Opportunities in the Digital World

Business as usual is dead. Increasingly, science fiction is becoming science fact. Exponential technologies are rapidly changing our lives and societies, every day, everywhere.

Gone are the days when we used to visit railway booking counters for ticket booking or stand in long queues for paying our electricity bills. Same for banking, when Internet has transformed the entire dynamics of the system.

Today, a robot Sophia, has been granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia and companies are trying to codify the decision making instincts of their senior management using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Amazon and Flipkarts are not just websites, they have changed our outlook towards shopping. Same for a Zomato or Swiggy which in the future might potentially disrupt even the very concept of fine dining in an expensive restaurant. Uber and Ola have transformed our approach to buying cars. Its such a redundant thing to own a car and maintain it, when it comes to your doorstep just through an app

Digital World has democratized the manner in which we can access the senior management of companies — over emails and LinkedIn. We no longer have to feel frustrated by pleading our cases to unrelenting receptionists. All you need to do is to send a connect request and potentially make it compelling enough for the other person to accept it and initiate life changing conversations

Today, the Digital World allows you a reach that extends beyond physical boundaries of a city or country. I so often bump into youngsters who greet me with a smile — I have no clue why and then they say they follow me on my YouTube channel or a LinkedIn/Twitter. Thats the transformative power of going digital.

People from across the world buy my E-learning courses on Udemy on Financial Modelling/MS Excel/Interview Preparation. https://www.udemy.com/user/anurag-singal/

The boundaries have simply been shattered. If one wants to enter the world of commercial coaching, all he/she needs to do is to create a few compelling videos and make them go viral on a YouTube. Then he/she can service the entire market through pen-drive classes.

Digital is helping us cross boundaries. I have friends, who reside in a city like Jaipur and do accounting on Quickbooks for clients in Singapore. Offshore accounting/ auditing have become possible only because digital has allowed you to access records, say stored in a SAP system, from anywhere in the world. Add to this, the quick and economical means of transport and you can go on-site whenever client demands. And tools like Whatsapp and Skype allow you to communicate so seamlessly

My GST Advisor is from Dibrugarh and I am from Kolkata. In the yesteryear, one would have preferred only a local guy. But today on TeamViewer, he can guide me as efficiently as a local person would have.

Today, through technological tools like Skype, I give interview preparation coaching to the 1 year MBA aspirants globally [ https://bit.ly/2m0W1rO ] . Same for the CallMe4 app, which allows youngsters from Tier 2 and 3 cities across India to take career advice. For me, technology allows the advantage that the app does not disclose my phone number to the caller. And also creates a monetary per minute billing, so that one serious enough only calls.

The ABCD-i (AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Data Analytics and IoT) will dominate the world of technology

My wife runs a startup CAJobPortal.com. And services 125+ clients in 6 countries plus thousands of job seekers; having never ever met most of them. She has a virtual office where technology allows the staff to work seamlessly from their respective homes.

Today, website development, app design, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media optimization (SMO) are creating immense career opportunities for youngsters who can professionally help companies increase the awareness of a product, brand or event by using a number of social media outlets and communities to generate viral publicity. These fields have no entry barriers in terms of degrees. Affiliate marketing is creating opportunities to earn lakhs for those who have the following on social media. A student of mine, is a young CA but also has 50,000+ followers on Instagram, thus allowing her to commercially market brands.

There are infinite career opportunities in the field of Big Data Analytics, to uncover information — such as hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends and customer preferences — that can help organizations make informed business decisions.

Even graduates can start their careers in the exciting field of ERP Implementation, SAP Implementation, making softwares for solving problems like a Tax Return Filling Software, ClearTax etc. The software Slack commands a valuation of 13 billion dollars.

RPA, driven by AI and ML can help solve the age old problem of reconciliations.

Fintech startups are creating a wave of disruption in lending.

iOT is helping create new solutions — like you can monitor your Mom’s BP , even if she is making away and get instant alerts the moment there are specific deviations

Thus technology has enabled us to transform the way we function.

My humble request would be to embrace technology and not treat it like a Black Box. There is abundant magic inside.