How to survive business in a "uberized" economy: expert opinions

The latest survey of top managers conducted by IBM showed that heads of companies around the world rely on the latest technology. It is through their introduction that they plan to increase their competitive advantages.

However, in the same survey, the top management expressed concern that the so-called “uberization” of the economy would force some traditional players to leave the markets because of the destabilization of industries due to the appearance of an unobvious competitor. In just two years, the percentage of top managers who allow competition with companies from other industries has grown by more than a quarter (from 43% in 2013 to 54% in 2015).

Andrei Filatov, General Director of IBM in Russia and the CIS, Alexey Ananiev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Technoserv Group of Companies and Mikhail Malakhov, Director of Sberbank Management, spoke on RBC-TV on the subject.
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Megamind proposes to speculate on this with experts.

About the trend of "uberization" and concerns

Mikhail Malakhov:

It seems to me that the term itself is not quite true, because it is not a trend of “uberization”, but simply some modern technologies - mobile devices, the Internet, clouds. They provide new opportunities that, in general, begin to use. Therefore, Uber is one of the examples of how it can all be linked together and occupy a certain niche, creating a new value for the client.

It seems to me that it is more important to say that a new type of service is now emerging: a client can get services of a completely different quality than they were before by pressing one button.

Alexey Ananiev agrees with him:

Uber is an example of how additional business segments are created. To say that these segments will absorb traditional business would be too general. The peculiarity of uber-like businesses is that their creators choose the segment from the general set of products and services that they pull out of the regulatory field. This is what business is built on. If they met all the requirements that regulators apply to market participants, they would not be able to create these services. We see this not only in the transportation market, but also in the financial market, the retail market.

Andrey Filatov:

Now you need less start-up capital costs to start creating something. Certainly, companies similar to Uber will appear, they will certainly create competition for companies from traditional sectors of the economy.

I would like to point out colleagues from Sberbank, who very accurately assess possible competitive threats from this side and take proactive steps. Today it is probably the most innovative bank in the [Russian] market.

About Uber Banks

Mikhail Malakhov:

I think it is not entirely correct to say that it will be Uber-bank, it will be, rather, a service company. Sberbank is now trying to develop not products, but services. Turnkey Service is a new trend: the client can come and they will be provided with a complete infrastructure, where he will realize his business.

Alexey Ananiev:

In fact, the tasks that face the enterprises of the financial sector are not formulated in such a way that the client should come, [and vice versa] the client does not need to come. The trend that we see all over the world is either a complete rejection of bank branches or a fundamental reformatting with a significant reduction in their number.

And the client comes to the bank only when he needs specialist advice, which he cannot receive through any other channel. The vast majority of small and medium businesses do not come to the bank at all. The set of services that emerges is mostly aimed at wide circles of the client audience, namely, retail clients.

The interesting thing is that these start-ups [in the financial sector] offer services to potential borrowers outside the bank. If you provide credit services using the risk system that exists in Sberbank at any other serious bank (and this risk system is based on regulatory standards), then no startup is able to do it. Startups in the financial sector are those people who can not be credited to the bank.

On the chances of success in the conditions of "uberization"

Alexey Ananiev:

One of the manifestations of the trend that we see all over the world is that market leaders, along with focusing on their traditional business, create either venture funds or [other] structures that collect startups and accelerate them. From this process, ideas and products emerge that can be used to fuel and expand your own business.

In the event that there are ideas that can be applied by other market players, then there is a chance to see another Uber.

In general, these startups and “uberization” [as a whole] are, first of all, an orientation towards the service segment, agent and mass consumer. There are two critical prerequisites - the industry segment, which can be pulled free from tight regulation and the use of technologies that, with minimal fixed costs, will make this structure a mass one.

“Those companies that find the right balance between new technologies and traditional ones will be the most successful,” concludes Mikhail Malakhov.