away from oil, that will drive their future
economy. Dubai, for example, is focusing
on experiential tourism, state of art smart
education, and affordable medical health.
This year from October to April next year,
Dubai is hosting the 2020 World Expo
and is expecting over 20 million visitors
from all over the world. to make sense for decision making.
Even if you may not invest in the
manufacturing of electric cars and stuff,
you may start buying and installing
electric car chargers. In the developed
world, I have seen several coming up in
private and public parking areas. That,
plus other related and complementary
businesses is worth considering today. Also, data from many sources can easily be
analyzed and compared. Electronic doors
record the time you arrive, a thermometer
takes your temperature and tells if you are
ok, your computer tells when you log in and
log out, and your productivity. Cameras
reading your facial expressions tell when
you are stressed. All these physiological
and environmental data can be combined
to explain your productivity.
Workplaces are changing too and offering
a huge business opportunity into the
future. Companies and homes, as well, are
going ‘smart’. Smart means that all data
gathering, recording, and analysis, for
decision making, is going digital.
Today, data is gathered manually by
various departments. That data is
therefore stand-alone numbers and can
be manipulated. To make decisions,
managers need to collate data from
various departments, analyze it in order
Smart companies, schools, and Universities
are now using scanners, cameras, sensors,
and tally counters to collect data. One
benefit offered by these digital gadgets is
that data cannot be manipulated at the
source.
Now, that will be a big shift from where
we are today, and jobs will be lost. All jobs
that involve data collection and recording
will be replaced by these digital gadgets.
If you want to position yourself for jobs
of the future, data analytics is where you
should focus. This job will be key for
analyzing all data and creating dashboards
for decision making.
For
smart
companies’
even
small
decisions like which toilet get cleaned are
electronically informed. Sensors are now
telling which toilets are used most, hence
cleaned more times.
There is a huge business opportunity in
this space. Those who will start to import
and sell these electronic gadgets will rake
millions in the near future. Those who
will fix and network them will also be in
a lucrative business. Consultants who will
help companies transit and IT specialists
who will manage these mega data storage
and security will also be in big business.
If you want the future generations to think
of you as the “Zachariah” of today, think
along these lines and invest your skills and
resources in business opportunities for the
future.
Herman Githinji is a management
and seasoned marketing consultant
and law graduate from the University
Of Nairobi. You can commune with
him on this and related issues via email
on: [email protected].