Fresh Insights

How many times in your life have you thought, wow, incremental change in technology is so incredible, never again in our lifetime will we be part of such radical change? One could have said this virtually every decade since the mid 1980's.

Well, the cycle of change and the speed of adoption is so incredible, we have seen so much innovation, web1.0, web 2.0, and now next generation. Even before this, we had the rapid adaptation of computing and the PC at work and home. Then we began with basic mobile phones, and then early generation smart phones, and now virtual computer smartphones for everything you need. The PC is come and though it's not gone, it's been sup,emended with so many diverse devices.

It was not that long ago that Word Perfect (at one time bought buy Novell another name from the past) and Lotus 123 began the early  PC revolution, only to be replaced by Microsoft Office. And pardon me if I'm not quite sequential in my historical alignment, next came AOL and dial up, and even Netscape. Wow, I remember when I would travel east I would arrive so late at the hotel and leave my computer on all night downloading files. It would take hours but it was novel. Change  is so rapid, I no longer rely on Microsoft Office or other Microsoft products. By the way my sons do, they love their Xbox 360. 

In 1999 myself and partners formed a CRM company called eAssist. Our vision was a term called "ASP". Our target market was eCommerce companies. We had a hell of time, with some success convincing companies to store their data in co-location of site.  Today, it's called the cloud, and it's pervasive, it’s in the enterprise, and it's with your personal data. just when you think you have seen it all, the pace picks up like never before. Moore's law of computing is really true more broadly with the speed and evolution of technology, rather than the inverse relationship between power and cost Gordon Moore was referring to.

Oh yes back to the cloud. Having worked so hard to convince businesses to manage their data remotely, it is truly amazing how that barrier has been broken down so quickly and dare I say easily. I actually pay extra for the ability to store data and emails in the cloud. And I trust it's okay to leave important personal data remotely. So do most of you!

But more than the cloud, I love disruptive innovation. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and my favorite because it's a great business tool, LinkedIn. Social media may be working thru various revenue models, but valuations are justified when you have 100's of millions of people using it. I mean the fact is social media is everywhere, it is responsible for so much change including even government (Arab spring) and elections (President Obama's election).

What I find so amazing is how willing people are to share their life moment by moment and even more so, how much people care. But this disruptive innovation is so rapid because it's practical.  I enjoy going to sporting events, and I no longer call Ticketmaster or the venue hosting the event, I go to Stub Hub. Ditto, when I purchase an airline ticket, I check one of the various aggregation sites. And finally, although I still receive a newspaper to the house(I'm I'm not sure why), I get my news from my iPad. Even the way news is delivered is incredible. I love sites such as Zite, Pulse or Flipbook. Oh yes the iPad . I remember all the booms I had to carry around in business school. What an I pace the iPad is going to make in the school.

Have you noticed we no longer have Polaroid or Kodak cameras? That is not because we stopping taking pictures. In fact, to fulfill my social media obligations I'm taking more pictures than ever. And I'm not consciously carrying a camera, but I'm sharing with all my friends!

Being an early adapter of a Bluetooth earpiece, I was once was asked if I was in the secret service. It looked kind of James Bond like.  Can you imagine a decade ago someone walking and talking with no one beside them? You might thing they are pretty strange. Companies that do not adapt will not survive. Individuals that do not embrace change will not succeed. But on the positive, how many of us a decade ago had heard of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Groupon to name a few companies? Going from 0 to a few or a 100 billion in a decade is possible. It's the wild west, and everything is possible. All one needs to do is think big and have a little luck. What a great time to be alive!

Read more at dan@spdata blog.