Page - 183 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

Siemens healthcare has developed a digital ecosystem store in the cloud where Siemens and its partners are sharing healthcare applications and the customers can subscribe to those applications on a pay-per-use basis.6 This holds the promise of greater productivity, a higher standard of living and a safe and secure industrial environment. The savings from interconnected and intelligent machines will be substantial for the global market. For example, in fifteen years globally, improving fuel savings by just one percent in the aviation industry could save $30 billion, one percent of fuel savings in power generation equipment could save$66billion, onepercent of operation costs of hospitals could save $63 billion, one percent increase in transportation efficiency could save $27 billion, and one percent improvement in capital utilization in upstream and downstream oil exploration and development could save $90 billion (Evans and Annunziata 2012). So, thepowerof just onepercent improvement is substantial for industrial companies and these five industries alone could save $276 billion glob- ally infifteen years. The corporate entrepreneurs can utilize the digital ecosystems and develop newproducts and services and bring those to themarketmuch faster than their competitors. Theproblems facingfirmsare twofold, though.First,whichcompanieswill gain as technologies shift, new technologies emerge and are implemented, and new businessmodels emerge is uncertain. Established, incumbent businesses are strug- glingwithhistorical investments in capabilities andwaysofdoingbusiness that has developed a dependency and reinforced by years if not decades of investments. Second,established, incumbentbusinessesmustembraceentrepreneurial anddigital mindsets to set awillingness to innovate intonew,non-traditional technologies, the ability to both do so and execute onwhich requires hitherto undefined capabilities. As firms cannot make infinite investments, strategic decisions on markets and capabilitiesare judgmentscouched inuncertainty,whichcallsonincumbentfirms to embracecorporatedigital entrepreneurship.For example,PitneyBowes Inc. (www. pitneybowes.com)isanearlycentury-oldofficepostagemetercompanyinStamford, CT, USA. The company’s annual revenue is around $3.5 billion. In 2014, Pitney Bowes realized thatofficepostagemeter andprintingbusinesseswerechangingand customers were more interested in digital transactions. The corporate digital entrepreneurship initiativewas startedbyRogerPilc, thenchief innovationofficer,7 who realized that Pitney Bowes should reposition itself as a technology company andshould leverageemerging technologies suchas IoT,bigdata,mobile, andcloud technologies. They developed a commerce cloud (software-as-a-service, SaaS) solution anddiversified their business in cross-border e-commerce. In 2018, half of the revenue came fromcommerce services.8 6https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/press-room/press-releases/pr-20180306009hc.html. 7https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2016/08/09/roger-pilc-awakens-pitney-bowes-innovation- engine/#1a32078f603d. 8https://www.investorrelations.pitneybowes.com/static-files/faba498e-408f-4085-87ae-fc815edbc061. 188 S. Ghosh et al.