Cement Energy and Environment

INFRASTRUCTURE: TRENDS NAVIGATING THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Fogure o Rei/OluloonsTemplate Challenges and Opportunities Like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world. To date, those who have gained the most from it have been consumers able to afford and access the digital world ; technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, or playing a game any of these can now be done remotely. In the future, technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle, with long-term !~ains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become more effective, and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new markets and drive economic growth. However, one sure shot takeaway is that in the future, talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production. This will give rise to a job market incmasingly segregated into "low-skill/ low-pay" and "high-skill/high-pay" segments. The acceleration of innovation and the velocity of disruption are hard to comprehend or anticipate and that these drivers constitute a source of constant surprise, even for the best connected and most well informed. lnde•:!d, across all industries, there is clear evidence that the technologies that underpin the Fourth Industrial Revolution are having a major impact on businesses. On the supply side, many industries are seeing the introduction of new technologies that create entirely new ways of serving existing needs and significantly disrupt existing industry value chains. Disruption is also flowing from agile, innovative competitors who, thanks to access to global digital platforms for research, development, marketing, sales, and distribution, can oust well-established incumbents faster than ever by improving the quality, speed, or price at which value is delivered. Major shifts on the demand side are also occurring, as growing transparency, consumer engagement, and new pat-terns of consumer behavior (increasingly built upon access to mobile .. networks and data) force companies to adapt the way they design, market, and deliver products and services. A key trend is the development of technology-enabled platforms that combine both demand and supply to disrupt existing industry structures, such as those we see within the "sharing" or "on demand" economy. These technology platforms, rendered easy to use by the smartphone, convene people, assets, and data thus creating entirely new ways of consuming goods and services in the process. In addition, they lower the barriers for businesses and individuals to create wealth, altering the personal and professional environments of workers. These new platform businesses are rapidly multiplying into many new services , ranging from laundry to shopping , from chores to parking, from massages to travel. On the whole, there are four main effects that the Fourth Industrial Revolution has on business: • On customer expectations • On product enhancement • On collaborative innovation • On organizational forms In this model customers tend to be increasingly at the epicenter of the economy, as businesses focus on improving customer service as KRA. Physical products and services, moreover, can now be enhanced with digital capabilities that increase their value. New technologies make assets more durable and resilient, while data and 32