A Digital Transformation Campaign for Latin American SMEs, Why Not?

[Este artículo en Español]

Historically, Latin America, as a region, has suffered from economic and human underdevelopment, impacting not only the living standards of its inhabitants, but also impacting the natural ecosystem and it's geopolitical weight. Some countries have lately been able to amend course thanks, in part, to better designed policies, to lower rates of corruption, but above all to better prices of commodities and a higher openness to the world through free trade agreements, enhancing commercial trade, creating a more robust middle class and lifting millions of people out of poverty. Even so, these growth indicators are subject to macroeconomic conditions being maintained.

We have seen many initiatives to coordinate the actions of governments and pave policies to boost growth as a region, but with mild impact. Lately, there's discussion about Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance generating a mega Latin American economic bloc, with real expectations of cooperation. Meanwhile, the rest of the emerging world, specifically the economic group of Southeast Asia (ASEAN), with its booming economy, is an example of how to come out of stagnation and grow at higher rates thinking and acting together.

We can infer, almost with certainty, that the Latin American region will be faced with more decades of economic and social underdevelopment, absent some relevant disruptive factor.

By the way, that disruptive factor exists, and it is possible to master it.

The digital transformation of small and medium-sized Latin American companies, through technology applied to their business processes, can achieve a long-term impact that propells a sustained growth of the economies of the region, as well as having a greater impact on the creation of high quality jobs.

In Latin America there are more than 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the largest generators of employment. If only a small percentage of these companies -distributed throughout the region- achieved substantial improvements in their business processes thanks to the incorporation of new digital technologies, the creation of a manufacturing, exporting and world-class services capacity would be strengthened, leading an example to future generations, in a virtuous spiral of value creation. The Latin American region already has all the ingredients, human and technical, to participate and, even more, to become the protagonist of the fourth industrial revolution, the digital revolution.

Digital Transformation, Is It Possible?

The digital transformation of our society is an obvious, accepted and inevitable fact. Those who oppose this process will not only be left out of the biggest global trend in history, but will also lose the opportunity to participate in profits that go beyond money, impacting positively in the improvement of life quality indexes globally.

The digital transformation of Latin American companies is already taking place thanks to the fact that these technologies are becoming more friendly and affordable, breaking down the barriers of confidence, specially on data security and ownership of information. Of course, this process occurs sporadically and in a random manner, driven by some imperative business need, sometimes with badly allocated budgets and, many times, with a not so accurate business vision.

It seems an obvious need for a concerted and determined action that allows Latin American SMEs to access new digital technologies, with a long-term vision, in an organic manner, involving employees and managers, and even more, that those benefits get to be perceived by the entire business ecosystem, from suppliers to their own customers.

If small and medium-sized companies had an easy guide to improve their processes, they would very likely be interested in applying it. If, moreover, they could connect with the right people and institutions to help them understand and apply new knowledge, tools and business protocols, they would probably consider it seriously.

The owners and managers of these small and medium-sized Latin American companies will keep growing in the next few years, only if they keep watch of an increasingly complex market. Undoubtedly all these companies will need to incorporate new technologies that allow them to obtain competitive advantages at an affordable cost. Disruptive technologies such as Big Data, Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Machine Learning, Robotics, eCommerce, and others, will make the difference for these businesses in the coming years .

The need exists, the technology is developed, we only need of those who commit to adequately advise the heads of these companies in their transformational journey to ensure their success.

Ideas to Promote the Latin American SMEs to be Successful in the XXI Century

1. Generate a coordinated action to implement high-impact disruptive digital technologies in SMEs, at a regional level.
2. Migrate business management towards a 360 degree decisional platform based on reliable and available data.
3. Strengthen digital trust through the definition of policies, training of employees and implementation of layers of computer security that protect data and ensure the quality of information.
4. Transmit a superior purpose to groups of technology experts and industry leaders to evangelize their business communities in the need for change.
5. Promote intra-company innovation to work on the blind spots of management and, at the same time, help to generate a cultural change towards a love for innovation, instead of rejecting it.
6. Promote a more fluid communication between the productive sectors and other areas of knowledge (for example: Universities) to generate new niche solutions based on R & D.
7. Take advantage of innovative knowledge to turn it into valuable knowledge, thus incorporating innovation as a fundamental part of future business models.

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