Introduction
Businesses in today’s corporate world have to take care of themes emerging in the industry and social spheres. Emerging themes in today’s world are the result of changes in different sectors and areas of life. Social changes, economic patterns, and technological transformation have shaped a dynamic environment for a business in which it has to adjust itself. This paper has been prepared to have a look at emerging themes concerning contemporary business needs. The report has been prepared in two sections, and pillars of emerging themes have been taken as a tool to identify and analyse emerging themes. Each theme in these four pillars has been analysed in light of recent trends, and then, the application of each theme has been presented to enhance the empirical value of this paper.
Section A:
Section A consists of pillars of emerging themes and impact of emerging markets and industry on the sector and the discipline.
Pillars of Emerging Themes:
Work Environments
The work environment is going to witness a change in culture. The cultural aspects of a business work environment would be important, and it is one of the dominant emerging themes about the future outlook of the business. This change in culture would be there concerning employees and customers. For instance, by 2025 it is estimated that 75 per cent of the workforce would comprise of millennials. Businesses have to understand and calculate connected effects of this increase of millennials in the workforce. Moreover, interaction with the customer would be data-driven, and there would be an increase in the level of partnership and collaboration in the workplace (Huston, 2015).
Technologies
The most apparent emerging theme relates to technologies because a major part of the future picture would be shaped by technologies. Technologies would affect every department of an organisation, but marketing technologists would be the most important. The popularity and success of online platforms of business can be taken as an example of the trend under which marketing technologists are using data to exploit opportunities and creating new avenues of technologies. When technology would get centre stage, then the importance of data would also emerge. The emerging theme of technology cannot be understood without focusing on the importance of data. Technology would help manage and process data to provide a sustainable future for businesses (Telegraph, 2018).
Changes in Society
New themes are emerging in a society where social patterns are changing. Cultural differences and diverse customer preferences are fading, and they are becoming increasingly similar. Society has become increasingly tech-savvy where Smartphone culture is seen in every walk of life. People have started to rely on technology and from the selection of product to payment and delivery of the product; every step of the purchase is going to be online. This trend is the reflection of the increasing tendency of people to be lazy as they want to have everything after a click. Apart from this, society has also seen hectic life where people are facing issues in managing their lives as they even do not have time for themselves (Pwc, 2017).
Industries and Markets
The emerging themes for industries and markets depict a trend which is going to be popular in the future. Businesses are going to be collaborating with customers and employees because technologies have enabled them to track the performance and response from any of these immediate stakeholders. It shows that businesses are increasingly integrated with customers and employees. Moreover, the importance of co-creation is being felt by industries and markets where collaboration in all value chain activities is important. Thus, emerging industries and markets would be related to activities like supply, value chain, outsourcing, and similar ones. The reason is that these activities ensure collaboration from all of the partners in the value chain (Telegraph, 2018).
Effect of Emerging Industry and Market on My Discipline:
The discipline is management, and this broad discipline has been chosen so that the application of theme can be comprehensive. Emerging industry and markets have identified the areas of business and industries which are expected to prosper in the future. To respond to this, value chain or supply chain management would be an important management discipline in future. Moreover, the terminology of marketing technologist has also been used above which means that in future, marketing management discipline would be studied with intense focus from technology. Management discipline involves all branches of it where every branch of management from human resources to finance would also be affected. The increasing importance of employees and making them advocates for the business would affect human resource management as they will be empowered at the workplace. Therefore, the course would focus on the empowerment of human resource management as they spur productivity and performance of the organisation. Thus, management discipline would feel an impact from emerging industry and market where technology would be a dominant force to influence the discipline.
Effect of Emerging Industry and Market on my selected Wider Sector:
The wider sector was chosen which would be affected by emerging industry and market is the value chain or supply chain management. It has been noted above that increasing collaboration and connectivity would be an emerging theme where concepts like co-creation and collaboration as well as teamwork would be dominant. In this scenario, businesses have to think to take partners in the value chain into confidence because employees, customers, and other departmental level operations would already be under their control. They would be making human resource policies and operations management plans, but they may not be able to make such plans with value chain partners. Therefore, they have to focus on value chain activities by streamlining all partners in the supply chain. The need for competitiveness would also be felt because increasing competition in the industry would force them to adopt cost-efficient ways of doing business. Taking value chain activities and focusing on supply chain management would give them the highest return as compared to any other sector. Thus, the emerging industry and market theme pave the way for supply chain management or value chain management. However, the application of technologies cannot be ignored in future as it is a vital force in the future (Yan, Chien and Yang, 2016).
Section B:
Section B consists of three main parts which are a discussion of emerging themes and contemporary industry examples of these themes, implications of the identified themes on the future of the business, and justifiable recommendations for the business.
