Digitalisation, as the driving power of the fourth industrial revolution, is fundamentally transforming business strategies, business models and culture. Liquid and transparent marketplaces are created and bargaining power is shifted to the end customer because of transparency. Digitalisation introduces new dimensions to value creation and value capture that needs to be considered in an organisation’s strategy. Business models are changed through separating value chain activities, unbundling products and reconfiguring assets. Organisations must reconsider their business model to support the need for speed to market and customer interactions. This is achieved through inter-alia self-organisation, dispersed decision making and agile organisation structures that can move resources where they are needed. Digitalisation alters divisional and departmental functions, by being inherently trans-functional and upset old multinational structures as functions can be located globally where it is most cost effective or have more access to skills. Sharing assets between alliances and partnerships blurs organisation and industry boundaries, creating new forms of doing business and impacting relationships.

Digitalisation unlocks the business ecosystem. The gradual move from a self-contained organisation to an ecosystem has caused a shift in the business paradigm where value is created or destroyed through the network effect of the ecosystem. Within this interactive, dynamic ecosystem, customer engagement is regarded as a strategic imperative for generating enhanced corporate performance, including sales growth, superior competitive advantage and profitability. Through digitalisation customers have become always addressable, interconnected and empowered. They are not passive receivers anymore, but active observers, initiators, participants and co-creators that interact not only with an organisation one-dimensionally but with other participants in the ecosystem such as other consumers and media. From the customer perspective, organisations need to develop processes and systems that could lead customers to co-create value for a product/service, improve the service experience and support new initiatives. From the organisation perspective, understanding customers’ interaction with the organisation and establishing and maintaining interactive relationship with customers are critical. Social awareness and emotional intelligence are becoming more needed to manage all these connections.

The meaning of sweating the assets is unpacked. The traditional approach of focussing on optimising (or improve) ROA is compared with the holistic approach and understanding of the utility (cannot sweat the asset alone without looking at the complete utility). Some case studies are shared.

A benchmark study between South African and other African jurisdictions.

A brief introduction to the current shortage as a deviation from the requirements and structure set in the Energy White Paper of 1998. It touches on the different options available to move toward market flexibility, like reference to the single buyer purchaser model, multi purchaser model with relation to their regulatory requirements. Some practises, statistics and organisational arrangements in Sub Sahara Africa with regard to regulation is referred to and based on specific Tanzania experience make reference to important elements in the energy value chain of generation mix, market entry, cost and risk. Modelling examples to indicate how IPP’s can share in supporting the available generation and what kind of recovery plans needs to be in place to ensure long term sustainability is shared.

An overview of collaboration and suggested application in SOE environment