations can become automated which in turn increase efficiency (Doorly, 2020). With the rise
of artificial intelligence, human expertise can be learned through a system. This has opens up the
differential ways for emerging industries and businesses. Implication of technological
advancements can bring varied opportunities as well as challenges in business organisations in
an effective manner. It is imperative for businesses to invest in adoption of new and advance
technology which aid them in gaining competitive advantage. However it is also important to
assess which technological advancements is prefect for establishments and industry. This can be
done through focus on strengths and gaining knowledge about employees as they are ones who
have to work with new technological advancements. It is imperative for organisational managers
to counteract varied changes and made employees to embrace with whole-heartedly. Another
challenge that is faced by organisational managers is to find integrating applications whereby
this cannot be collaborated with existing procedures. Cyber-attacks and security concern is
another challenge that is faced by mangers of an establishment through which confidential data
can be stolen by them. Information security can become a biggest challenge for any business
using technological equipment. It has become a tough task for businesses to protect their
sensitive intellectual property, finance related documents as well as customer information which
is considered as crucial for keeping the business healthy and at competitive edge. While
determining about implementation of technological advancements in businesses, they have to
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make compliance with varied rules framed by government on the basis of company size,
customers served, specified business model and industry. Introduction of new automation tools
can create problems for organisational managers as it is difficult for employees to accept the
changes in a strategic manner.
Machine learning as well as artificial intelligence practices use aggregated data for making
business model predictive but it takes a lot of resources in their implementation in an
organisational setting (King, 2021). These technologies surely aid companies in handling their
operations on a remote basis but for managing these companies has to hire an IT team which
help them in optimizing their work related problems in an effective manner. Lack of technical
training is another biggest challenge which are faced by corporations while applying
technological advancements in their business operations. Managing infrastructural changes are
expensive and time-consuming process which can poses barriers for organisations in a strategic
manner. However, it is imperative for business organisations to adopt varied technical
advancements in order to keep a pace with environment.
In the dynamic business world, gaining a competitive advantage is essential to attain success.
These advantages may include high speed in market, timely delivery, competitive prices and
minimum competition from rivals. With help of technological advancements, an organisation can
acquire broad market share and sustainable competitive benefits which can further assist in
maintaining robust position in industry (Lee and Lim, 2018). Sustainable business advantage can
be achieved by organisations when their certain aspects has been successful in achieving
evolvement from previous years. Technological advancement in companies provides best
opportunities to gain a strong competitive advantage. Technology is assisting businesses to shape
its structure more effectively. In context to Ocado Group, the firm has licensed grocery
technology which is powering the future of online retail by bringing in disruptive innovations.
Company's research and development team explored variety of ways to effectively reach to
people. The firm was founded in early 2000s as an organisation which provides entirely online
experience. Thus, it is the major requirement to have strong technological expertise which will
help the firm to remain efficient, competitive and productive.
Since its beginning, Ocado Group tried to bring together significant technologies which are
required to succeed by buying products off the shelf. The strategists of company realised that
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these routine solutions were not accommodating unique demand of grocery online (Lew,
2018).
The problem of manual warehouse also resulted in posing great challenge to Ocado Group. It
has been evaluated by the managers that manual working in warehousing is resulted in wasting
both time and resources. Another challenge was the wastage of food as the company was unable
to evaluate the wants and needs of food from its orders. Any business can be successful, if it has
been able to cater to its customers needs effectively and succeed in providing best customer
experience. Ocado Group faced criticism from its customers in its early days as they failed to
deliver products and services on time which highly impacted company's goodwill. In absence of
advanced technologies, Ocado Group's website algorithm faced many threats and customers
data was also on stake. The company tried its best to collect and store consumer's data properly
but failed to do because of lack of technological advancements (Robins and Kanowski, 2019).
But as technological advancements accelerates, the growth of Ocado Group also drives.
In today's business world, firm's platform operates end to end commerce website and
established its name in major countries of world like United States, Sweden and Japan. Ocado
technology aids in providing services in form of software and assist other grocers through its
hardware so that they can operate profitably and sustain online. The firm has managed to led
innovation in industry for years now and succeed in becoming the first supermarket of UK to
have an Alexa app. Ocado Group has fully automated it's warehouses with help of technological
trends like Internet of Things, big data, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
These helped in streamlining operations of company and resulted in more efficiency in fulfilling
orders. Ocado created this system to properly accommodate the transforming needs of online
grocery market in situation of seasonal change or in case of global pandemic. Artificial
intelligence has helped the system to better comprehend which products are in stock by using
real time availability, thus the firm has been able to serve customers what they wants (Rohner,
2018). Ocado has taken its step to reduce food waste with help of machine learning and data
analytics. The firm's platform evaluate millions of forecasts every day to increase freshness and
availability and at the same time minimising waste as well as overstock. These technologies also
assists in eliminating food waste by making sure that products are stored and delivered in proper
way as well as ay temperature which saves the food from spoiling. Ocado Group has puts it's
great priority in customer service, hence always keep the stocks of fresh products which
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customers demand frequently and provides great personalisation as well as smarter
recommendation of products. The artificial intelligence used by company allows its drivers to
take on routes to avoid city traffic and delays. Customers are now able to better interact with
company through phone call, social media or email which leads to maximising their trust in
firm. The unique thing Ocado Group is implementing is differentiating its consumer service
experience through adopting machine learning and natural language procedures in order to
prioritise customer communications. This step has contributes in gaining sustainable
competitive advantage and large market share. Another major innovation firm has undertaken is
creates world's first artificial intelligence based fraud detection system for purchase of online
grocery (Rosenkrantz, 2018). Ocado Group has continued to innovate its technologies
comprising of AI and machine learning as well as succeed in overcoming challenges of
sortation, wastage of food, experiences of its customers and online fraud which significantly
helped firm to secure broad market share and attain sustainable competitive advantage.
