Finsure Finance and Insurance co-founder and managing director, John Kolenda
In order to survive in an ever changing ICT industry, businesses need to reinvent themselves and innovate to keep up with this change, according to Finsure Finance and Insurance co-founder and managing director, John Kolenda.
He was speaking at a keynote session during CompTIA’s first gathering in Australia.
“You need to keep innovating and reinventing yourselves. And the best way is to keep a lot of the messaging to customers simple – capitalise on the opportunity and disrupt the market,” Kolenda mentioned.
According to Kolenda, issues such as the Cloud creating changes in the market and challenges to business to consumer proposition as a result of new innovators coming to market are changing the way the channel operates.
As such, he highlighted the importance for businesses to differentiate themselves.
“As a leader within your own business, or your own vertical – whether you’re a wholesaler or a distributor – is that you’ve got to think like a disruptor. You’ve got to always think about how you can change, how you can improve and take note of what is going on and move rapidly if not, you won’t get much of a chance.”
Kolenda identified some ways in which businesses can manage disruption. They include:
- thinking like a disruptor
- revisiting the company’s mission or vision statement
- be nimble to change
- articulate the value proposition to customers
- analyse the competitors and find a place where you can reposition yourselves
- have an awareness of what’s happening in the market
- keep the messaging simple
- learn from early disruptors, innovations and tech improvements
- be prepared to react and adapt quickly
- react to feedback from customers
- reward and retain people
“You need to have a point of difference that’s unique. But to make a change, take note that it could be costly. What I mean by that is, if you’re going to transform a large scale business, there are a whole lot of structural things that need to happen,” he added.
Kolenda said this includes capital investment in the transition itself and reinvigorating processes and systems. He warned that it can be costly especially if a business is moving from a large, upfront revenue model to a monthly payment model.
“That itself can have a large impact on your revenue line so keep up with processes that cater to growth. Know exactly where your business sits and align your business success with your values,” he concluded.
