Uber calls itself a technology company, rather than a transport company. Orange Card is considered a digital company and not a financial "stick" signature. There are automakers that are associated with the "techie" sector because they understand that they encourage the use of energies other than conventional ones.
Chevrolet promotes connectivity and Toyota, carsharing: "We want to stop being a car manufacturer to become one that provides services," says Daniel Herrero, number one of the brand.
Rappi, Glovo and OrdersYou say that the delivery they carry out is based on the technology of their app and avoid being linked to the transport sector. Re / Max manages a network of real estate agents without employees: all those who work in their premises pay to occupy a desk, make usufruct of the brand and share a database.
"They are like a Rappi but of the real estate agencies. Their sellers are all monotributistas, they are not in a dependency relationship and they even have to pay for the desk they use," Miguel Ángel Dionisio, president of the Chamber of Martilleros de Mar, tells iProUP of the Silver. And the list goes on.
The truth is that each of these companies, although they operate in very different sectors, have a common axis: they support their businesses in collaborative platforms, in new digital tools or in different types of innovations. And they generate a capacity that, at some point, also turns them into companies in the technological field.
From CIPPEC they contribute some concepts on the economics of platforms that help to clarify this point even more. Although they specifically refer to those that operate through an app - such as Uber, Airbnb, Rappi, among others - it is worth considering their definitions.
"The majority of these types of companies are self-classified as providers of computer services in their registration with the AFIP and it is possible to locate them in specific markets," they say.
Among them, it is listed:
- Automotive passenger transport, such as Uber
- Teaching, repair and cleaning services, as in the case of IguanaFix
- Temporary accommodation, in the style of Airbnb
- Messaging and cadetry, as with Glovo, Rappi and Orders
- Retail trade. For example, Mercado Libre
Why do traditional firms now prefer to be classified as technological and digital and "escape" their traditional or home sectors?
"What we are seeing is a new form of organization that some classify even as a new form of capitalism," says iProUP, Ramiro Albrieu, principal investigator of the area of ââeconomic development at CIPPEC.
For this specialist, what is being modified most is the operations of the companies. Before, large companies had processes that generated some information but were later lost or forgotten. The same happened with consumer data records: with any luck, you could barely intuit whether they were going back or not.
This management model is on the way to disappear and is leading to the emergence of another in which the information is stored carefully and analyzed in great depth. Moreover, "it has become the fingerprint from which a new vision of doing things emanates," Albrieu adds.
Cases for discussion
"We are technology" is the phrase with which Uber chooses to appear at every opportunity. Although the service provided, app through, can be considered as public passenger transport, they deny it under the argument that they do not own any vehicles or have employees.
In the middle, the regulatory fight arises. As they maintain from CIPPEC, the AFIP considers that it is a transport company and part of the conflict (only part) resides in that technical aspect.
However, Uber insists that its scope is technological. In fact, it is an affirmation that cannot be denied since, in addition to having developed the application itself, it also advances with the design of other technologies to, for example, link with the security forces, share the location or avoid fraud.
All this is possible thanks to the information collected. That is, it generates a battery of solutions aimed at giving greater support to your business based on the app and that has an impact with those who work on it and move through this service. It is, clearly, a company 100% of the digital era.
It is interesting, however, what happens with the traditional firms that are in full stage of changes: their technological cost takes such dimension that they decide to call themselves as such. Orange, a financial company based mainly in the provinces, is in the process of transformation. And it is considered, a digital company.
"From now on we are connectivity." This phrase does not come from the director of a telecommunications company, but from Fernando Moura, sales and marketing manager of OnStar connected services, Chevrolet. And although he formulated it in the framework of the launch of the new Onix, the company's fully connected car, its foundation is valid.
Vehicles can no longer be conceived without Internet access for their occupants. And although it is something relatively new (beyond the fact that the connected car began to be called that since the incorporation of bluetooth, several years ago) the fact of thinking of a new model with the "online" as a base breaks schemes in the Automotive industry.
"As technology is something very new for cars, Chevrolet became the first factory that invests rapidly in South America. We produce cars, it's true, but they can no longer be connected because connectivity is part of the vehicle," he adds. the executive
Enter the digital
"For everything to flow you have to enter the digital world. If we, as people, move in it, companies must go in the same direction. Now, it is one thing to be a technology provider and another to be part of the digital world." , highlights the main economist of CIPPEC.
This implies new ways of thinking about productive processes, which have nothing to do with the previous world, that of the industrial era. And not because these new forms do not constitute a different industry but because now the production monitoring is based on the combination of sensors with software that generate data incessantly.
Moreover, they are working on and activating new businesses. Mazzitello, from Orange, makes this concept very clear by stating: "We are not going to stop being Orange by incorporating a much more digital layer in the company."
"With our sights set on 2022, we will be a company that fulfills its mission and purpose: to connect people with unique experiences and facilitate the life of each one by growing in technology-based businesses," he completes.
The change that companies are facing is profound. According to Albrieu's view, "there are firms that are created with other business models, where data comes and goes, intersects all the time and other benefits arise."
The same happens in the public sector: "to that point it is the transformation that makes it difficult to know where one company starts and where another. The old model no longer exists," he says.
That old model coexisting with the new ones put into discussion various tax (as with Uber) and labor aspects: the case of fintech, Mercado Pago and its fight against the banking union led by Sergio Palazzo (who wants them nuclear), is eloquent show of it.
In Argentina, the development of this transformation in the corporate sector is uneven. Another work of the CIPPEC that analyzes Industry "4.0" in the country shows the high degree of heterogeneity that is noticed regarding the transformation in the industry:
- Only 6% are at the top of that digital transformation
- Another 45% are using medium development technologies and aims to close the gaps that separate it from the technological frontier
- A third group, which covers half of the companies operating in the country, use first and second generation technologies and appear inactive in the face of change
"There are bottlenecks," warns Albrieu. Not only at the level of organizations but also of talent. Another report that the entity made together with Microsoft shows that in Argentina only 16% of the people who work are prepared for the change that is taking place in the labor market.
