The end of doing business as we know it

I know that there are myriads of articles around this topic in the Internet and the social revolution is somehow outdated already. Anyhow … the changes and challenges we are facing are bigger than we overlook …
It’s not about using social media and become mobile worker it’s about rethinking society and the way we live.
I love being a mobile worker since more than a decade but over and over I find myself trapped in the traditional way of doing Business. The way our business live is organized and structured does not really fit into today’s lifestyle. Using services such as Skype instead of physical meetings has not yet become a standard – at least not in my world. Of course we need to interact but our behavior needs to change and adapt to the digital world.
Such said I see tremendous challenges for companies which are currently trying to fit their traditional business models into today’s concepts. This is designed to fail as we architects call it. The way we work including all concepts, processes. Services,backbones etc are subject of change.
I just read an article about the “failure” of IKEA in the city center of Hamburg. (http://www.zeit.de/2015/02/ikea-altona-hot-dogs )
I really don’t think they fail, to me this is an ambitious project to re- brand what IKEA stands for. The “Billy” buyers are becoming a “Grandparents” generation and the youngsters are looking for another lifestyle. With this concept they may not increase sales in traditional segments but by having the “working class” people in for lunch using the free WiFi service and other unusual services, they probably will soon know more about their clients and can adapt their offerings accordingly. Sales will increase naturally and the brand will not become ” outdated”
Pretty clever …. What can other businesses learn from that …. stop focusing to much on closing the deal … Instead invest in listen to the crowd …. What is it that your customers really want? If it’s free WiFi and organic lunch why not let them have it. While they use your service you may get a lot of information you’d never could have dreamed of.
Data is the new currency and those who act the smartest way will get the deal. So make up your mind about “what’s next” and “what’s next for me” …. take a look around you and don’t dare to ask the twenty something’s about their ideas. There are a lot of new ways to solve “old” problems …