Does IR4 solves problems for SME’s?

Every morning I have many dilemmas. What to wear, what to pack and the list goes on. Let’s dissect one particular dilemma. What wristwatch to wear? I know , many of you will be laughing or smacking your head now. Who needs a watch since your phone can tell you time. I know, but I am wired that way. If there is no watch in my hand , I feel naked. 

Remember the first time I got was a battery operated watch which had Mickey Mouse. I remember my father had an automatic watch, which drove me nuts. Why doesn’t that watch need to change battery. Then I was given a book titled “Things you should know” in that book they had a story about the difference between battery operated watch to self winding watch to watches that you need to wind it for it to operate. 

Currently I own a smart watch and a couple of self winding mechanical watch. Even though I know the smart watch I have can measure so many things and gives me many reports , I always choose the mechanical watch for my day use. Unless I am going to do some dangerous activities like taking a walk in the park.😂. Or to track my sleep pattern. 

For some SME’s that’s what IR4 exactly means, it’s a nice tool to have, but the traditional way of doing business is something that they would have inherited from their elders and sometimes its a blasphemy for them to change even a bit. 

My parents restaurant is a perfect example where from the date they started till it was sold off the menu was the same. Even the arrangements of dishes never changed, you can blindfold me I still can tell what is where. Reason, its like that la. My request put in WIFI was vetoed out as my late parents said “this is restaurant not Internet cafe”. 😔

I have been advocating the usage of IR4 in all sectors since 2016. Since I was in charge of the agency that handles training, we concentrated on what was needed in that area. We broke the whole training of IR4 into three categories. 

1. The first one are those people whom will apply the IR4 in their workplaces and users on the shop floor. 

2. The second category that consist engineers and middle management groups who will lead the users.

3. The third are the influencers and decision makers on the policy level. Which in we sought the assistance of of the top university in the world in Data Sciences and we decided to have a five year plan to grow the ecosystem for this. 

At that point of time, our vision was to train 25’000 data scientist in Malaysia so that we will be serious players in this field and to be the leader in Asia and hopefully we will lead the world. But alas the whole plan went kaput.

In my current avatar as an advisor and a consultant I meet and speak to many business owners and corporate guys about IR4. Many SME owners are still baffled on what IR4 entails and some I speak to are still oblivious to what’s the meaning of IR4. Worst is the half bake consultants who push their solutions as a one stop solution and sell as though their product will solve all the problems. And once implemented and since most consultants don’t have a magic wand that can solve all problems, the common word in the ground is IR4 is just a humbug and nothing good will come out of it. 

After speaking to many SME owners on the ground this is some of the grievances and later I will spell out some of the solutions for government, consultants and IR4 service providers can do. (This is my 2 cents worth)

Now lets see what’s the problem that the SME owners face.

1. Lack of financial reserves. This can be broken down to a few more issues. 

  * No capital to start the process

  * Too expensive consultants 

  * Need to change the current equipments 

  * If work flow need to be changed , have to spend money and time for it

  * No money to hire additional stuff

2. Current process is cheaper to implement , so no need to change the process

3. If I spend money, what’s the impact on the bottom line and when can we get back our investment back (ROI)

4. And the latest COVID19 situation, must conserve cash.

Below are some of the steps need to be taken by the SMEs themselves, government, consultants and solution providers. My two cent worth of advice.

1. The SMEs have to drop the attitude of playing victim and have to take the bold step in order for them to survive and grow bigger.

2. They need also have to unlearn the old ways of doing business and slowly move into the new era of business. During the height of the MCO, our housing community mooted the idea of setting up WhatsApp group, later moving it to telegram to enable food stall owners, vegetable seller and grocery stall owners to advertise what they have and in most cases they delivered the items ordered to their respective doorsteps. It turned out to be huge success and its going on till now. 

3. Make baby steps into IR4, I would recommend that they run ‘MIND SET” change programme parallel with the IR4 transformation program. People always fear what they don’t understand. One of the bitter experience I had was with a manufacturing SME which almost lost all their skilled workforce because they feared the IR4 innovation which was being implemented will be hard to use. When the word of mass resignation went out, we had to work to reset their mind and included the shop floor workers into the initial planning. This made them to understand what was needed and dispelled their fear. 

I think government should stop all incentives that don’t cover all the expenses especially if the government wants SME’s to adopt IR4 into their work environments. This 50/50 arrangement, reimbursement model, filing tedious long forms, tough prerequisites and so on should be abolished. I remember those days in the government, make it easy for claiming and reduce the application forms to one page.

If you have ran a SME company, “one leg kick all” is something that you have to do daily. SMEs will be firefighting on a daily basis, just to ensure the ends are met. So the government policy makers understandlah. If not, there will not be any takers. 

As for the consultants. The first they should do is “LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMERS” and then propose “SOLUTIONS” and don’t “SELL” your solutions. In this stage we need to win the hearts of the SME’s out there. And the only way we can do that is to solve their problems and hopefully this can gather enough momentum to push so all start using IR4 in their daily applications. 

And most importantly the solution providers, please don’t just concentrate on the big boys and create solutions that cost millions. Please do also create solutions that SME’s can afford. The success of one SME can lead to another and hopefully it will create enough momentum for a large scale conversion. 

While all this might sound like a hopeful wish, but why not kan. It’s holiday season and hope is in the air. Merry Christmas to all and a very Happy new year. 

ps: Mechanical watch still wins....

#vicks #ir4 #umper #sme #ramssolgroup #digitisation #consultant #applewatchseries6 #jamesbondstyle #problemsolving