Hey, this isKhan and I'm back with the latest episode of the Ian Khan Show. I've been here in Dubai for the last few days and I couldn't record earlier, but I, here I am it's been an incredible couple of days. I was part of an event called a SME 10 x and it was run by CPI publishing group, the CPN media group and really focused on small and medium enterprises, startups and, and to really showcase the progress that SMEs are making with respect to the the region different industries. And there was an awards night and I want to focus on the future of SMEs and emerging technologies. Now there's a huge, huge amount of confusion around with every sector that technology is taking over jobs, technologies of automating a lot of things.
Technology is disrupting everything. And that's true to a certain extent. But I think we need to be vilified technology a little bit because it's not just the disruption that technology is causing. It's also creating different opportunities. And we need to look at things in a different way. And I'll give you some examples of that. Before I go into those examples. I think there's three pillars of success. There's three pillars of impact and opportunity that not just SMEs or startups or established companies or large corporates can adopt. But everybody can look into these three elements of success. The first one being to to really understand that this is an era of change and change is constant. So if you're still stuck with your old business ways, your traditional way of doing business, then you've got to come out of that zone and understand that your business will get disrupted, your business will get changed because of not what you're doing because of what other people are doing.
I'll give you an example. In the, in the accounting industry as an example there's a lot of disruption happening because newer startups are now doing everything that accountants would traditionally do. So they're doing reconciliation, they're doing taxation they're doing all the functions or majority of functions that that established professional accounting firms do. And as the generations change and as the customer demographic changes going from the family owned business to the newer generation taking over those businesses, they want to use technology as an enabler. And so there's that disruption within the accounting industry. So change is definitely a constant, and I think every business should print this out in bold letters, hang it in front of the office, the front door, and say, we are part of change and we believe in change and we want to create change is just one thing that if you adopt and if you follow, you will truly be successful.
Not just today, but in the future as well. And in every situation you will be. So change is a constant. Please take that onboard. And as much as we talk about it, I think it also goes to doing it and putting in did it, putting it into, into practice a number two. And it was also the theme of today's conference and this, this whole event by CPA media. What is is creating trust is how does trust function? How does trust change the dynamics of business? I really believe that technology as an enabler is a Greek way to recreate trust. Trust that we over the centuries have broken me or the centuries have the desecrated. And that's the reason why we sign on checks. We signed documents. We need to see proof of identity. We have identity cards, we have passports.
We have all these different forms of, of identifying something or, or making sure that this is reality. It's not something fake because I really believe that we, not uni, but over the generations we've changed the way trust works. Probably a long time ago in the world. People just trusted each other until somebody did something wrong and people stopped trusting each other. But it's also the, the fact that there's complexity in the world where we're dealing, dealing with people of different than nature's different temperaments, different needs. And so this element of mistrust has come into play as people. Then I think it, it blocks our senses. It blocks our decision making capabilities. And imagine a world where you wouldn't have to worry about things. Can you for a minute, just close your eyes and think about a world where you do not have to worry about mistrusting anybody.
You can leave your home open, nobody's going to take anything. You can leave your wallet open in your car. Nobody would take any money from it. You can leave your car keys in your car and keep it started and nobody would steal your car. Do you really think we could, we could live in an era like that. I don't know. So that's where I'm talking about is how does technology now change the paradigm? Because we live in a world where we cannot trust people, we cannot, and it's primarily people. We don't trust people. People don't trust people. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think technology now is playing a huge part in really enabling that layer of trust so that people don't have to mistrust each other. Let me get that. Let me get that right. Again. Technology is enabling a layer of trust so that people do not mistrust each other anymore, which means we can start becoming friendlier to other people because now we know that people can be trusted because technology has taken care off.
That of that trust element. Some newer technologies, for example, blockchain is, is a, is a great example of it is a, is an enabler of trust. It's a, it's an enabler of making sure that if let's say an exchange of something between two people is happening, that it really is happening. For example, if a bank transfer is happening, if a money transaction is happening, if a data transaction is happening, you don't ha and it's backed by blockchain or it's happening on the blockchain network, any kind of blockchain network then you're sure to know that this is a trustworthy transaction. And that's how technology takes over that element. You can be very free. And that's what I think the blockchain specifically brings to the equation is eliminating doubt and reestablishing that trust story. In one way. I think technology is making us, making us more human.
