The fourth industrial revolution gives entrepreneurs across the world a competitive advantage and a chance to build businesses with global presence.
Unlike the fourth industrial revolution, previous revolutions had more impact on humans and mass production, they brought digital capabilities to billions of people across the globe.
However, as we have seen, the fourth industrial revolution is fundamentally different.
It fuses both the physical and biological worlds and had an all round impact on society and the economy which the previous industries did not have.
South African seasoned entrepreneur and founder of Matoto Technologies, James Matshubeng’s on how 4IR shaped himself as a businessman and entrepreneur said: “Over the years we have grown at Matoto Technologies with 16 employees, and changed as a company with the change and advancement in technology. “
When we started we offered desktop & laptop repairs, data recovery, cable & networking along with now considered old and outdated services.
The company currently offers services that include cloud services, migration, IT strategy, APP Development and Fibre & Design
“Our aim is to empower our clients through effective and affordable business solutions. Our mission is to give them only the best services we can offer and evolve with the times with them. Yes, we have changed with the times with how we did business to more effective ways to achieve the same if not better results.” James said.
“As the third world country with an inequality gap crisis the technology space doesn’t have enough black entrepreneurs in the technology space. But the is a rise in the interest of the technology field in recent years but it is still not enough. A lot of young people from disadvantage communities wish to join the technology space but due to lack of skills, knowledge and funding that has proven to be difficult,” he said.
According to research about 85% percent of people in the continent of Africa work in the informal sector. This proves that even though these individuals might get formal education but due to certain circumstances, they might find themselves in the informal sector or worse unemployed as we have seen. In order for individuals to thrive in the technological space as entrepreneurs, they need not only knowledge but skills too.
“Technology has changed major sectors over the past 20 years, including media, climate action and healthcare. Technology has created amazing tools and resources, putting useful information at our fingertips, which has change how business is being conducted. In my company we deal with IT Support, back in the days we were required to do on site maintenance for our clients, which was done weekly. We were required to visit different offices, which was time consuming and costly on fuel.
However, 4IR enables businesses like Matoto Technologies to support its clients remotely, which requires less site visits but with better value and attendance. Although this does not simplify their lives, it ensures client efficiency.
“Its important for entrepreneurs to know what the market wants and how the business is going to meet those needs and wants cos that enables a business to improve and be more innovative” Matshubeng concluded.