Emerging Theme Relevant to my Discipline and Sector:
By taking inspirations from the article, it has been noted that technology and data would transform the future and it has been discussed in emerging themes in the first task. The discipline of management was taken, but it was stated that management covers all departments within an organisation. However, importance was given to supply chain management, and the wider sector of the supply chain was chosen. The article further confirms that in the future, the role of value chain partners or supply chain specialists would be critical enough to shape the competitiveness and sustainability of organisations. The role of artificial intelligence and collaboration of human and technology makes such an environment for organisations that they have to rely on it. It would be inevitable for organisations in the supply chain sector to collaborate on business activities so that data can be shared. Technology would also be shared by all, and this collaboration would yield competitiveness for organisations (BSR, 2019).
As far as the implications for the discipline are concerned, it would see more focus on data and technology. Presently, topics like teamwork and collaboration are focused on organisational wide and intra organisational collaboration and teamwork. Such a limited application of teamwork and collaboration would not work anymore. Moreover, it is considered an option for organisations to adopt teamwork, or it has to reinforce the traditional structure of the organisation. But this would not be the case in the future as a management discipline has to study, teamwork, collaboration, co-creation, and technology because it would be mandatory to achieve competitive advantage. For this purpose, the management discipline and, especially, the supply chain management discipline has to embrace these emerging themes in years to come.
So far as the wider sector is concerned, the article has identified useful patterns in future. The collaboration of humans with technology to enhance its effectiveness is the dominant theme of the article. Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence has been discussed and implemented. There are many examples in the supply chain sector where these themes on the increasing use of technology and data have been applied. In recent years, innovation, collaboration, the use of technology and artificial intelligence in the field of supply chain management has increased, and there are contemporary examples from different industries. They have embraced the reality that they have to transform the value chain activities.
The magnitude of the Intel supply chain is huge, and value chain activities guarantee the success of the company due to many reasons and aspects. The company has assessed efficiency in the supply chain area, and delivery across the businesses and suppliers has been considered. It has used automation to help it to be an efficient decision maker. It has been able to reduce 95 percent of warehouse space due to these transformations. Verizon has decided to transform its value chain or supply chain activities, and it has simplified its procurement technology. Outdated supply chain activities are being merged into one activity so that simplification may be possible. The use of blockchain technology and automation in the business enables the company to share data with others in the value chain (Digirupt, 2019).
Many other businesses are considering supply chain activities and transformations in the sector. In 2017, supply chain leaders from Coca Cola, Chervon Technologies, and others gathered to agree on a blueprint for innovation in supply chain management in the future. They agreed that innovation is inevitable and there should be an increase in collaborations across peers. Investment in innovation must be undertaken despite the risks. The example of the Amazon business model was praised by them. In light of these practices of companies, it is found that emerging themes of innovation and more collaboration in supply chain management are relevant, and companies are informed about their effectiveness and usefulness. It is, however, noted that the supply chain sector is expected to be the area of innovation in the future as there is plenty of room for change by introducing technology. Shared information, data, control, and resources during the process has become inevitable because of technology and hidden efficiency under this option (Montgomery, 2018).
Implications of Themes on the Future of Business in my Discipline and the sector (Five to Ten years in Future):
The future of the business in the management discipline and supply chain management sector would be affected by themes identified as social change, workplace cultural differences, the introduction of technology, and emerging markets and industry would affect the chosen discipline and the sector substantially. There are several challenges and opportunities for the chosen business in the coming five to ten years, and identification of these challenges and opportunities has been made by drawing points from the chosen themes.
Implications of identified themes would be reflected in the areas of artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, internet of things, robotic process automation, autonomous things, digital supply chain twin, and other trends in the coming five to ten years. There are opportunities for artificial intelligence for organisations as they would replace human beings to a large extent. Automation in the supply chain management can be made possible but there would be a challenge to integrate the human hand with it in an effective manner. Advanced analytics and internet of things would also be on the rise in the next five to ten years as future trends and forecasts would be known to organisations through the use of these analytics options. Predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics would be employed, and this would open up many opportunities for organisations. However, there are challenges as well because sharing information across value chain members is a difficult and complex task which requires certainty on all stages of the value chain. The problem faced by any one member can disturb the efficiency across the value chain (AP, 2019).
Implications of identified themes give rise to robotic process automation, autonomous things, and digital supply chain twin. There are plenty of opportunities for this application from emerging themes which call for the application of technology and increased level of collaboration. Robotic process automation and autonomous things would reduce the need for human beings and in the result; there would be more efficiency in the supply chain management activities. On the other hand, there are challenges on the way of their application. These challenges are mainly related to the position of human beings in all of these tasks (AP, 2019).
In the article given, it has been stated that the need of people would not be reduced after the introduction of technology, but it would still be a challenge to define the position of human beings in all of the process. Supply chain activities would be handed over to technology, but it is not only one emerging theme in the supply chain management sector and management discipline because the other theme calls for the increasing need for collaboration. It would be a challenge to have this theme of collaboration working in the presence of application of technology. It is easy and very simple to bring innovation in technology and start managing whole processes and businesses with the help of it. However, the role of human beings has to be defined after the application of robust technology. Moreover, searching for reliable and strong partners in the value chain would also be a challenge because, after collaboration and teamwork over the activities, lack of productivity and efficiency of one partner would affect the whole process badly.