It's making us a more, a more approachable and, and, and more maybe better people as well. Think about artificial intelligence and I view as artificial intelligence a not a complex mechanism of of, of things that are of automated machines and things that are thinking on their own. But I think of our our AI as an automation tool. I really believe that people in general are supposed to relax. They're supposed to have a great quality of life. You are supposed to do the things that you love doing, but over the ages we've, we've created this thing called work where we do things, a repetition of things that we get paid for and we get compensated for. And that's what his work. There isn't one single person in this world. We'll probably small minority. There isn't a single person in this world who doesn't dislike something about their work.
Everybody dislikes some, some portions of of their work. A lot of stats are out there and some suggest that as many as 80% of people hate their jobs, people dislike their jobs, but they're skilled working away their lives day in and day out. Trying to earn a living, support their families and do the things that feeds the mounts and puts the food on the dining table. They don't do it because they love it. They don't do it because they really feel passionately about that purpose, the organization that's serving. But they do it just to feed the amounts, survive, live, pay the rent, and do all of those things. Now, if you imagine a time where you had all the money you needed, you had a home to stay, a good car, drive food, everything that you needed, would you still do the work that you're doing?
Would you still be in the organization that you're in? Would you still the do all of those things that you call work? And that's the thing that I'm talking about, that AI takes all work with artificial intelligence. A lot of automation takes place where reputative tasks get taken over by technology, by computers, by systems that are designed to do these automated things. And, and take that pain away from you. How many of us hate putting reports in excel sheets? How many of us hate looking at numbers or writing letters or doing any of these things that, that are mundane, that are the same every single day, that are reparative every single day? And so imagine a time where all of that could be automated. All the things you need to do will be done. You can get technology to do those things and you can enjoy your life.
You can do things that are far, much greater in purpose than doing reputative tasks. Think about it. How many things in your life today, in your work today, can you automate? How many things would you want to get rid of and, and automate right away? Think about it. One, two, five, 10, 50, this countless number of things. And so that's what AI does. That's what artificial intelligence brings to the picture. Now there's a huge difference between AI and robotics and automation. And it's not just one big, big, big ball of impact, but it's pretty complex when you talk about how these different things will work together in the world of tomorrow. And going back to the, to the idea of trust, I really believe that technology such as AI and blockchain as, as two of them are another one. If I can talk about as the Internet of things, all these things take over that trust equation and create trust in a, in a technology format, in a digital format, in an automation format so that we can do we can do other things.
So as an organization, what would you do if everything was automated, if technology was doing everything for you in terms of your casks, what would you do as an organization? Why would you do what you would do in the future? And the answer to that is you would create and maintain, and this would be your mission to create and maintain trust with your customers, with your stakeholders, with everybody and anybody, anybody who is affected by your business. And that's our true job. That's our true nature to make sure that we maintain that trust. You know, today when you shop, you go to a retail store, you take your $100 or a or whatever form of currency you have and you spend that money and you get something in return. Now how about you spend that money and you get nothing in return?
Would you continue to spend that money? Would you continue to pay that vendor? Would you continue to shop there if you nothing. No, you wouldn't. And, and what about the quality of goods? What about the quality of the product that you bought is really bad and it's worse and it's getting worse? Would you still continue spending that money? I don't think so. And that's where we need to focus in the future as people, when technology automate so many things, technology takes over. Our job functions have replicated it. Tasks. What do we focus on? We should be focusing on creating more trust. Thinking about how do we add more value to this equation? How do we create more trust with our customers? And stakeholders. And that's the true mission that every organization should be on. So that's point number two. First point, that changes constant changes.
Permanent Change will always keep on happening. And so be part of change and keep on, keep yourself busy with understanding what is changing, why is it changing, how is it changing and how does it affect you and how can you make it part of a part of growing yourself and growing your business, your organization, and your mission and your value. A second thing is create trust and focus on in every equation. Whether you are a salesperson, whether you are a manufacturing company, you are an accountant, you're a lawyer, you are a teacher, you are around them. The information industry worker focused on creating trust with people around you. Number three is action. We sometimes make really grand plans. We create these ginormous spreadsheets and documents and we create, create these endless number of tasks that we need to create. We create a huge you know, we love the planning process, but then we do not take action on it because it's far too big.
