During my life path as a supposed entrepreneur I’ve always pointed out that my biggest fear is to, at some point, lose the ability to see the big picture, to stop connecting the dots and see the future.
Everything else may block or delay but it’s part of the journey.
I call this fear “FoBO” or “Fear of Being Overtaken”.
The “Innovator’s Dilemma”, a book that was first published in 1997 and that any wannabe entrepreneur must read, suggests that successful companies can put too much emphasis on customers’ current needs and fail to adopt new technology or business models that will meet their customers’ future needs. And such companies will eventually fall behind.
Although this is true, nowadays it’s not even enough to adopt new technologies or business models. At the pace innovation happens, this is becoming a world where winners are the only survivors.
Nowadays, for a successful business to fail it’s not enough to avoid do anything wrong. The world changes so fast that it’s only a matter of being surpassed by any business disruption that some other business, no matter if small or big, can follow.
The main message is: to lose and to fail you don’t have to do anything wrong, as long as your competitors catch the wave and do it right.
The “Innovators’ Dilemma” points several examples of big companies that fail for being overtaken by innovation disruptions (ex.: like Kodak and digital photography).
My “FoBO” or “innovator’s dilemma 2.0” is not about failing to seeing the wave, it’s about failing catch it.
Who would imagine ten years ago that Nokia would be gone? Ten years ago the iPhone was not even born!
Nokia was a respectable company. They didn’t do anything wrong in their business, however, the world changed too fast.
In the press conference in which they announced that NOKIA was being acquired by Microsoft, Nokia’s CEO ended his speech by saying this: “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”. Once he said that, his entire management team, himself included, teared sadly.
Taxi drivers are now concerned about UBER. How about self-driving cars?
Any advantage you have yesterday, will be replaced by the trends of tomorrow!
So, to change and to improve is to give yourself a second chance.