Disrupt or Be Disrupted.

Byline: Asif Saad

The human mind is trained to visualise linear developments and finds it difficult to estimate exponential possibilities which emanate from technology. Such disruptions are always resisted by humans at first, but once accepted and fully deployed, they are capable of changing the way we live. Think about fire, the wheel and breaking the horse in ancient times to the aeroplane and the automobile in the early 20th century followed by the internet and smartphones in recent times. In particular these days, information technology is moving faster than ever, driven by developments in 3 basic areas; processing power, communication speed and storage capacity. IT is combining with improvements in specific industry technology in almost every sector to bring disruptive changes to the market. With technology growing exponentially and businesses developing linearly, a big gap opens up between current organisations and the capability which technology can offer. This gap is usually filled by innovative startups that disrupt the existing business models by offering value in terms of both enhanced usage of a product or service and/or reduced cost.

I have been observing the technology trends closer to home and would like to share some thoughts around anticipated disruptions in many sectors in Pakistan. Although, as a country, we have been slow in adapting to new technologies, but once started, the momentum creates its own pace and can impact our lives sooner than we imagine. I will discuss five of the most interesting trends, although there are many more on the horizon.

Solar and renewable energy

In the next 10-15 years, the electricity grid as we know will be almost extinct or at least much less pertinent to our lives. As a result of investments in solar and renewable technologies coupled with the global focus on improving battery life and user-friendliness, we will see the need for grid-connected power reduce substantially. Already if you are fortunate enough to have a solar system installed at your rooftop, your reliance on the grid is probably less than 50% of your energy demand. The next 50% will come much faster thanks to the expected technology improvements. This will require a major change in business models of large scale power producers and utilities. Some naysayers make the case of the western world where grids are still alive and note that Pakistan only has a small fraction of consumer load on solar. That may be true at present...