It's too much to do and you can't really break it down into smaller tasks. I think the lack of action is the biggest challenge that any organization faces, any person faces is when you don't take action on your goals and your targets to actually achieve those things. They say that the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. It starts with one step. So you have to take that step. You have to on an everyday basis, push yourself to take that individual step and keep on going from from where you are to where you want to be. The lack of action is the biggest problem in the world. This is why people do not achieve things. This is why people don't get what they want. And I think if we all did something towards our goal on an, on at goals, on an everyday basis, at a consistent level, then we would be far, far, far ahead in a, in achieving the things that we need to do.
I've been here talking to SMEs, small and medium enterprises, and everybody's facing the same challenge. I speak across the world across different industries. The in us, Canada, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, and it's the same challenges that everybody's facing. It's the same paradigm. It's the same big questions that everybody has that hey, technology is automating everything. What should I do about it? Or my, my industry is changing. What should I do about it? And so the answer is in these three things that I just told you about is understanding change and accepting it and being part of change. And number two is working on trust. Whenever you lose focus as an organization, you go back and say, how do I recreate this trust that has been taken over by somebody? How do I recreate this trust that I have an opportunity to build and do more?
You know, they say that all this leave more behind than you've been contracted to do, then how much you've been paid to do. And that's the way to do it. That's the way to create limitless value. And, and so focus on, focus on that and focus on creating that limitless trust. And number three is execution and action. If you're lacking execution, you've you're lacking creating that trust, you're lacking understanding the changes, then, then you won't get ahead. Then you'll still be complaining. You'll still be suffering because of all the challenges that you're facing. You will not grow as as much as you want, but you will not grow as big as you want to. And so you control your own destiny in one way or the other. Small businesses is the lifeline of every economy. It's not the large companies that, that make economies work.
It's not the the Unicorns that make economies work, but it's the s the small and medium enterprises that are the fuel of the economy everywhere in the world. And they control and they have the power to change how nations nations run. And they have an incredible opportunity to grow to, to partner, to, to collaborate with others and to, and to make make a difference. Today I saw a lot of different companies that, that have a broken through their barriers. And one of the companies I saw today was his id ID foods from, from India. And their journey is absolutely phenomenal. They, they make a breakfast items in, in India. They feed more than a million people every morning. And their business model is incredible. Check them out. They're called idea foods and they're absolutely mind boggling how they came out to be, where they started, how they started.
And now, right now, they're feeding more than a million people every single day to a business model that's now a Harvard University case study. And so there's a, there are those people who constantly pushed the boundaries, who constantly believe in what they need to do. And we all need to on that path. You need to be on that path. If you're, if you're struggling, if you're, if you're not getting where you want and a, you've got to take that risk. You have to risk something one day because we don't live forever. We don't live for the rest of time that, you know, there, there's, there's the tomorrow that you're going to action. I remembered this line from rocky, I think it's rocky three. When when
Rocky gets told that there is no tomorrow and he has to fight, he has to learn and he has to practice today. There is no tomorrow. So there is definitely not no tomorrow for action, for action you have today and to dream and to have goals. You have the tomorrow, but to take action, you have to take action today. And that's the only thing you have. You have to present to take the action. So don't stop yourself from taking some risks, being a little bit one rubble coming out of your comfort zone. And if you don't do that, you're not going to grow. Only pressure will make you grow. Only pressure will help you adopt to a changing a fast changing world. And if you really want to change where you are, you've got to change how you see yourself. You have to change how you do things and what you believe in.
So it all starts with accepting change and also the need that you need to start changing with the changing times. That's all I can share for this episode. I hope I've led some thought to you and you can, you can probably think of a few improvements that you can make in your business, in your lives, in your in your organizations and your personal life and your career. And get, tell me what you think. Tell me, give me your comments, you know, subscribe to this video on Youtube and like, and share this video with, with your friends and family and put some comments down below and tell me what are your challenges, what are your growth challenges? Where do you fall short? Is it, is it accepting change? Is it creating trust or understanding trust, or is it action?
Which of these three things do you personally struggle with? And where do you think you need to improve? And where do you think you need to change? I would respond back and we can have a conversation. Thank you so much. Have A, have an amazing journey of change and accepting change and be very successful and should a world who you really are and express yourself through your success. For the, for, for, for everybody to see, for now, signing off from Dubai at SME, 10x and thanks so much. And until next time, do not forget to subscribe to this video. The link is below. Click on it, subscribe to it, and please comment and share with your friends and families. Thank you so Much !