One of the classic ways that you can think about the deployment of a ‘platform shift’, or indeed any important new technology, is that it follows three stages.
First, we use it for the things we already do: we make the new tool fit our existing work, we automate the tasks we already know we have and we solve problems we can already see. In the enterprise, this generally means cost savings.
Second, over time, we realise the new things that this makes possible - the things that could not have been imagined and perhaps that did not even look like problems. We move from bottom-line innovation to top-line innovation. Incumbents add new features, and startups unbundle incumbents.
And third, sometimes, we have ‘disruption’ - someone works out how to change the question. Airbnb doesn’t sell software to hotels - it changes what ‘hotel’ means. And of course, this varies by industry: the internet disrupted travel agents but not airlines.
First, we use it for the things we already do: we make the new tool fit our existing work, we automate the tasks we already know we have and we solve problems we can already see. In the enterprise, this generally means cost savings.
Second, over time, we realise the new things that this makes possible - the things that could not have been imagined and perhaps that did not even look like problems. We move from bottom-line innovation to top-line innovation. Incumbents add new features, and startups unbundle incumbents.
And third, sometimes, we have ‘disruption’ - someone works out how to change the question. Airbnb doesn’t sell software to hotels - it changes what ‘hotel’ means. And of course, this varies by industry: the internet disrupted travel agents but not airlines.