As part of our LatAm roadshow, we discussed current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the industry 4.0 market in Latin America, last week.
Over the past years, Industry 4.0 has become a major global trend, and especially during the pandemic, we saw the need for a digital transformation in many areas of our daily lives. In the business world, it became especially obvious that those companies which had already implemented a high degree of digitalization have been in favor of others. In Latin America, 60% of the companies increased their budget regarding digitalization and new technologies during the pandemic. As leading technology producers, German companies have plenty of opportunities to use the potential of the growing market in the region. In our discussion with Nelson Beltrán, Executive Director & Consulting, Data and Analytics Leader at Ernst & Young, we covered the most important developments in Latin America.
Four takeaways from our discussion:
1. Digital transformation needs to be part of the company strategy:
Around 70% of digital transformation projects fail. The reason for that is that digital transformation isn't guided by purpose. Introducing technology without strategy, without identifying the challenges properly, does not work well. A missing or weak strategy has often been a problem for businesses in Latin America. There is confusion about what digital transformation is all about and how it should be overall embedded into strategies. Companies tend to implement new technologies for specific departments or offices, which, sooner or later, leads to a disconnection with other departments or offices. It is advised to follow a comprehensive digital transformation that is aligned to the company's general strategy.
2. Human Resources & Training people:
There is a lack of qualified personnel, and more and more tech companies offer their specialized training to educate staff on precisely those challenges that are company relevant. There is the general notion that companies and universities should work more closely together to identify the needs for digital transformation.
3. The importance of data:
Data is the backbone of the digital transformation and paves the way for the “Internet of things”, the interconnection of computing devices via the internet embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data. “Data has become the Oil of the digital era”.
4. Latin America and German companies are a good match:
On one hand, people in Latin America are more open to adopt new technology than, for example, people in Germany and Europe. On the other hand, German data culture and laws present more favorable conditions for Latin American companies in comparison to Asian or US-American competitors.
Thank you to Nelson Beltrán and everyone who participated!
You may take a look at the papers that initiated this event and the entire "LatAm today" roadshows here:
