Innovation for small and medium-sized businesses
One of the alternatives for Brazil to be able to guarantee a competitive market is to make innovation for small and medium-sized businesses prosper.
To innovate is to seek alternatives. Think what wasn't thought of before. To innovate is to get out of the ordinary and find solutions, instead of simply complaining against the market and against the economy.
Innovation for small and medium-sized businesses provides tools to face problems by creating new low-cost processes. Innovating is about creating; inventing solutions that fit the market. This is a concept that is closely linked to that of entrepreneurship. We can even quote a phrase from Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, “innovation is what distinguishes a leader from a follower.”
But is Brazil ready for innovation for small and medium-sized businesses?
Before knowing if the country is prepared for innovation for small and medium-sized businesses, it is necessary to know whether Brazilians are prepared for technology or not, since one is practically a sister of the other. A ranking from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), a Swiss-based business education institution, shows Brazil far below other countries in the digital competitiveness scenario.
The study, released in 2019, shows that Brazil lost points in all the categories analyzed, falling far short of the possibility of allowing an ecosystem favorable to the development, adoption and exploration of digital technologies.
One of the most critical indicators in the research is digital competitiveness. It measures the percentage of undergraduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in higher education. In Brazil, only about 15% of higher education students are in these areas, an index well below the average of the countries surveyed, even when compared to other Latin American nations.
Broadband infrastructure is an indicator that Brazil is still far below what is desired.
Researchers argue that the country's regulatory environment needs to be revised to adapt to the technological context of the 21st century and to the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the use and training of technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer graphics, and others.
The risk of being technologically illiterate
For this scenario to change, disciplines related to new technologies and competencies must be taught in schools, so that today's children can now grow up familiar with the world's new technological reality. Because otherwise, we run the risk of having an entire generation of technological illiterates in the future, if we don't have that now, right now.
They are people unable to understand how simple tools work, which could make their lives much easier, if used properly. Smartphone apps, for example, can be real puzzles for some, while for others they are the solution to several small obstacles that greatly hindered the life of a citizen in the 90s, for example.
The 4.0 Revolution
Terms such as algorithms, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Drones, Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, robots, chabots, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Games and many others are some of the achievements of science and technology and are already part of what is called Revolution 4.0.
The achievements of this New Industrial Revolution, contrary to the technological advances of the 20th century, not only serve to guarantee the profitability of companies and governments, but to better work for human beings, social welfare and the planet as a whole. An example of this is the number of APPs that have emerged to help with the practice of physical activities, to solve transportation problems and facilitate access to culture.
The startups
Startups — a type of company that emerged in the new millennium, with a strong technological appeal — were born with a greater motivation than simply to profit and not care about the rest of society. These companies appeared with a new mentality, common to young millennials, which is to take care of people, the environment and to guarantee the advancement of technology beyond the frontiers seen so far. In short, these companies want a better society.
The big question that arises is: how to create a better society through innovation for small businesses and technological solutions, if people are not prepared for this?
It's no use presenting the solution to a citizen's problem if they don't know how to work with it. More is needed. It is necessary to educate people so that they can take advantage of technology and not just watch the revolution taking place in the world sitting in their homes sharing a life as it was lived in the last century.
Older people are the most affected by technological illiteracy. They have a harder time including themselves in the digital world than young people. This does not exclude, however, younger people from also having difficulties in society 5.0, especially if those young people are from lower classes.
Technology democratizing solutions
The tendency, however, is that even people with difficulties dealing with technology are directly impacted - and positively - by it. For example, in countries more advanced in Revolution 4.0, systems are already being tested in which autonomous cars can drive with a citizen wherever they want to go, without the person even knowing how to drive; the vehicle's computer does everything.
Of course, solutions like this have yet to be tested a lot. But we don't have to go too far back in time to know what will be feasible for the population. We have already experienced the possibility of sharing bicycles and motorized scooters and paying only for the route that is circulated. Not too late it will be possible to do the same with cars.
With innovation, it is no longer necessary for people to buy durable transport goods, such as cars and bicycles. They can use their money for other, more important things. Since there is not only the very high cost of the vehicle, the time spent standing in parking lots, or undergoing a revision in mechanical workshops, also represents high values for its owners. Thus, by sharing, you can use private transport without owning it.
Innovation for small and medium-sized businesses in document signatures
In this way, solutions such as those provided by Clicksign, such as an electronic signature of documents or the optimization of processes for creating contracts, will become increasingly common in most organizations. Because they allow companies to have more ease and agility in their processes, leaving more time to invent new - and their - solutions.
summarizing
It is important to innovate yes. But just as important as that is to think about the entire structural model of Brazilian thought. It's impossible to provide a culture of innovation if people don't learn to live in a world of technology at an early age, in schools.
Even so, even with all the problems resulting from technological illiteracy, the tendency is for Revolution 4.0 to bring benefits to the entire society, especially to the poorest.
