May 11, 2015
Our real world experience is feeling more and more like science fiction. We’re having serious conversations about “things” talking to other “things.” We wonder if our refrigerator has effective cyber security. Our car and smart phones argue about the fastest way to drive home. The emerging IoT world is exciting, sometimes foreign and full of opportunity. But it can also feel overwhelming. How do we keep up, much less stay ahead, when connectivity is changing everything?
Disruptive moments like this often give way to a natural instinct: hunker down and hoard resources. For many businesses, that means building ever higher (fire)walls, building an arsenal for the patent wars and gobbling up scarce technical talent. After all, the thinking goes, you need a cadre of technical experts to compete and win in IoT, and protecting the exciting technologies they develop is an existential need.
But it is increasingly clear this approach is misguided. While you certainly need clever engineers, succeeding in the Internet of Things is less about the things you make than it is how you engage with people: your competitors, government counterparts and customers. How you interact with these groups will determine your ability to succeed as much, if not more, than your technical prowess.
In fact, despite the technical complexity of the IoT world, you’ll get ahead by remembering the simple lessons you were taught as a child.
Ultimately the organizations that have the most success in IoT will be the ones who collaborate best. Everything is changing, but it is still all about making connections.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Denis Cosgrove (@CosgroveDenis) is a leader in Booz Allen Hamilton’s high-tech manufacturing business focusing on connected vehicles. For more insights, view a paper he co-authored on the Connected Car Movement.