The ‘Individual Revolution’ is here

Say hello to the ‘Individual Revolution’! Over the last two years, there’s been a growing buzz about the fourth Industrial Revolution. While the first three were triggered by the transformative power of steam engines, electricity and computers, the fourth is being driven by the internet-isation of the world.

We are at the brink of another revolution by technology. However, calling it an industrial revolution is restrictive. The metamorphosis we are seeing around us is far more extensive, fuelled by a confluence of disruptive technologies such as social, mobile, analytics, cloud, cognitive computing, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, robotics and yes, the Internet of Things. As I see it, we are going through an ‘individual’ revolution.

Just as the Industrial Revolution took manufacturing from single hand-crafted products to mass production — faster, larger, smarter at every stage — the Individual Revolution is taking this mass production back to the individual — personalising the transformation for billions of unique individuals. With growing digitalisation, companies are transforming into 21st century enterprises . They are forming alliances with like-minded partners to form ecosystems of value driven by one overriding goal: to maximise customer experience.

Haven’t companies always been driven by maximising customer value? But here is where today’s technology changes everything. It has the power to embed you inside the manufacturing cycle, giving you the power to influence the experience at every stage. No longer are you at the receiving end of a long value chain. You can influence design, finance, production and marketing. Let’s take a look at each element individually. Design has been escaped out of the confines of in-house creative teams or partner agencies. Exploding on to the public space, crowdsourcing has grown from what seemed to be an incredulous open source movement to an incredible value-add across industries. From NASA to Dell, from Kraft to General Mills, from Starbucks to Unilever, the number of converted is growing every day. The GE Open Innovation project is driving advancements across diverse industries such as jet engine parts, healthcare components and 3D printing. Open innovation challenges are launched regularly, inviting the global community to provide ideas, proposals and technologies that can “help build a better tomorrow”.

Independent platforms such as Kaggle, Innocentive, Tongal, DesignCrowd, and Apache are just a handful of names in a growing field of innovators fast becoming the go-to places for crowd-powered solutions in just about any field. In India, the innovative PosterGuy.in — a platform of artists — is powered purely by crowd creativity.

The biggest power shift has been witnessed in finance. As millions of individuals join hands to invest in crowdfunding platforms across the globe, they are changing the basics of financing. From Kickstarter to Indiegogo, AngelList to Crowdrise, there’s a platform waiting to give everyone a chance.

According to a recent estimate, crowdfunding has already grown to a $34.4-billion industry, disrupting the very concept of “money bag” to an infinite collective power of individuals. According to a recent report, the top Indian startups in this space — Wishberry, Catapooolt, Ketto and TheHotStart — have raised about ₹10 crore through crowdfunding to back non-tech creative projects in the areas of film, theatre and music. The boundless energy that is fuelling this new source of finance was evident in the recent Ice Bucket Challenge, which collected $112 million for ALS research in just six weeks! Within crowdfunding are peer-to-peer funding platforms such as LendingClub and Groundfloor that have changed the rules of the game within their niche to a point where policymakers are amending rules allowing businesses to offer equity in exchange for financial support on crowdfunding platforms.

Personalisation is the new bar, according to Forrester’s Top 10 Predictions for business in 2016. Never before has individual preference influenced product design as much. Invariably, we will find more companies embracing design thinking and insights drawn from your behaviour pattern.

Let’s take a simple product like the toothbrush. With the introduction of smart toothbrush with app customisation, the mundane generic chore of brushing your teeth has become a fun and interactive experience that is unique to you, recording your dental hygiene data, with inbuilt rewards for better brushing habits! The process of personalisation extends beyond the initial production to a continuous cycle of testing, review and upgrade based on individual feedback.

According to Gartner, 89 per cent of executives believe that customer experience will be their primary mode of competition by the end of 2016. Companies are collaborating across industries to build ecosystems that offer better customer experience. In India, the acquisitions by Snapdeal of Doozton and, more recently, TargetingMantra are clear steps towards building personalised customer experiences.

One finds strange alliances being formed as a result. For instance, fashion designer Ralph Lauren has tied up with tech startup Oak Labs to create interactive fitting rooms with touch screen mirrors, where customers can request more sizes and styles. In the world of sports, the Levi’s stadium in Silicon Valley is embracing technology to create a personalised customer experience at San Francisco 49ers games.

Download a simple mobile app before you go, and it will guide you to the parking lot entrance closest to your seats, then to your actual seats, and even to the closest restroom with the shortest lineup! Refreshments can be pre-ordered, which will be delivered right to the seats. And as for the sporting action, you can pull up stats and action replays from four angles on your device while watching live action at the stadium!

The stamp of the Individual Revolution is unmistakable. While each of its elements has been developing over the past years and picking up steam individually, what makes this moment distinct as a threshold is that they have all independently reached a tipping point together where they pose a threat to the established conventions.

There is no doubt: time’s up for impersonal products and services or distant technological advancements that had little impact on your lives. Today, transformative technologies are quietly weaving a new ecosphere that has you at the power centre. Say hello to new experiences, designed by you, financed by you, produced for you and marketed to you. Say hello to a new world, powered by the Individual Revolution!

The writer is the president and CEO of HCL Technologies