With the end of the semester, the digital business model course will also come to an end, but this is a new beginning for the process of applying knowledge to practical operation in my future. I learned a lot through this subject. On the one hand, with the continuous innovation of digital technology, the ways of acquiring and using information have also undergone tremendous changes. And gradually integrated into people’s daily life, so that people’s lifestyle has become more diverse. On the other hand, technological innovation has also continuously affected the way the company operates, and has provided more opportunities and challenges.

The most interesting part of this course is that through reading the blogs written by colleagues and MOOC, we could find more interesting knowledge and content. Some digital business models have never been seen before. This allows me to see more unique business models during the learning process. Even the same model has many different application methods, such as cloud technology, blockchain and mass media in different enterprise models. This is very attractive to me, and it also led me to start thinking about the question: Is it more valuable to choose to develop new technologies or to use existing technologies flexibly? This issue is worth exploring in my future work.

Moreover, I also learned some key elements about how to write an excellent blog post. First, to be an excellent blogger, a lot of research must be done. In order to enable you to write authoritative articles on specific topics, to avoid using wrong information, you should focus on the quality of the source of use (Sanders, 2019). Second, the use of different forms of expression can make the blog post more exciting and attract the audience. This is also what I did not do in the previous writing and needs improvement. Finally, a good framework or structure can make the focus of the blog post more clear and more popular with the audience.

In conclusion, digital technology is not only suitable for high-end technical fields, but also can be combined with anything in life, and also affect people’s lifestyles. In this case, the flexible use of digital business models can certainly accelerate the development of the enterprise, but its focus on innovation, sustainable development and legal regulations should not be ignored, otherwise the enterprises cannot reach further either.

Video made: The importance and expansion of digital business model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IUJl4ETZ3U

References

Sanders, R. (2019). Apple book. S.l.: Frances Lincoln Pub Ltd. Retrieved from books.google.co.ke › books

Starbucks is an example of how to vie with adversities of stiff market competition. It operates its business by reconnecting with its clients through digital business model innovation. It was established in 1971 with the intent of selling espresso beans and coffee making hardware (Starbucks, n.d). Starbucks redefined itself as a brand, quickly spreading as major espresso chains across the US. Starbucks experienced development with numerous advancements around its main food offerings, solidly building it up to be a top player. The organization has taken numerous choices to build up its plan of action that drastically differed from industry doctrines.

Digital Model Structure

Starbucks’ digital strategy and its imaginative utilization of data analytics stay at the front line of its development and keep on paying off. For instance, since 2008, Starbucks has adopted a substantially more explanatory strategy with regards to its stores (Hussain, Khan & Mirza, 2014). They are currently utilizing information like regular incomes, population density, and traffic patterns to identify target territories for another store. 

As its major strategy, Starbucks also utilizes information to adjust its menu and product offerings with a buyer’s likes and dislikes. In the meantime, they have begun testing computerized menu loads up, which will permit Starbucks to change the included items to drive and increment deals deliberately relying upon the time. In any case, the organization’s actual upper hand is its trove of selective client information from the Starbucks Rewards faithfulness program (Dixon, n.d).

For as far back as four years, the organization has been attempting to reshape its way to deal with innovation, including a name change (from “Starbucks IT” to “Starbucks Technology”) planned for exploring further into the tech domain (Torres, 2019). Another effort by this company is called Brightloom, which may entertain customers with specific components of Starbucks’ digital flywheel programming. Concerning its enthusiasm for versatile application clients, in May, Starbucks started utilizing Microsoft Azure’s support learning innovation to give clients request proposals dependent on stock at areas close to them, climate, time, and past requests.

The organization utilizes its mobile app as an integral asset to pull in more clients, manufacture solid brand trust, and help increase its income. The application gives a helpful digital reliability framework, which permits the clients to gain and reclaim their steadfastness, which focuses directly on the application. 

