A new way of doing business

Many business formats will see changes happening sooner than later. Is your business vulnerable?

We are seeing more restaurants fold up or change ownership, and a lot of retail establishments are closing stores or downsizing their brick-and-mortar spaces.

What does the future hold for retail?

The problem is not just about technology replacing your favorite store by converting it into an online store. The problem is Metro Manila’s heavy traffic.

People are lazy to drive over to a store and if they just need a USB stick or a power bank, they just go online. The merchant calls Grab Express and sends you the purchased item … all within the day. Efficient? Yes, very efficient, but also very scary … at least for retailers. Someday, you will not need your physical store anymore.

Another new experience is in buying vegetables or fruits. Some innovative young entrepreneurs have started vegetable box subscriptions which are delivered weekly to your doorstep.

You cannot choose—it’s what the farm has in season but you do get an assortment of salad greens, local vegetables and bananas, among other fruits. So you sign up for a subscription, pay a monthly fee and just expect your weekly stash delivered every Monday or whatever day the supplier has designated.

Food deliveries have also leveled-up. You can choose a Paleo or Caveman diet, a low calorie diet or a vegetarian selection. Because of smaller living spaces now, condo dwellers prefer to buy cooked food rather than prepare them at home.

They also subscribe for three meals a day for a week or more and they move from one provider to the next. This is about personalized meal deliveries for every taste or preference.

An after-school enrichment or tutorial business is also seeing declining enrollment because of difficulty of parents to bring their children to the tutorial centers, again due to heavy traffic. The entrepreneur must now convert his business into an app-provided service, rather than checking hard copies of worksheets which used to be the norm for tutorials in Math and English. Then kids can check their progress online, rather than go to the centers.

Social media, like Facebook and Instagram, are not reserved for the young anymore. Companies now hire community managers to manage their social media accounts because Facebook is now a store, too. Instagram is used to show off products from food to travel, services like massage and “angkas,” a colloquial term of riding behind on a motorcycle in lieu of grab bikes or Uber. Social media is the new media and is managed professionally, like how traditional media is managed.

With all these developments, do you think we will also turn to food made in petri dishes, things made with 3D printers and even driverless cars? I keep thinking what will happen to traditional activities like farming—will that also be replaced with artificial farms or artificial intelligence?

What will remain traditional? Will technology replace everything? What cannot be replaced?

I think it’s hard to replace the smell of freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked bread. So I will still go to coffee shops or continue brewing my morning fix at home.

But others are already accepting “freshly brewed” as a capsule in a machine, that seems to have crema (the froth you pay for in an espresso) but may taste different from a classic espresso made with a traditional espresso machine.

I think it’s hard to replace fresh vegetables being picked and eaten in a farm. However, some are accepting “artificial light” farms as normal because they are safer in a place where soil may be contaminated.

Hydroponics and aquaponics are being defined as organic, but they are not. They may be sustainable but not strictly organic (which must use soil as a medium).

I can adapt to technology and adopt new ways but would love to keep the natural ways of growing food and eating well. And of course, enjoying my morning coffee.

Think about your business. How will this frenetic pace of technological development change it and change you?