Industry Insights: ICBC Standard - The Transformation to Digital Business

The second instalment of this year's Industry Insight programme was a talk on digital business from Mr Huihong Cai, the CTO of ICBC Standard.

This talk was a continuation of the themes Mr Cai introduced in his talk last March. Some of my key take-aways included:

Digital is creating a winner-takes-all effect, because digital businesses can grow much quicker than physical ones and create "super platforms" for consumers that are channels for doing business rather than brands
Therefore the Silicon Valley VC model of backing lots of business knowing that 99% will fail but that the winner will win big makes sense
Lower barriers to entry in China (such as fewer regulations) mean that the market is more competitive and as a consequence stronger digital business models are emerging at a faster rate than in Europe and the US

Mr Cai's final point was that the business leaders of today may not have the knowledge to create these new business models - that may have to come from young people who are more familiar with digital tools.