Matt Brown, CEO of Digital Kungfu.

To remain competitive in today's rapidly changing world, businesses need to ask the right questions.

So said Matt Brown, Digital Kungfu CEO, delivering the keynote at the Digital Economy 2017 Summit in Johannesburg today.

We live in an era of risk and instability – globalisation and exponential technologies have combined to upend the business environment and give many business leaders a deep sense of unease, he noted.

Brown believes there are three fundamental questions companies need to ask when writing their digital transformation strategy.

Firstly, what are your warning signs in your industry? There are warning signs in every industry one to three years before disaster strikes, he said. Often, legacy businesses are not paying attention to these warning signs, added Brown. For example Toys R Us recently filed for bankruptcy because it failed to embrace online retail, he added.

Secondly, what will put you out of business? "It's not about how can we get more customers, it's about what can put you out of business." Lastly, what is the solution to question two?

The rate of technical progress amongst humans has always been linear, but it's now growing exponentially, noted Brown, adding most businesses are not prepared for this change.

"If you look back at all human progress through time, it has been on a linear trajectory, the whole school system was built on this thinking. And you are groomed to work at some big corporate but the world is changing.

"We always think the future will be similar to the past and we're always surprised when we are disrupted."

Never in our history have we been able to create billion dollar companies in such a short period of time, said Brown, giving examples of Uber and Airbnb. In the future, the companies that will be the most competitive will come down to two things – the ability to out-innovate the competition, and then market those innovations, noted Brown.

Therefore, businesses executives need to ask the right questions to adapt to the exponential changing world, he explained.

"If you gather smart people around a table to solve a problem, and can't solve it, it's generally not because they lack intelligence but it's about a lack of perspective, and that's why questions are so important." Big innovation, adaptability and becoming agile comes from asking the right questions, said Brown.