Skyrocket your Strategy like Deloitte's Tech Fast 50

Is your brand built to survive the challenges 2023 will bring? 

Murky economic outlooks,  inflation and pivoting customer expectations threaten to have a profound impact on businesses globally.  However, there is a silver lining. 

Brands prepared for these challenges will be better positioned to capitalise on new opportunities and propel their business forward.

This year, Explorate was shortlisted alongside front-runners in business and tech at the Deloitte Tech Fast 50, Brisbane Lord Mayor's & Young Entrepreneur Awards. Surrounded by Australia's up-and-coming, we noticed some recurring strategies used to skyrocket bright ideas into successful and sustainable businesses.

This business survival guide brings these strategies together to help your business reach its potential in 2023.

1. Be financially resilient

The global economic outlook for 2023 is murky at best. Experts warn of ongoing inflation and subdued economic growth with the impacts hitting nonessential goods and services the hardest.

But inflation doesn't have to jeopardise your business. In fact, many businesses may come out of an inflationary period stronger than when they entered.

So how can you avoid inflation from eroding the value of your businesses finances?

Build a resilient Supply Chain

Combat the volatility of shutdowns, geopolitical and inflation risks by assessing your supply chain's resilience before it's too late. Map out your entire supply chain to expose weak links that may leave you vulnerable to commodity price volatility.

Explore ways to reinforce your supply chain and mitigate risks such as alternative suppliers and trade-lanes. Become more self-reliant where possible and limit just-in-time supply chains with support from PO Management and procurement.

Is your Brand Immersive?

Forbes has identified 'immersion and interactivity' as popular 2023's keywords. With economic insecurity afoot, a larger focus on end-to-end customer experience is dominating business strategy. Brands like Adobe are even appointing chief experience officers (CXO) to ensure they're enticing consumers in memorable and meaningful ways. 

Assess each of your touchpoints with your current customers for opportunities to personalise their interactions. Consider partnerships that could allow you to easily incorporate immersion into your customer experience.  49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience.

Lessons From the Front Lines

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We're not alone in the business of transforming the logistic industry.  In the 2022 Deloitte Tech Fast 50, there were a multitude of other logistics and freight forwarding suppliers; each tackling different aspects of the supply chain.

Kaddy landed an impressive 5th place. Their specialisation in beverage storage, transport and delivery simplifies the wholesale beverage industry. This solidifies the demand for new processes and tools to support the logistics industry.

Explorate is more than just a freight forwarder, it's an extension of your business. With our supply chain team and customer success teams helping you find new growth opportunities, new trade lanes, and taking legacy tasks off your plate, you can concentrate on growing your business. This combination of hands-on expert advice and innovative technologies gives you the best of both worlds in reinforcing your supply chain.

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2. Be conscious of your data

Your data isn't just a tool for informing, tracking or making decisions: it's a business-critical asset.

To avoid the whiplash of realising competitors are doing much more with their data assets, this is how companies are evolving.

Leverage Third Party Data

Sometimes your data alone doesn't provide the holistic insight you need to make informed decisions. Take advantage of partnerships and collaborations to leverage enormous volumes of externally sourced data (that would otherwise be off limits).  

Keep Data Sharing Simple and Secure

Investigate and use tools that simplify the mechanics of data sharing while preserving a veil of privacy. More options for service providers that sort and visualize your data are available than ever before.  It's important to consider their potential for unlocking more value from your data so you can increase efficiency and lower costs in the long term. 

Lessons From the Front Lines

At the Deloitte Tech Fast 50, this trend can be spotted with 2nd place winner FrankieOne. It connects customers to hundreds of global identity and fraud detection data sources to protect their assets and identities.

Me&u, in third place, has seen incredible growth building a better future for hospitality. Using data-driven features, it helps their partners unlock increased revenue with customers spending 30% more with every transaction.

Explorate tracks shipments using a variety of different sources, from a range of providers that use different methodologies. We analyse these data points and benchmark them, so that we can take advantage of the combined information. This increases our accuracy while reducing the risk of errors caused from relying on a single source of data.

Read more in this 2019 Deloitte survey.

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3. Be a force for good

What would it look like if companies, instead of competing to be the best in the world, strived to be the best FOR the world?

We're yet to reach the tipping point of societal demand that would actualise this business Utopia. However, the explosive growth in built-for-purpose brands reveals this revolution may be just around the corner.

Balance Profit with Purpose

When reflecting on your performance in 2022, look beyond your financial performance. Your balance sheets need to account for the social, environmental and knowledge capital rather than just your cash flow. Properly valuing the non-economic capital of your businesses forges new decision-making norms to help strengthen your brand positioning coming into the new year. 

Choose Green

Sustainability has been on the agenda for years now and it's only gaining momentum. The good news is that taking action has never been easier. 

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Easy to implement initiatives like carbon offsets can neutralise your supply chain emissions taking environmental burden off both you and your customers. Actioning sustainability for your brand might be your best business decision you make in 2023.

Lessons From the Front Lines

Another face we saw at the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 was Humanitix, who have built social impact into their product. So far, Humanitix has transformed over $1M from booking fees into helping disadvantaged kids around the world.

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Explorate embeds sustainability into our services. We empower users to track their emissions and enable them to reduce their carbon footprint through carbon offsetting. With end-to-end supply chain visibility and real-time data about their shipments, customers can make more sustainable decisions.

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The Deloitte Tech Fast 50, Brisbane Lord Mayor's & Young Entrepreneur Awards showcase where Australia's tech sector is now, where it's heading and who's taking us there.  Being seated amongst such a passionate crowd of ground breakers and innovators has energised us for another monumental year ahead.

At Explorate, we're an extension of your business. If you're already an Explorate customer, check in with your designated operations specialist to see how we can help you be better prepared for the new normal in logistics. If you're not with us yet but are interested in digitalising your logistics operations, get in touch.