Mushambi Mutuma - Tech Adjacent: The Exponential Guide to Leveraging Technology for Business Success

As business is moving at a faster pace than ever before its become intimidating and overwhelming to try to keep up. Buzzwords like innovation, disruption and exponential growth are confusing and a bit scary.

Everyone is telling you, day in and day out, to innovate and change; however, its not easy to make head or tail of the tech space. At 40, 50 or 60 years old are you now supposed to ditch the suit, put on a T-shirt and jeans and become the next Elon Musk?

In the same breath, many companies shy away from transformation and have a limited strategy on how to grow adjacent to rapid innovation and they eventually and unfortunately get left behind.

So what, then, do we do?

To give you some context, let me tell you about myself.

Im a tech entrepreneur. As a species were a dime a dozen and just about everywhere you turn. What does it mean in my world? Well, I run a digital lab. We build digital products mobile apps, e-commerce sites, custom platforms. Our team has worked on the banking app you probably use today, on the countrys leading online stores and on strategies up and down your Facebook and Instagram feeds. From financial services to retail to FMCG, weve built a solution either for consumers or for internal teams to optimise their efficiencies and processes.

My partner and I have built a variety of other businesses, from health tech solutions, payment gateways, education solutions and travel platforms. Ive been incubated, accelerated and pitched on stages internationally. Ive also helped various programmes launch and have served as a judge for various platforms. Im considered an expert in the field.

But how much tech do I really know about?

I cant code. I didnt study computer science. I barely understand the languages we use for development PHP, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, jQuery it might as well all be Mandarin.

Despite all of this, Ive led a team that achieved some of the most amazing builds in the country. I sell apps and custom-built platforms daily. I stand on stages weekly and deliver insights into the future of technology and innovation across the world.

So how am I able to do all of this without an in-depth knowledge of typical techie characteristics?

I hack my success by simplifying what we do as a company making peoples lives simpler and making their businesses smarter for growth. Thats it. As we go through this book, youll begin to understand that our perspective of tech, business, innovation and unheard of buzzwords is all the same. It all has to be simplified to its most basic form. Ive learned how to be adjacent to technology and its growth.

adjacent

adjective

1. Not distant; nearby

2. Having a common endpoint or border

3. Immediately preceding or following

Within close proximity

synonyms: adjoining, flanking, juxtaposed, neighbouring, verging, linked

Never ahead, never on top, but always close by.

When Im in front of a client, it is very rarely a technical conversation we are having. All we discuss is how technology will actualise business goals. No one cares about the lines of code. Not everyone needs to completely understand how conversational Artificial Intelligence works. They just want to know that its a great tool for managing customer service and sales by using data and algorithms.

Look, you are not alone. About one in five business leaders fully understand how Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can be implemented within their organisation, while over three quarters admit to only somewhat understanding it.

[https://www.itweb.co.za/surveys/VeDZQ58MVy7zXy2B/about-results]

We sell the endpoint of technology, not the process. When that conversation is needed, those technical resources come in the room.

You arent any different to me; trust me, Im no more gifted than you. The purpose of this book is to prove that. You can all become the most valuable techie in your corporate, office or team. If I relied only on what I learned in a book, or an app I built from scratch, Id have a very limited picture of what innovations harnessed potential could achieve. Id have an incomplete picture about what technology actually means and what its purpose is.

Every workplace, no matter the size or sector, can benefit from unlocking technology. Its already a large part of our daily lives, so why not learn how to optimise it for your business? Whether you are a three-person plumbing business, or a 5 000-person corporate; technology is designed to save time and energy. Its a useful tool available to help you achieve new heights, become more productive and ultimately make more revenue. Instantly, you can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world, almost for free. Your marketing messages can reach the pockets of your consumers from content, to invoicing, to large scale logistics, entire business processes can now be managed from your phone whether you are in the office, on the side of the road, at the airport or on a bush break.

Were more connected than ever before.

While it also has its complexities, the key to technology is looking at what defines it, why its useful and how you can implement it in your own context. Pushing further to look at innovation and disruption, you learn why its more about how people and businesses think and behave than it is about the pace at which new products and companies seem to be launched.

Tech Adjacent is not about keeping up with tech or jumping on board every single change and adjustment in the market. Instead, its about understanding the principles of tech and its pace, hearing the footsteps of where it might be going, knowing how disruption and innovation work tangibly and, most importantly, leveraging it all for your unique exponential success. (Well unpack exponential too!)

This book is divided into four parts:

• looks at the fundamentals of technology, its history and its very nature, the way it moves.
• dives deeply into two of the biggest buzzwords we hear daily: innovation and disruption. Breaking these down with local relevance will be the launch pad.
• looks into upcoming future tech, next generation case studies happening under your nose, and getting down to the basics with the most intimidating concepts in tech today.
• launches you into where-to-next for your own business, taking off into the next 100 years and tangible to-dos as soon as you put the book down for immediate, sustainable and meaningful scaling.

Tech Adjacent aims to be the guidebook that serves as an essential tool to direct your path, not just with new information, but with a new way of thinking about and viewing technology. Its less about figuring out blockchain than understanding the process and value. Its less about the technology and more about how it got here and what the next steps are.