Startup Revolution

Innovate or Die In Money Too

Loved this HBR intro:

"Despite rapid innovations in data processing and machine learning, many businesses have yet to make the leap from the Industrial Age to the information age, and the gap between technological and organizational progress is widening. Closing this gap requires much more than short-term fixes, like adopting new technologies. Businesses need to organize around long-term strategies for growth and partnership in a sustainable way. The consequences for not doing so can be dire.

Eastman Kodak is the textbook case for failing to prioritize an innovation agenda; business schools around the world study the ramifications of the company’s ill-fated decision to ignore the digital photography market until it was too late. It’s far from the only case of a failure to embrace a more digital approach; the larger shift to digital is changing the way every industry operates. Some industries, like photography and media, were impacted earlier. Others, like financial services, are only now experiencing this change in earnest. The common thread in each instance is that a failure to recognize signals and prioritize innovation over short-term profits before it’s too late can have existential ramifications and cause negative ripples throughout broader capital markets."

If That doesn't scare the pants off you then we don't know what will. Money and finance are under pressure and it's innovating or die time. Money, as we've known it, is already dead man walking. 

We Are All Software Makers Now

I think Joi Ito's TED talk about NOWISM is correct and a tsunami trend few understand or address. Right after the NOWISM wave comes the, "We are all software creators" wave. 

We love this line, "It is decidedly non-trivial for a company in a non-tech traditional industry to start thinking and acting like a software company." Damn skippy it is hard to become a "softwareist". 

Software engineers speak a different language, think differently than left brain creatives (most marketing people are left brain creatives) and want to engineer the world. 

The subtext of this well written and intelligently conceived post is find blue oceans or die. I'm mixing metaphors since the post doesn't contextualize using Kim's great Blue Ocean Strategies book, but the implication hangs in this post like a line separating winners from losers.