As a manager and leader in Ocado Group, recent megatrends such as digital technology and
advance machines helps me to conduct my practices effectively. 5G development and evolution
of many technology in recent years which assist me to increase my ability, knowledge,
understanding and flexibility about various area. There are various technologies like artificial
intelligence, digital communications and many more will aid me to interact better with
employees. Also, by using various advance mode of communication like email, video calling
and live chatting I will share urgent information directly to the potential employees so they start
working quickly. All these megatrends assists me to bring more innovation in organisation
which increases the productivity and effectiveness. Advance technology helps me to get better
idea to make effective strategy for employees working so they easily adopt and conduct their
performance as per recent trends (Śliwiński and Puślecki, 2021).In order to conduct my
practices as a manager, it helps me in various areas like decision making, control employees
mistakes or performance, make coordination among employees working, and bring effective
communication in organisation to meet the desired goals more efficiently. It also helps to
conduct deep research about various methods, trends, policies and processes with the use of
search engine in order to find out best one to increase productivity. Advance technology and
recent megatrends can improve my abilities or capabilities of planning as I get huge amount of
data easily in internet which I needed to make most profitable decisions. It also helps me
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maintain accurate employees personal details or work record which I can use to give them
salary, bonus, and rewards as per their work done as well as job role easily. It also enable me to
operate business activities effectively and efficiently with less manpower which leads to decline
in cost of operations.. by using advance technology like progress tracker in evaluation of
employees performance I can easily determine the mistakes and loopholes. Along with this, it
also helps me to find out most innovative solutions for mistakes which leads to reduce in waste,
time or cost during production process. Technology helps me to connect more with employees
at any time or anywhere which improve trust bond and coordination among whole team as well
as it also increase flexibility in communication which allows me to make better relation with
them easily. By this I can easily share negative reviews about their performance easily without
hurting their feelings along with that it also helps me to get better ideas to solve my challenges
while working with a team.by using advance technology I can also manage my work load and
work life balance while enhancing productivity as well as agility for business. By using advance
technology related to network, data collection I can collect more and accurate data of consumer
trends speedily which helps to take effective decision to add more value for customers to meet
their expectations in order to retain them for long run.
CONCLUSION
From the information presented above it has been concluded that implementing
megatrends in business have huge positive impact on organisations on global scale. These are
significant movements and patterns emerging in both macro and micro environment of business.
These can globally shift and transform societies as well as the ways businesses operate. One such
mega trend is technological advancements which helps organisation to streamline its operations
by adopting several techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Thing
etc. It resulted in providing competitive advantage to organisations striving to capture huge
market share and remain relevant among the growing competition. These are undeniable and
continuous force in for businesses which provides long term shift in mechanism with
transactional impact across several industries. Megatrends are determined as sustained attributes
of development of macroeconomics. This analysis facilitates organisations to effectively predict
market developments and resulted in both disruptive and incremental change for industries.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Avarello, A., 2018, December. Megatrends, a Way to Identify the Future Transport Challenges.
In Data Analytics: Paving the Way to Sustainable Urban Mobility: Proceedings of 4th
Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility (CSUM2018), 24-25 May, Skiathos Island,
Greece (Vol. 879, p. 223). Springer.
Boschetto Doorly, V., 2020. Megatrends, Macro-Trends, Trends and Fads: Jargon Explained.
In Megatrends Defining the Future of Tourism (pp. 17-25). Springer, Cham.
Doorly, V.B., 2020. Megatrends Defining the Future of Tourism: A Journey Within the Journey
in 12 Universal Truths (Vol. 6). Springer Nature.
King, C.W., 2021. Energy and Food: The Megatrend of Megatrends. In The Economic
Superorganism (pp. 25-57). Springer, Cham.
Lee, S.M. and Lim, S., 2018. Megatrends and Innovation. In Living Innovation. Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Lew, L., 2018. Why megatrends matter. Superfunds Magazine, (435), pp.18-21.
Robins, L. and Kanowski, P., 2019. Megatrends affecting smallholder forestry in Indonesia to
the year 2030. International Forestry Review. 21(3). pp.350-371.
Rohner, P., 2018. Water: A megatrends perspective. In Assessing global water megatrends (pp.
27-39). Springer, Singapore.
Rosenkrantz, A.B., 2018. Leveraging mega-trends in medicine today to enhance patient care in
radiology tomorrow. Academic Radiology. 25(1). pp.1-2.
Śliwiński, R. and Puślecki, Ł., 2021. Looking Ahead 2030. In Competition, Strategy, and
Innovation (pp. 223-237). Routledge.
Sobiecki, G., 2021. 3 Digital Megatrends and the Management Barriers They Form. Competition,
Strategy, and Innovation: The Impact of Trends in Business and the Consumer World.
Varis, O., 2018. Population megatrends and water management. In Assessing Global Water
Megatrends (pp. 41-59). Springer, Singapore.
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