How digital model helped the organization

The significant advancement presented by Starbucks as a component of the organization’s digitization is its Mobile Order and Pay (MOP) highlight. This implies clients can arrange their beverages ahead of time, pay legitimately inside the application, and get their requests at the store. The advantages of such a framework are self-evident. It wipes out pausing, makes sure about payment option, and builds the store’s through-put revenue by reallocating work from the register. 

Starbucks wants to dispatch its Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card with Chase Bank by pushing forward its digital transactional activities. By dispensing with antiquated cards and telephone number verification process, this digital dedication program ended up as a tremendous achievement, right now utilized by more than 12 million users just in the US. As a significant aspect of the arrangement, the coffee company got a value stake in the organization, which brought $30 million up in investment to pursue an undeniably tech-parched eatery industry. 

Brightloom will be in a situation to support those Starbucks license partners just as the more extensive industry café traders who need a similar cloud-based programming stage. This presently gives the company a robust strategy to carry digital flywheel to generate more revenue comprehensively. The plans of its visionary CEO in charge, alongside the organization’s reputation of development, have been Starbucks’ key for development throughout the years.

Starbucks’ total revenue in the year of 2019 was the US $26.51bn, their highest ever (Forbes, 2019). Starbuck’s varied digital technology model and subsequent strategy have helped it channelize higher profit despite stiff competition. This revenue graph of the company shows that income-generated is increasing gradually every year since 2009. Starbucks’ approach has been innovative and customer-centric since the beginning, and they have cared for and catered to customers’ needs on time. 

Conclusion

In total, it was during the economic recession of the 2000s that Starbucks figured out how to endure and even flourish in business by modifying its operational approaches and frameworks to address new guidelines and different improvements. Rather than presenting another plan of action during the organization’s slow time of development, Starbucks consolidated new advancement to the brand by following its digital strategy. Starbucks, being inspired by a trip by the founder in Italy, has a huge development plan, bolstered by its digital business model advancement. The coffee chain has been performing well because of its adaptability to the digital business model and expects to continue its growth in the future.

References

Dixon, L. (n.d). Starbucks Is About to Make a Big Change to Its Rewards Program. Taste of Home. https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/starbucks-rewards-program-changes/

Forbes. (September 26, 2019). Starbucks Top Line To Grow By 10% in FY 2019. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/09/26/starbucks-top-line-to-grow-by-10-in-fy-2019/#424f5e97494f

Hussain, S., Khan, H., & Mirza, W. (2014). Brewing innovation. Business Insider. https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/lbs-case-study/how-starbucks-survived-the-financial-meltdown-of-2008/story/210059.html

Starbucks. (n.d). Our Heritage. https://www.starbucks.in/about-us/our-heritage

Torres, R. (July 26, 2019). Starbucks’ digital strategy is working. Now it wants to dive deeper. CIO Dive. https://www.ciodive.com/news/starbucks-digital-strategy-is-working-now-it-wants-to-dive-deeper/559602/

Introduction

My chosen job role and career path is that of a business manager. Business and marketing have come through a wide variety of changes since the arrival of the digital economy. Business and marketing ventures have been revolutionised completely. Continue reading to discover how the digital economy has impacted the role of a business manager in recent times!

What is the Digital Economy?

The digital economy is the complex whole of all combinations of public relations which have emerged through electronic exchanges and helped to optimise production, manufacturing, distribution, and consumption to increase the economic development of the region (Liferay, n.d.).  

Business in the Digital Economy

Traditional business and marketing involve brick and mortar stores, and wherein there is direct tangible interaction between the seller and the customer. The influx of ICT in the realm of business has truly transformed the sector. There are new opportunities and value chains that traditional businesses could never afford! Before the digitalisation of the economy, businesses had to deal with the cost of infrastructure, staff employment, and investments in the maintenance of stocks. Small businesses had little to no scope for expansion (Molotkova, Khazanova, & Ivanova, 2019).  However, the influence of technology has changed things completely.

