Thousands of years ago, traders of meat, skins, and grains met each other in open and transparent marketplaces. Quality was key to repeat business, and pricing driven by supply and demand. Winners in the market listened to the needs of the people they met and found new sources of raw materials and methods of production that better met these needs.
Today, I have joined Oracle for Open World 2014 in San Francisco. DTZ is here to co-present with Oracle some of the work we have done with Google Glass integrated with JD Edwards, our global property service. Sitting in this room amongst hundreds of technology leaders, I find myself struck by how quickly things changed and yet how much remains exactly the same as it was in ancient times of the cavemen.
Sure we talk about Internet of things, big data, digital transformation, the cloud, and other buzzwords. But the most fascinating disruption factor to me is the most basic element of commerce. And it is an element that has been important since the very first days when hunters traded their fresh game for vegetables and grains. Quite simply, it is the customer.
Every exciting trend, every new innovation, the growth of crowd funding, crowd sourcing, crowd planning, crowd protesting… All of it relates to a renewed focus on the consumer. Whether the consumer is an individual or a group of individuals, companies succeed based on their ability to meet the constantly evolving needs of the consumer. And they fail when they forget that the consumer is everywhere.
The consumer is your customers, more globally and digitally connected than ever. And unlike the traders of the early days, they can find your competitors within seconds versus months or years. And they want access to your products and services wherever they are and however is most convenient to them at any particular time.
The consumer is your employees, who are diverse in their backgrounds and their preferences for how to work. They want to have an experience at work that is better than or at least compatible to their experience outside of work. And they want to be able to move on when not challenged.
The consumer is your investors, who instead of putting all of their money in banks now have access to dozens of new currencies like Bitcoin. They need to be convinced that giving you their money is better than micro lending, kickstarting, crowdfunding or doing their own thing.
At the end of the day, perhaps disruption is a lot more simple than we make it seem at these mega conferences like OpenWorld. Perhaps disruption is simply a relentless focus on consumers: your clients, employees and investors. Dream every night of how you can better meet their needs and there is no way you can NOT disrupt your industry. Perhaps the only way you will get left behind is if you leave your consumers behind. Perhaps disruption is simply about a return to the past.
Be Well. Lead On.
Adam
Adam Stanley
Adam L. StanleyConnections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
AdamLStanley.com
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