The past few days have witnessed a couple of extraordinary developments. On Friday, AOL announced that after just 13 years it would be pulling the plug on Netscape Navigator. What is interesting about this development is that in his bestselling book, The World is Flat, Tom Friedman cited August 9, 1995—the date Netscape went public—as his second flattener or “world changing” event. Also on Friday, Fujitsu—the company which developed the first plasma television—announced that it would be ending the production of plasma TVs.
The two events are merely symptoms of today’s Exponential Economy. As I state in my forthcoming book, Jump the Curve, the business environment is also becoming exponentially riskier. As proof, I merely draw your attention to Standard & Poor’s rating of equity risks. In 1985, 41% of all companies were deemed stable (or not risky). By 2006 this figure had plummeted to 13%.
Unfortunately, as a result of exponential advances in computers, bandwidth, data storage, rapid prototype manufacturing, algorithms, nanotechnology, and biotechnology the world of commerce is only going to become more risky in the near future. It is all the more reason why companies and executives must learn to “jump the curve’ and constantly innovate and reinvent their businesses. If they don’t, they could soon find themselves out of business—just like Netscape and Fujitsu.
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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
