There’s a big technology shift that underlies the obvious disruption that Facebook and iPhones have caused. But that’s not the point. We all see this change. We live it!
The big, and maybe not so obvious picture is that we are shifting to the information age at a vast rate.
It’s not just the gadgets we use or the apps. The way we live and work has radically shifted in a lifetime. Moore’s Law has led to exponential change. A majority of the US Economy is service and information based. Agriculture and Industry make up less than 25% of the US economy. Go back 100 years and these numbers flip.
If entrepreneurs study this shift, they will find a world of opportunity. Here’s what a shift from the Industrial to the Information Age looks like.
Industrial age to Information age
- From machines to data
- From manufacturing to problem-solving
- From organization to integration
- From stability to change
- From Factory worker to Knowledge worker
- From Top down to bottom up
- From Capital to knowledge
- From mass production to automated production
- From Teachers to Self-learning
Change is a Constant
From the Fortune 500 to Startups, to the way we consume media. Everything is changing.
Digital is the main reason just over half the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since the year 2000.
Travel and Hospitality Redefined
Since founding nine years ago, Airbnb now operates more rooms in more countries that Hilton. Hilton started 98 years ago worth less than half of Airbnb and has 100 times more employees.
Consumed by Media
And all this software is now leading the digitalization of the enterprise and our home lives. The average American consumes over 12 hours of media a day, and most of that is delivered on digital devices.
A new age means new opportunities
What’s so exciting about today is that the chance to innovate lies somewhere between data, automation and human-centered design. We’ll need to curate data quality, let the machines do the heavy lifting, and ensure that we create software that fulfills human needs.
Looks like a fun time.
Catch me at the Design Thinking Forum in Bucharest where I will talk more about these topics.
About the author
Mike is the Head of Innovation at QUALITANCE. He’s passionate about emerging technologies and experience design. Over his award-winning career, he’s worked on big innovation and marketing projects for Nike, Levi’s, Xbox, GE and many others.
Watch our blog section for the next weeks! We’ll regularly be posting about design thinking and innovation. Recently, Mike explained the importance of customer empathy to build the business of tomorrow. In the next blog piece, he will talk about how software is eating the world. Stay close!
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