Industry Game Changers

Over time, there have been a large number of industry game changers. They completely disrupt an industry and often put even dominant share leaders out of business. As examples:

• The Ford Model T largely put horse and buggies out of business
• Computers replaced typewriters
• Vacation timeshares created a whole new industry, as did timeshares of private jets
• The Internet made the world a whole lot smaller
• Digital photography replaced film-based photography
• Smart phones have far surpassed any functionality Star Trek imagined for its communicator device and have largely replaced land lines
• Robots are replacing more and more manufacturing jobs
• Airbnb is disrupting the hotel industry
• Uber and Lyft are giving taxicab companies a run for their money
• Zipcar car sharing has changed things as has Zagster bike sharing
• Amazon.com and other online retailers are making shopping malls obsolete
• Self-driving cars will play havoc with a number of industries
• AI and medical diagnostic learning systems are already replacing Internists in remote areas
• Eventually, people's vitals will be routinely measured and fed back to health care monitoring systems
• Stem cell research is leading to organ regeneration techniques
• Photonics may one day replace silicon chips
• E-learning may one day replace the way colleges and universities deliver their services
• With energy storage improvements, it may become routine for individual residences to be self-contained regarding their energy usage
• With energy storage improvements, electric vehicles may just upend gasoline powered vehicles
• A break-through in hydrogen fuel cells will have a similar impact on the petroleum industry

So, what are some of the disruptors one should consider?

• Any Internet-enabled business
• Any business that benefits from network effects
• Any business that is scalable
• Anything that can create disintermediation
• Any business model that allows for the sharing of specific resources
• Any new source of energy
• Any receptor that can detect a new bandwidth of energy along the electromagnetic spectrum
• Any technology that allows for increased storage of energy
• Any human activity that can be replaced by robots
• Any expertise that can be replicated by AI and learning systems
• Any new mobile phone application that can replace something else

And what are some of the critical skills required to create marketplace disruptions?

• An entrepreneurial mindset
• Out-of-the-box thinking
• Risk-taking
• Software expertise
• Internet proficiency
• Systems thinking
• Design thinking
• Some minimum proficiency in science and technology
• Broad exposure to a wide variety of disciplines