All business and marketing ventures have adopted ICT to increase productivity, sales, and market reach, and to reduce any extra operational costs (Brauner & Moreno, 2015). The simultaneous increase in technological performance and decline in technological costs are leading to various changes in both the public and the private sector alike. Production processes are now globally dispersed so that a specific region can account for specific advantages. This is known as the cross-border relocation of production sites. New products and services are also emerging. Moreover, the method of sale of these products and services has also transformed!

For instance, my grandmother exclaims how she walked numerous miles to get a loaf of bread from the nearest market, whereas, I can order a loaf of bread with just a click of the finger while sitting at home! Even the payment mechanisms in business and marketing have evolved through digital currencies. Business managers are increasingly building their models, based on available technological capabilities to increase flexibility and to transcend the boundaries of conventional marketing by extending to the global markets. The apparent mode of advertising has also shifted. Through online advertising, a business manager can segment their target audiences with more precision. Online advertising also allows them to monitor the performance of the ads, which is not possible through conventional advertisement means. ICT is now the general-purpose technology utilised in all business models. For example, business managers now put customers in the center of their business strategy because customers are linked with technological implements. Customer experience has gained significance, as there is now a hyper-focus on customer satisfaction (Zimmermann, 2000).  All of these changes have taken place after the liberalisation of trade policies and the subsequent globalisation of business and marketing across the world.

Scope of Change – Digital Economy and Business in the Future

Nearly every economist agrees that the influence of the digital economy on business and marketing will only increase in the coming years because technology is speedily gaining precedence in the production and distribution process. 

Specific expected changes in the functioning of business enterprises, according to Petersen are:

• The complete robotisation of the labour force and sharp falls in production costs, because there is no intermediary labour force employed in the production process that would require daily wages.
• The complete collapse of traditional market players in response to the rising competitive advantage of digital businesses. All those businesses that fail the process of digital transformation will lose their competitive edge and slowly disappear
• Creation of a new and innovative standardised business model with no role of middlemen
• Redistribution of global prosperity owing to the shift in the advancement of digital technologies across the globe. This will also lead to a change in the poverty and social capability disparity. 
• Greater development of cloud computing, which includes configurable online services available for computing, storage purposes, and data management. 
• Chances of ‘leapfrogging’ in under-developed countries because of technological revolutions. For instance, a poor country having no telephone services can be seen directly jumping to the establishment of mobile networks because it is at par with the technologically advanced industrialised countries of the west (Petersen, 2019).

Many more changes are yet to arrive in the business and marketing scene. At the same time, many changes are expected in the technological realm as well! The ICT world is continually evolving, and newer methodologies of applied science are emerging daily. Hence, there is a vast scope for the development of business and marketing in the digital economy even now. 

Conclusion

Business managers have successfully established their enterprises through significant investment in research and development of the opportunities provided by the digital economy. The fast-paced digitalisation of businesses has allowed business managers to bring innovative ideas into action and continuously evolve and evaluate business models to leverage their current position and steer towards growth and development in the global market. Furthermore, there is also a strong realisation that chances of further change and development also exist within the business and marketing sphere.

References

Brauner, Y., & Baez Moreno, A. (2015). Withholding taxes in the service of BEPS action 1: address the tax challenges of the digital economy. WU International Taxation Research Paper Series, 14.

Liferay. (n.d.)  “What is Digital Business?” Retrieved from https://www.liferay.com/resources/l/digital-business

Molotkova, N. V., Khazanova, D. L., & Ivanova, E. V. (2019). Small Business in Digital Economy. In SHS Web of Conferences, 62, 04003. EDP Sciences.

Petersen, T. (2019, September 13). “Digital Economy: How is digitalisation changing global competitiveness and economic prosperity?” Global Economics Dynamics.Retrieved from https://ged-project.de/blogpostsen/digital-economy-how-is-digitalization-changing-global-competitiveness-and-economic-prosperity/

Zimmermann, H. D. (2000). Understanding the digital economy: Challenges for new business models. Zimmermann, Hans-Dieter,” Understanding the Digital Economy: Challengers for New Business Models”(2000). AMCIS 2000 Proceedings. Paper, 402.