Digital Future Readiness in the South African Fuel Retail Sector
South African Fuel Retail companies need to remain competitive and future-ready, be able to tackle current low economic growth, Political / Regulatory and social challenges and make use of new growth opportunities and optimise the scope for digitalisation. A study into Swiss manufacturing companies found that to achieve the above; a transformational change needs to happen in four dimensions of the organisation, culture, people and digital environment. The same transformational change journey is envisaged to be applicable for Fuel Retail companies in South Africa for them to remain competitive and future-ready.
There is often a critical case to be made of companies focusing on their core strategic business objectives whilst building alliances and partnerships with other organisations’ whose core businesses strategically complements and support achieving their core objectives. This is referred to as maintaining partnerships and ecosystems. Ecosystems are dynamic and jointly developed facilitative ‘communities’ of various parties. They enable new value creation through flexible models for collaboration.
A case study will be presented of potential for collaboration between South African Fuel Retail companies with Asset Management companies as strategic partners for sustainably achieving their strategic business objectives. The focus will be on how Asset Management companies can lead the development of solutions that will ensure cost-effective, optimal utilisation of their assets whilst partnering with them along the digital transformation journey. Whilst it is common knowledge that digital transformation can take many forms beyond asset management, there are extensive opportunities for optimisation, risk reduction, ensuring regulatory compliance at the asset or facilities management level.