Industrial companies have a clear choice when it comes to transformational technologies – embrace them and surge past your competitors or stand still and fall behind, according to Baird’s most recent Global Industrial Report.

Which technologies are changing the industrial landscape? Everything from big data to artificial intelligence to software-as-a-service to collaborative robotics to 3-D printing to autonomous vehicles to the industrial internet of things, according to Baird.

“But the seismic shift is that innovation is coming at an alarming rate,” the report says. “A recent study by global consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates that while it took a disruptive technology five years to reach scale (defined as $1 billion in revenue) in the recent past, such progress is now achievable in just one year. Investors are realizing that companies with greater focus on adopting and implementing new technologies organically or through acquisitions are better equipped to realize outsized benefits and growth.”

Not only will adopting new technologies and hiring the talent needed to deploy them give your company a competitive advantage over laggards, but it will increase the business valuation, as well.

“Valuations in both the M&A and public equity markets have materially increased in recent years,” according to the report. “This trend is magnified for technology-rich industrial companies, which are being rewarded with substantial premiums. As an example, in the public equity market, industrial technology companies are trading at a ~600 bps EBITDA multiple premium to the broader industrial market, up from a typical premium of ~300 bps.”

What is your company’s technology strategy for 2018 and beyond, and how do you plan for technology to create a differentiator? If you don’t have an answer, your business is susceptible to tech-savvy disrupters that have made innovation a priority.