{"id":160652,"date":"2021-10-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=160652"},"modified":"2021-10-20T06:02:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T11:02:14","slug":"ictp-177-digital-transformation-in-the-global-marketplace-and-businesses-overdependence-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2021\/10\/ictp-177-digital-transformation-in-the-global-marketplace-and-businesses-overdependence-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"ICTP 177:  Digital transformation in the global marketplace and businesses overdependence on social media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>In the October 2021 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards and Steven Williams, the panel discusses: Has the shrinking of the global marketplace made digital transformation mandatory in the Caribbean; and have Caribbean businesses become overly dependent on social media for their business presence online?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1144796227&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\" title=\"ICT Pulse Podcast\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">ICT Pulse Podcast<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\/ictp-177-digital\" title=\"ICTP 177: Digital transformation in the global marketplace and businesses overdependence on social media\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">ICTP 177: Digital transformation in the global marketplace and businesses overdependence on social media<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><meta charset=\"utf-8\"><meta charset=\"utf-8\"><strong>This episode is also available in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast\/id1373550291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/playmusic.app.goo.gl\/?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&amp;isi=691797987&amp;ius=googleplaymusic&amp;apn=com.google.android.music&amp;link=https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Icau5acn2xiyl5yjuh7orl2mt54?t%3DICT_Pulse_Podcast%26pcampaignid%3DMKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Play Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3d0U4ZYX80e5lenYLdzyX4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast?refid=stpr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Digital transformation continues to be a popular subject for discussion across the Caribbean region, evidenced by its frequency in our weekly roundups for the region\u2019s ICT and technology news. Governments, organisations and individuals are in varying stages of digital transformation acceptance and execution, and so it is likely that it will continue to be topical for the months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said this, it is easy to tread the same ground repeatedly, and consistently have conversations from the same angle,. In doing so, digital transformation is only being examined from a narrow lens, which does not add much dimension to the discourse that could help people to get a more comprehensive or robust view of the subject. To that end, and noting digital transformation has become a common topic for our Community Chats, we have sought to discuss it from a new perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a different vein, our second topic, which focuses on social media, is outside of the common focus of conversations on social media and business. Typically, the thrust of such conversations is the fact that many Caribbean businesses are not leveraging social media enough. Often, there is a discussion of the benefits and the ways businesses could and should be using social media. However, in this month\u2019s conversation, we are being challenged to reconsider the relationship Caribbean businesses have with existing social media platforms, and whether it is indeed a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><meta charset=\"utf-8\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introducing our guest panellists and their topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"130059\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/05\/ictp-004-community-chat-network-resiliency-ixps-gdpr\/wpn-unconference-a\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?fit=413%2C469&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"413,469\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;14&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Christina Stuart Photography&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS-1D Mark III&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;10\\\/13\\\/17 --Orlando, Fl. -- Photo by Christina Stuart--- WPN UNCONFERENCE A --Women&#039;s Prosperity Network celebrates its 10th Annual Unconference at the Marriot Lakeside in Orlando on Friday, October 13, 2017.\\r\\rKerrie-Ann Richards 1876-386-4104 kerriearichards@gmail.com, $20 cash, getting change&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507942985&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Christina Stuart\\rChristina Stuart Photography\\r352-219-0319\\rcstuartphoto@gmail.com&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;115&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;100&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;WPN UNCONFERENCE A&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards (Source K Richards)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?fit=264%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?fit=413%2C469&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fgd.dfv.mybluehost.me\/.website_c81a1e61\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?resize=300%2C340&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-130059\" width=\"300\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?w=413&amp;ssl=1 413w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Kerrie-Ann-Vassall-Richards-Source-K-Richards.jpeg?resize=264%2C300&amp;ssl=1 264w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards<\/strong> is the Founder of the Business Growth Rocket, which offers business coaching, training and advisory services, and she is also an Advisory Council Member at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). Kerrie-Ann\u2019s background is in business and in education, where she has led non-profit and commercial enterprises. Her specialties include policy and technical writing, e-learning, curriculum development and career development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On working with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, Kerrie-Ann, realised that digital transformation was a \u201cnice to have\u201d in most brick and mortar business up until 2020. Although ICT had removed many of the constraints posed by of geographic borders, which nd resulted in a global marketplace, Caribbean businesses may still have been able to focus on being locally competitive, which may not have required them to embrace digital transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kerrie\u2019s topic, <strong><em>Has the shrinking of the global marketplace made digital transformation mandatory in the Caribbean?<\/em><\/strong>, is predicated on the fact that the pandemic has forced Caribbean businesses out of their comfort zone. Many of them are asking themselves tough questions, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Who do we serve?<\/li><li>How can we use technology to gain a greater market share and boost our competitive advantage?<\/li><li>How will we fund this transformation?<\/li><li>What impact will it have on our long term strategic plan and growth strategy?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"146713\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2019\/02\/ictp-042-community-chat-opportunities-threats-caribbean-tech-job-market\/steven-williams-s-williams\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,640\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Steven Williams (S Williams)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Steven Williams &lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fgd.dfv.mybluehost.me\/.website_c81a1e61\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-146713\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Steven-Williams-S-Williams.jpeg?resize=440%2C440&amp;ssl=1 440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>Steven Williams <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Steven Williams<\/strong> is a Director of Sunisle Communications Inc., which does business as Sunisle Technology Solutions in Barbados, and offers computing and managed IT services, and where he also serves as the company\u2019s Business Development Director. In addition to his academic qualifications, Steven is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer and a Certified Data Privacy Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As much as Steven may be versed in all things security, he has been a strong advocate for local and regional creation of digital assets and platforms that allow for most of the value and wealth to remain in the Caribbean region. Hence, the outages of Facebook Inc. properties, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which occurred in early October, seemed to highlight the imbalance in the current relationship between social media platforms and platform users and content creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, for business owners that are using these platforms almost exclusively to connect with and engage with consumers, the outages would have been especially devastating. However, it ought to cause us to ask, &nbsp;<strong><em>Have Caribbean businesses become overly dependent on social media for their business presence online?<\/em><\/strong>,which Steven submitted for discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>We would love to hear from you!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ICTPulse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ict-pulse-consulting-limited\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a> pages, or via Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ICTPulse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>@ICTPulse<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Select links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kerriearichards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/steven-williams-mba-cciso-cdpo-bab71614\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steven Williams<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessgrowthrocket.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Business Growth Rocket<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sunisle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sunisle Technology Solutions<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arin.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American Registry for Internet Numbers<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/essentials.salesforce.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Salesforce Essentials<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caribbeancupid.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Caribbean Cupid<\/a> &nbsp;<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Internet Society<\/a> <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image credits:   K.A. Vassall-Richards;  S Williams;  Gerd Altmann (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Public Domain Pictures<\/a>);  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/143601516@N03\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blogtrepreneur<\/a> (Flickr)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Music credit:  Ray Holman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the October 2021 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Kerrie-Ann Vassall-Richards and Steven Williams, the panel discusses: Has the shrinking of the global marketplace made digital transformation mandatory in the Caribbean; and have Caribbean businesses become overly dependent on social media for their business presence online?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[355],"tags":[71,330,359,42,222,15],"class_list":["post-160652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-businesses","tag-digital-transformation","tag-panel-discussion","tag-social-media","tag-strategy","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Featured-Image-October-2021-Community-Chat.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-FNa","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160652"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160664,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160652\/revisions\/160664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}