The digital revolution has
come. It’s not coming. It won’t be here in a few years. It has arrived. This
revelation, be it earth shattering or not, is a wake up call to every
contractor who finally got his company’s finances on the computer last year. It
serves as a warning to every HVACR employer who thinks good pay, strong
benefits, and a respectable career are going to be enough to attract the future
industry workforce, as well.
Why is changing with the
digital revolution so important? The answer is summed up in the difference
between digital immigrants and digital natives. According to Don Tapscott, noted
author, chairman of nGenera Insight, a think tank based in Toronto, and one of
the keynote speakers at Honeywell’s Users Group meeting in Scottsdale Ariz., a
digital immigrant is one who finds themselves adapting to technology and
adopting it into their way of life. As for a digital native, they were born
into technology and they don’t know any other way of life.
So far, business has reacted
positively to those who are dabbling in new office and field technology or
dipping their toes in social media. They have been able to navigate the digital
realm with some struggle, but most of their digital immigrant employees and
customers are struggling just as much as they are and providing for their needs
has been accomplishable. But what happens when the digital immigrant’s employee
and customer base shifts? How will the digital immigrant running the business
be able to provide for the requests and demands of the digital natives?
As Tapscott said in his
presentation, “The time for tinkering is over. It is time to make fundamental
changes.”
Slapping up a Facebook page
and tweeting until your fingers fall off probably won’t make your business
successful in the new digital era. It will help for now, but continued success
is going to require a change in the way you think, interact, and communicate
with the physical and social world.
Digital immigrants can become
as fluent as digital natives, but it is going to require a rebuild and new
approach to your business practices and not just a few tinkerings here and
there. Don’t worry, we’ll learn together.