The compression of life cycles across product, customer and purchase has evolved more quickly than any other time in modern business history. With each industrial breakthrough, there’s been an explosion of new and complementary products. A couple of bicycle mechanics designed the first successful American gasoline automobile in 1893. Thirty American manufacturers produced 2,500 motor vehicles in 1899 and over the next decade 485 companies entered car manufacturing business. Imagine the rapid evolution of the product with that many car designers and builders.
Fast forward to the digital age.
Through the ages, consumer behaviors have boiled down to three basic functions of Content Consumption, Commerce and some form of Community. The corresponding business models had evolved with little change for centuries. The printing press, the radio and TV were revolutionary. Currency other than barter, regional and national chains and the malls along credit and debit cards changed the world of commerce and a global postal service have evolved these models.
Digital rapidly took everything to a new level through accessibility, scale and the democratization of all three and since scale, convergence through marketplaces and platforms began to dominate on a global basis.
Amazon, Google, Facebook…the blending of commerce, content, and community. Hundreds of service and software start-ups sprouted up to support and drive these new business models, which in turn drove an unprecedented growth in jobs and wealth.
And, here we are now on the precipice of another step change in growth with the decentralization that blockchain offers combined with the massive acceleration in the adoption of AI by consumers and businesses.
Learning from the past 30 years has prepared some for the next 5, while others will ignore the lessons at their own peril.