IT cafe discussion for business people ~ A series of difficult concepts summarized in one slide ~
■Introduction
It is said that it is important for Japanese companies to promote DX in order to survive in international competition and overcome the "2025 cliff".Although large companies have launched specialized organizations and have been promoting DX with large budgets, it does not seem to have been successful.I always feel that it is important for business people to understand IT, so I would like to support everyone by writing articles that explain difficult IT concepts from a business person's point of view.
The first theme is "Business Composability".
■What is business composability?
"Composability" is an umbrella term for the ideas, techniques, and processes that enable an organization to innovate and respond quickly to changing business needs.What is a composable business?, like Lego blocks that can be arranged, rearranged, and discarded as neededI can imagine that.In contrast, think of a monolithic organization that is inflexible, slow to evolve, and resistant to change.Composable businesses can assemble and disassemble different parts to respond quickly to market changes.
Since the IT revolution brought about by the Internet, the world has become globalized, and business people are exposed to "uncertainty" such as changes in business that are accelerating day by day and the emergence of disruptive business models. Pandemics like COVID-19 and geopolitical risks also need to be addressed.SuchEra of “uncertainty”In order to overcome this, it is necessary to acquire tolerance for flexible business changes.
What I want to explain with this figure is that in the IT industry,Both infrastructure and software have evolved over a long period of time in the direction of "distribution" x "componentization (service)."about it. "Decentralization" makes scaling easier, and "componentization" makes it possible to speed up development and rearrange parts according to changes in the environment.Also, these partsMechanism for distributing and usingalso started to get better.
"Composability" is the concept of assembling independent parts as "components" to realize service requirements, and then recombining and optimizing them in response to environmental changes.This flexibility benefits all industries that rely on IT.
■ Dynamic business environment changes
Let's take a look back at the changes in the business environment in the manufacturing industry as an example.
In 1990, the 7th Five-Year Plan was announced in China, and the demand for home appliances increased in China due to the improvement of people's lives and the expansion of the consumer market.In the late 5s, Chinese manufacturers began to emerge.How was it possible for a Chinese manufacturer with no technological capabilities to catch up so quickly?that theyThe industrial structure was changed by promoting the standardization of parts and gathering the necessary parts from the market to produce products at low prices.It's from.
Japan's manufacturing industry has achieved quality and functions that are unrivaled by manufacturers from other countries by leveraging its strengths in "scrubbing technology" and "affiliation" of companies that share a common management policy, but is currently struggling due to price competition. is forced to
By the way, about 30 years ago when I joined a steel company as a new graduate, I was in charge of human resources.The "structural recession" was due to the quality improvement of cheap recycled steel and the price competition with POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron & Steel), a rapidly growing South Korean steel company.The steel industry, which is a typical equipment industry, and the home appliance industry, which is a knowledge-intensive industry, are completely different in nature, but it can be said that they have unexpectedly followed similar histories.
Another change is“Servicization of Manufacturing Industry”.
As the world becomes more prosperous, the era of mass production and mass consumption, in which products can be made and sold, has come to an end.Therefore, manufacturingContinue to connect with customers on a regular basis by turning business into a serviceI chose the roadThe use of IT as a customer contact point is becoming more and more important, and by transforming into a "mobility service company", an automobile manufacturer with a long history will compete with GAFA.
■Will IT become a commodity?
Looking at it this way, I wonder if similar changes in the business environment will occur in the IT industry as well.I have a question.My personal opinion is yes.
Transformation from “Ownership to Use”The advent of the cloud service was epoch-making. When owning IT assets, it was necessary to depreciate them in 5 to 7 years, but if it is a usage fee, it can be expensed as an expense in a single year, so it is possible to respond to changes in business direction.
On the other hand, since the infrastructure in which the detailed physical configuration is hidden is used via the network, various settings and maintenance are unnecessary,The role of infrastructure engineers has changed significantlyIt was.
Also in the last few years"API Economy"Although the word has become well-established, in recent years, SaaS type cloud services represented by Salesforce have also become business operators that provide more specialized functions such as "search", "payment", "authentication", and "communication" via API for a fee. are increasing, and various services are now available.
Developers have also started to change their mindset from "in-house principle" of developing everything from scratch to realizing services by combining specialized services as "components". APIs lower barriers to entry, make program design easier and faster, and cause less disruption to existing business logic.From the analysis of data from over 120 companies that have opened APIs,“API adopters increase sales, net income, market capitalization, and intangible assets.”I would like to make a special mention of the research results.
■ Finally
In the era of commoditization of consumer electronics, Japanese manufacturers were unable to respond well to changes and collapsed. As the so-called “lost 30 years” suggests, we have yet to discover new ways to win.From now on, I would like to respond flexibly by demonstrating true "business composability" that catches the signs of changes in the industrial structure.
To that end, above all, I would like to keep in mind that I have to change my own way of thinking.