Bala Chakravarthy, professor of strategy leadership and execution at IMD Southeast Asia, said disruptive technologies would have a significant impact on the product and service, media, entertainment, retail, financial, telecommunications, tourism, manufacturing, health, medical, and oil and gas industries.
Disruptive technologies will replace old technologies and spawn new industries and products.
In his keynote speech at the “Thailand: Moving with Disruptive Technologies” forum held by the Thammasat Economics Association, Chakravarthy said the evolution of technology would create great successful start-up companies called unicorns, those with more than US$1 billion (Bt35.5 billion) in market capitalisation.
There are more than 174 unicorn companies around the world. Of the top 25 unicorns, about 13 are in Asia, including eight in China, four in India and one in South Korea.
“For Thailand, the country needs to create an environment that is appropriate with the growth of local start-ups.
“They include the development of science and technology, the granting of free funding support and the creation of a market to cater to those start-up companies,” he said.
Varakorn Samakoses, a well-known economist and educator and rector of Dhurakij Pundit University, said disruptive technologies and innovation would produce significant changes not only in businesses’ circumstances, but also in people’s daily living and behaviour.
It is quite different from sustaining technologies, which have been changed gradually.
Examples of disruptive technologies are mobile Internet, automation knowledge work, Internet of Things, advanced robotics, the cloud, nearly autonomous vehicles, next-generation genomics and storage, 3D printing and renewable electricity sources.
“In the banking sector, for example, we can see many evolutions driven by disruptive technologies, such as the emerge of online and mobile banking and the unbundling of banks by financial technology providers, the expansion of ATM capabilities, peer-to-peer payments and other new payment technologies,” he said.
Thepchai Yong, editor-in-chief of Nation Multimedia Group (NMG), said digital technology had significantly affected the media industry, especially newspapers, which have been facing a gradual slide in both sales and advertising revenue.
“It is close to the day when newspapers will be displayed in museums. It is not expected that in the future our children will read newspapers any more,” he said.
The challenge for NMG is that it has launched its digital TV channels in the market among many alternative media.
“While traditional media have decreased their role, we are not able to raise enough revenue from digital media,” he said.
NMG has operated many diversified media, from printing to TV and radio. The big question is that in five years, will these businesses still exist?
“Do we still operate the newspaper business in the future when people do not read them? How we will adjust our people, who have worked with the company for 20-30 years and are familiar with those traditional media?” he said.
Local media operators have also been facing a big challenge, as people can access information very quickly. They need not wait for the mainstream media any more, Thepchai said.
“In the past, mainstream media, especially newspapers and television, were opinion leaders to the public. However, with the emergence of new media, power has been shifted to the hands of individuals and people, who become reporters themselves,” he said.
In social media, for instance, there is no screening for any wrong information that might arise.
“Mainstream media need to keep their role of credibility. They should be a trust pillar for society so that the people can access real information,” he said.
Kamonwan Wipulakorn, president of Erawan Group, said the hotel industry had been dealing with technologies, such as in online booking and accounting, for a long time to cater to individual travellers from around the world.
“Technologies help us to be more efficient. However, we need to adjust all the time to deal with any new technologies and cope with the changes in people’s behaviour,” she said.
For example, guests can now check in with their own mobile phones.
Disruptive digital technologies, such as social networks, have had a positive impact on hotel operators, she said. While in the past consumer profiles were limited to the 25-60-years age group, now the range is 18-80.
“What we need to do to deal with such disruptive technologies is to stay focused on our core competencies and find the right partners along the supply chain,” she said.
“Hotels is an experience business. The interaction with humans is still our basic requirement.”
Amy Kunrojpanya, director of public policy and communications for Asia-Pacific at Uber, said disruptive technologies would bring opportunities and benefits to companies.
“Disruptive technologies will allow us to see pictures in the future, and make them real for today,” she said.
“For Uber, which is an American worldwide online transportation network company, we have seen the cause of traffic congestion, as everyone needs to have and drive their own vehicle.
“And we deal with disruptive technologies to return time to individual passengers, giving them safety while travelling, and providing a chance for everybody to reach the source.
“They can build additional income,” she said.