These are tough times. West Australian businesses are facing increasingly difficult economic conditions with fluctuations across both international and local markets. Understanding these issues and positioning your business to make the most of new opportunities is essential to surviving and thriving in the future.

1. Responding to changes in technology
Many business leaders feel the biggest barrier to future growth will be their ability to develop new innovation. They are looking for ways to rethink their current strategies and find new ways to grow in a competitive and challenging business market. For example, old technology such as email is losing favour as young people prefer tools that make it far easier to be collaborative, such as instant messenger. New technology must be employed in order to maintain, engage and empower today’s workforce.

This ‘talent issue’ should be a huge factor when considering advancing your internal systems. It bolsters the case for investing in flexible, virtualised work environments that are mobile-friendly and device-agnostic. As you free employees to work from anywhere and on any device, you’ll set yourself apart in the talent marketplace. Existing employees will view your company more positively—meaning they’ll be less likely to look elsewhere and you’ll get a reputation among talented, forward-looking people in your sector as the place to work.

2. The changing face of the workplace
There’s no denying the face of the workplace is changing. Whether people are activity based working, working from home or working while travelling, a critical issue for businesses is how to effectively manage remote teams and create cohesive, engaged teams.

3. Increasing revenue without blowing out fixed costs
In an uncertain economic environment, it can take a crystal ball to predict where your business will be a few years down the road. Many businesses struggle with the conundrum of how to have the staff and resources available when needed – yet not eating up valuable resources when they’re not.

4. Digital transformation
Or perhaps put more accurately, business transformation is becoming more and more of an issue as organisations look to become part of the new digital economy. Digital technologies are changing the face of business. And this change is accelerating – every day thousands of technological solutions appear as a response to the needs of business. With these technological changes rapidly outpacing transformation in organisations, it’s important that businesses foster a culture of innovation in order to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact in a strategic and prioritised way.

With disruption coming from overseas, within your own industry and across the digital landscape, Australian executive leaders will need to continually adapt to compete in a shifting market landscape. Cloud-based solutions are revolutionising our networks and opening doors for SME’s on a worldwide market, barriers to communication and collaboration are breaking down and making way for mobile businesses like we’ve never seen before.