Ignore It At Your Peril

Apologies for the doom and gloom headline, but I came across a great quote from Seth Godin about technology and why it's so important to pay attention to what's happening:

Technology, most especially the Internet, has enabled the New Marketing, but you don't have to understand it to use it.

It's been a decade since the underpinnings of this revolution were put in place. For the last ten years, ignoring most of what was going on with the New Marketing wouldn't have hurt you that much.

Unless you were a travel agent. Now you're out of business.

Unless you worked for a newspaper. Now you're out of a job.

Unless you bought books. Now you know that the best place to find any title, fast and cheap, is online.

Unless you sold insurance. Now you've seen that fat commissions are a thing of the past.

The quote comes from Seth's Meatball Sundae, an excellent book about how technology has created new marketing channels, which in turn require the entire company to be aligned around those channels and the message. He's talking about marketing, but it could apply to any number of other things.

The point is that there's a lot going on and it's often easy to ignore it and say "that doesn't apply to me". The reality, though, is that technology changes businesses in ways that no one can see coming, so ignoring it can be very dangerous.

Ten years ago, did anyone foresee the demise of the independent travel agent? Of course not. How about the music business? Retailers? 

Ten years from now, what will be different? That's impossible to say with any certainty, but smart companies are investing some time in thinking about how they can use technology to improve efficiency, streamline operations, or do things that were previously impossible. When those companies start seeing the results of that effort, their business model is going to give them a tremendous advantage over everyone else - they'll be able to charge less, provide better service, and make more profit all at the same time.

The companies that AREN'T thinking about that will be the unfortunate ones trying to compete against them. Who do you think is going to win?