Justifiable Recommendations
In one of the recent studies, it has been estimated that 40 per cent of today’s F500 companies in S&P would not be in the business in the coming ten years. One of the main reasons for their future is that they are reluctant to change. Change is inevitable, but it is very broad and often confusing terminology because it seems obvious to many people. Therefore, in this section, justifiable recommendations for courses of actions for organisations in the supply chain management sector would be presented so that organisations in this sector can ensure their continued existence and competitiveness in the business (Zhong et al., 2016).
It is recommended that organisations in the supply chain sector embrace artificial intelligence so that human performance can be augmented. Artificial intelligence has its language with the ability of self-learning, and it can automate various functions of the supply chain. Research proves with evidence that AI leads to make organisations able to forecast demand, plan the production, and maintenance can be predicted through it. These are such outcomes of AI which may ensure the continued existence and competitiveness in the business.
It is recommended businesses in the supply chain management sector adopt advanced analytics because its components of predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics may guarantee a bright future for organisations. Through these components, an organisation gets the ability to forecast and anticipate future trends and needs. Using advanced analytics in supply chain management, companies can set predefined objectives and a set of capabilities can be developed to find courses of action to reach those objectives. In this way, a business remains alert and focuses on the dynamic environment remains. It is, therefore, fundamentally important for the sustainability and long-term future of the business (Wieland, Handfield and Durach, 2016).
The Internet of things is recommended to be adopted by businesses in today’s scenario. Internet of things or IoT is the network of physical objects, and these physical objects are integrated through technology. They interact with each other, and they may also interact with the external environment. There is evidence that logistics management and supply availability and improvement are the areas which can benefit from IoT very much.
It is recommended for businesses to adopt robotic process automation or RPA which can cut sots and leave little room for errors. Little human intervention and more consistency over the process of manufacturing and other supply chain management activities would help the business to remain competitive. Autonomous things are other recommendations as they also allow businesses to be consistent and flexible because autonomous things have little room for mistakes and error. Supply chain management may benefit from autonomous things very much.
In the end, it is recommended that a digital supply chain should be implemented where digital representation is enabled on all points of physical entities in the supply chain. Through digital supply chain twin, all partners over the supply chain are integrated and linked with their real-world counterparts. Products, customers, different departments of an organisation, physical establishments, and weather, etc. are linked with each other. It is recommended adopting a digital supply chain, twin because in the future the digital world and the physical world is increasingly merging.
These recommendations are justified because there is evidence of their effectiveness. It is highly appreciated for a business implements these recommendations in their value chain management area, but these recommendations can be implemented in the whole organisation and its functions. After implementing these recommendations, a business can ensure its continued existence and competitiveness because these recommendations would enable the business to keep pace with the ever-evolving change process.
Concluding Remarks
The report concludes that emerging themes in the business field are shaping the future of the business. The chosen discipline of management and chosen sector of supply chain management is only for example, although, analysis and discussions of emerging themes have been conducted by keeping this discipline and sector in view. Emerging themes revolve around more application of technology and collaboration in supply chain management so that the continued existence and competitiveness of the business can be sustained. It is recommended to apply this discussion and analysis to the whole business because the selection of one sector and discipline has been made only for convenience.
References
AP (2019) Gartner Identifies the Top 8 Supply Chain Technology Trends in 2019, [Online], Available: https://www.apnews.com/Business%20Wire/7948dc24
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BSR (2019) Future of Supply Chains 2025, [Online], Available: https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/primers/future-of-supply-chains-2025.
Digirupt (2019) Intel, Verizon, and Macy’s among many organizations using technology to reimagine supply chains, [Online], Available: https://digirupt.io/3-enterprises-digitally-transforming-their-supply-chains/.
Huston, M. (2015) 5 Emerging Themes for 21st Century Business, [Online], Available: https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/5-emerging-themes-for-21st-century-business.
Montgomery, K. (2018) A blueprint for successful supply chain innovation, [Online], Available: https://www.supplychainquarterly.com/topics/
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Pwc (2017) The Long View How will the global economic order change by 2050?, [Online], Available: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/world-2050/assets/pwc-world-in-2050-summary-report-feb-2017.pdf.
Telegraph (2018) What is ‘co-creation’ and what are the benefits for companies?, [Online], Available: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/social-innovation/benefits-of-co-creation/.
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Zhong, R.Y., Newman, S.T., Huang, G.Q. and Lan, S. (2016) ‘Big Data for supply chain management in the service and manufacturing sectors: Challenges, opportunities, and future perspectives’, Computers & Industrial Engineering, vol. 101, pp. 572-591.
