Future of business – how business simulations will change entrepreneurship
With the dawn of internet everything got commodified. A modern person is constantly looking for ways to improve – his mind, spirit and body. Many people realise, that time should be invested into activities that eventually will add value. And as people improve – they share their secrets and success stories with the world. WEB 2.0 has paved the way for the best resources online – Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, Google etc. One thing they all have in common is user generated content. It’s constantly growing and evolving – getting better, more professional and useful.
Business in no exception – it’s been evolving rapidly since the industrial revolution and obviously, it’s not going to stop. As computerisation and automation of businesses in all industries is constantly increasing, in a very near future – business simulations will become a standard procedure. Startup owners will be able to create custom business simulations – which will help them find competitive advantages, predict market share, test various business and marketing strategies, eliminate “beginners” mistakes – and finally evaluate how effective and profitable the future company is going to be. Before even starting, managers will be able calculate the exact prices of products and services, the amount and type of employees required and fully optimise the workflow.
The same goes for well established companies – of all sizes. Currently, most decisions are strongly influenced by various speculations – market conditions, consumer responses, profitability, sales numbers, marketing expenses etc. Final outcomes rarely come close to the previous expectations. This is the acceptable risk – sometimes it’s you win sometimes you lose. But the accepted norm of 0% risk tolerance is coming. No final decision or action, will be taken without working out all the possible outcomes inside a virtual clone of your company.
How about employment? Typically all astronauts and pilots are trained using flight-simulators – the risk of error is extremely high and the expenses and the uproar that comes with such failures is dissasterous. There’s not much difference, when it comes to company management or any other high-level position. Wasted time, damaged reputation, clients lost, projects failed and money thrown away in vain – all this will become absent. HR departments will be testing and training employees with the help of business simulation. Detailed reports will provide complete transparency onto every action subject has taken.
There’s one common argument – business simulations are stupid. They are predetermined to act in a specific, predictable way and do not represent reality properly. And usually this argument is valid – at least for the simulations that are based on computer logic. A proper business simulation, is a virtual infrastructure, that is used by real people – real business owners, students, housewives, gamers etc. And their actions are real and unpredictable.
So when is this awesome future coming? Well, actually it’s available right now – companies already have the possibility of producing endless amounts of business simulations. It’s only a matter of time, when this option becomes not a choice, but an everyday necessity. The day when business community, takes off their blind-folds and stops wasting precious resources by taking unnecessary risks and hiring WRONG people is upon us.
