Nowadays many business meetings and training are happening online and not in real offices. Do you think advantages outweigh the disadvantages in this matter?

In the 4th industrial revolution, the exchange of ideas and information have been modernized and computerised. Business discussions and training sessions have been taking place more and more over the internet and replaced the face-to-face ones. This trend has both positive and negative sides, but I believe its advantages can far outweigh disadvantages.

On the one hand, virtual business meetings and training have an abundance of advantages. Firstly, thanks to online platforms, large multinational companies can economize on expenses of organising physical conferences and training activities. To cite an example, a firm’s headquarters can hold their regular meetings and training for employees in all branches through their web conferences. Secondly, this online mode of operation can improve staff’s flexibility and work productivity. Thanks to the internet, employees can communicate with their colleagues and business partners working in different regions anytime to discuss business strategies, issues and contracts. Therefore, staff finds online discussions and training incredibly helpful and efficient for them to multitask.

On the other hand, the option of holding online business activities also has some drawbacks. Firstly, the flow of information may not be as good as expected due to either any failure in the computer systems or disruptions in the internet connection, thereby reducing the comprehension among meeting and training participants. Moreover, some elder employees could find it hard to get used to this form of operation. As a consequence, online meetings and training appear to be unsuccessful and ineffective if a few participants do not know how to interact with others online and fail to apply what they are taught to their actual performance.

In general, the invention of online business conferences and training has proved to be efficient in many ways. However, some problems for participants need to be carefully viewed. I totally believe that its advantages can far outweigh disadvantages for enterprises, and employees in Industry 4.0 era.