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We have all heard the legend of David and Goliath. It is a typical moral tale with the theme of smaller and weaker overcoming bigger and stronger. However, the more important lesson to be learnt from the fable is that of the victory of innovation over traditionalism. The smaller and weaker David thought outside of the box and won a battle of brawn through the power of the brain. Goliath, on the other hand, lost because he was tied to the old ways he was accustomed to using and winning. His traditionalism led to his downfall. Something similar has come to pass in the business world in the recent past. Many a lumbering, slow moving Industry giants have fallen to the quick footed and innovative newcomers. The new is supposed to replace the old. This trend comes as no surprise to us, but what’s surprising it the velocity with which this change of guard has taken place. Within about half a dozen years, we have seen the industry go through a major upheaval and a polar shift. While the demand for almost every service, from education to entertainment to retail has increased significantly with growing population; and yet, so many market leaders have either become bankrupt, or have been pushed way down the top-lists. Just to put the context of the discussion in perspective, consider the following facts – 1. Eastman Kodak company, in its 125th year of existence, filed bankruptcy. It held 90% of market share in 1976, had the last profitable year in 2007. This, despite the fact that more number of pictures are taken in a month around the globe today, than were taken in the whole year a decade ago. What went wrong with the inventor of the core technology used in digital cameras today? 2. Another victim to the winds of change is Blockbuster LLC. Even though at-home media consumption, and movie rentals are higher than ever before in USA, one of the most popular movie and game rental company saw the curtain drop on it as it went under in 2010. 3. A hard to read story is that of the painful chapter in the life of Borders bookstores. The fairy tale of an immersive reading experience at the 500+ bookshops came to a tragic end in 2011. This, when the number of books purchased in America rose by 27% in 2012. These are but a few samples from a list of erstwhile corporate majors that succumbed to the tsunami of change. The list includes names like Nokia (mobile devices), AOL (communications), and LA Times (News). So what went wrong? Some failures may get brushed off with digitization in the domain put to blame. However, this trend is not as simple as new technology, and not even leadership or management issues. There is a larger force at play here – modernization. The misfortune of the traditional ‘leaders’ (and the fortune of those who replaced them) has to do with more than just technology. It is rooted in a fundamental shift in the core principles and mindset of the modern marketplace. The reality of businesses today is that just a great product is not sufficient for success. How you position, market, sell it are critical. Also critical are the customer engagement model, and the business IT maturity and currency. The old models are dead. Today, the modern business world is ruled by 4 defining terms – Social, Media, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC). The employee and user engagement happens over social platforms. The sales and financial transactions happen over mobile devices. Analytics decide what your next field of endeavor will be, and cloud is the ubiquitous technology real estate and delivery mechanism of the future. Author is associated with one of the leading mobile application developers. The mobility consulting firms provide quality mobility solutions for multiple verticals like government, field services and healthcare mobility solutions.
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