Your small business is like a boat adrift on a turbulent and chaotic sea that is the business landscape of the 21st century. Not only must you navigate the caprices of this tumultuous sea, you must also negotiate your way through dozens of other similar boats on the same sea, each of which will capsize you if you falter even for a moment. Over invest and you weight your boat down, plunging your vessel into the briny deep. Under invest, however, and you won’t have the resources to repair any leaks that emerge or even buy yourself a modest paddle. In order to stay afloat your boat needs to stay agile. It needs to remain a league ahead of all those other boats scrambling over each other to get to their destination first. In order to gain a competitive edge you need to invest in technology. Technology can increase your productivity and ensure that you get much more value out of every day of trading. It can also improve the quality of the products and services you offer, increasing the value of your brand and giving your loyal customers and clients yet another reason to favor you over your competitors.
But technology can also change the face of your chosen field. It can push your operation into bold new directions that you may not even have considered when your business was just a fledgling startup. Whatever industry you choose to apply your skills to, there will be new technologies that shape and influence what you do. Fail to adapt to them and your competitors will happy scramble over you to do so. If you work in the healthcare industry, your business’ longevity may depend on your ability to incorporate these new technologies. At the very least, they’re worth keeping an eye on…
Gene editing
If you work in healthcare, you’ve likely heard about gene editing and its exciting potential applications. Theoretically genome editing could prove invaluable in combatting genetic disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease and a host of cancers by rewriting cellular functions or providing new cellular functions. Chinese scientists have already approved gene editing human patients and with time and practice, these applications are only going to get more refined.
Artificial intelligence
You’ve most likely seen the Disney movie Big Hero 6 which stars an AI healthcare provider called Baymax who becomes an unwitting superhero. But while artificial intelligence in healthcare might seem like the stuff of science fiction, it’s increasingly encroaching upon science fact. Some organizations have already begun using AI for claims processing, clinical decision support, disease management and population health. This year we are beginning to see AI integrated within areas such as image recognition, cancer diagnostics and pathology making it an area worthy of investment.
Augmented and Virtual reality
Sure, AR and VR may have connotations of video games (remember the Pokemon Go AR craze a few years back), but there are still a number of medical applications making this an area well worth your investment. AR and VR are already used in training clinicians through simulation while also helping patients gain a greater understanding of their conditions.