Uberization is the new buzz word
A quick illustration created to support the post
Soon enough our lives and everything that we do are going to
be uberized, but are we going to be ready when that happens. Let’s start at
the beginning by asking what this new word is.
Uberization is the new buzz word, maybe not as new anymore.
I remember the day in New Delhi when the term “Uber” was
introduced to the younger me for the first time during the early nineties. Back
then it was not a complete word by itself but came as the first part of the
phrase “uber-sexual” men. It was defined as a male who has traits similar to
that of a “metrosexual” but also possessed the traditional manly qualities such
as confidence, strength, and class.
A person who loves grooming but unlike metrosexual doesn’t
leave a doubt as to his sexual orientation, an image so flaunt worthy for young
men in those days!
Fast forward a couple of decades and we have a new buzz.
Thanks to the disruptive nature of the mobile app that have changed the taxi
industry forever. Uberization evolved as the act or process of changing the
market for a service by introducing a different way especially using mobile
technology.
Uber in the business world must be one of the striking
examples of “Disruptive Innovation”, a term coined by Clayton Christensen. It describes
a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications
at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually
displacing established competitors.
As we read this researchers are carrying out studies on the uberization
phenomenon, while entrepreneurs are looking how even their restaurant
reservations could be uberized.
We don’t have to worry about that the conversion of existing
jobs and services into discrete tasks that can be requested on-demand via a
mobile App.
We need to be prepared for it, because the ball has already started to roll!
Interesting! I had always linked uberization to the taxi software :D. A bit silly of me, but it is kinda fun how these associations develop :)> The mobile app industry has been revolutionised to a beautiful extent. And making one has become so much more easier now, thanks to tech enablement. Very curious to see how the next few years of tech would turn out.
ReplyDeletePS: Suman, how do I subscribe to your new posts? I tried searching for it on your website but couldn't find an option. I might be missing something very obvious. Please let me know, I'd love to stay in touch.
Thanks for to taking out time to go through my post and above all leaving genuine comments. You know what it means to have some one going through your thoughts and leaving feedback.
DeleteYes, we are going through a period of change and no one have any idea if there will be stability anytime soon or businesses will be kept on their toes for ever. I will give one example from my experience.... I was complacent during one of my earlier job change that I have managed to store all my works in a smaller disk instead of the large one that went out of fashion. But very soon the disk drives started to disappear from PC and
got replaced with CD of many radii followed by DVD. I thought it will hold for good but soon it was the flash drive that was ruling the roost. Now I believe it is losing out to cloud.
How does business retain their livelihood and employment? and this is the case for everything.
I have tried with a follow by email tab. Hope it works.
Always a pleasure to visit here Suman. It is amazing to see how quickly business has seen changes. I remember the days of nokia phones which used to look like a brick, hold 20 messages max! And now we have 6inch screens which can do incredible work. Cloud is another area I am fascinated about, it has made some incredible achievements happen. There will be so many more to come that will amaze us!
DeleteWe are fortunate to be in-midst of all these changes....although disruptive!
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