My recent visit to AutoExpo 2023 held in Delhi-INDIA has reminded me this old story of an Arab & the Camel. The brief theme of the story is...
Arab and the Camel: Once upon a time, at a cold night in a desert, Arab, sleeping in his tent, allows his camel to just put his head inside the tent to save him form the cold, as the time passes, gradually camel, enters his full body- one part by one part and finally comes in full, stands -up and that makes Arab go out of the tent.
AutoExpo 2023 an eye opener: The trigger for me to remember this story is noticeable number of booths from Software small and medium companies, servicing Auto Industry. Either in the space of 'FOTA' Flash-Over-The-Air apps or Content providers. The most important feature this time was those which were using vehicle data and creating dashboards, apps and value added services. Software & the Digital Companies are like the new 'Camel in the Mototown', which are going to -someday-make the Arab-the OE Auto Manufacturers- pushed out of the tent or at least marginalised to a greater extent.
They are coming to conquer: They may enter through FOTA route, have a place inside the vehicle CANBUS system, may start humbly as value added, 'Nice to Flaunt' features and gradually get the data, build applications, monetise that data and later, even control the vehicle and driver behaviour, often overshadowing Auto Makers 'value-offering'. Mind well my friends, hungry software and digital giants are now coming for Mototown and will be conquering it sooner than we can imagine. This may seem bold or even outrageous..
...It's already happening elsewhere: ...but look around, what happened in other industries, software has subordinated hardware completely. It has happened in Mobile Phones, to certain extent in PC and Laptop industries, is happening in Home Appliances industry (IoT)... and why go that far, it is happening (or even already happened?) in Two Wheeler Industry. Hitherto unknown companies have launched many two wheeler options, with flashy software and apps, which is their USP and differentiator. Sometime in future the Two wheeler Arabs are going to find it difficult to remain in tent, while the new camels will occupy the tent fully standing up.
It's a wake up call- Action time: This will surely happen in Auto Industry as well... it's a matter of time. The question is how do we become wiser and learn from the story? In typical business parlance, what is the 'Mitigation Strategy'?. Firstly, you can not stop Camel from entering the tent, it has already happened. The juggernaut of digital onslaught on Mototown is unstoppable like our legendary 'ASHWAMEDH'. Once entered in the camel is gradually going to come in and occupy more space for sure.
Rise-Awake-Act-Dont stop till you reach the goal: In such case, either OE-Arabs can ride on the camel and still remain in the tent... but still remain a marginal figurehead while the camel is calling the shots. The other 'Innovative approach' can be "Can the OE-Arabs become the camel themselves?" .... through some magic 'Talisman' ... not so ridiculous as we have seen how Apple a primary hardware maker not only holding the fort but dominating it even now, through proprietary iOS system and legendary 'App Store' of their own and keeping itself way too ahead of other competitors. OE's still have some time to revisit their strategies for transformation, before its too late...
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