OPEN

Can you spot the revolution happening next to you? How about now?

March 11, 2008

There’s a charming account of meeting the two-men-in-a-booth that was Yahoo! in 1995 on the HBR Editor’s blog. Lew McCreary uses the anecdote to reflect on how, distracted by the shiny things of the moment we can miss the true significance of revolutionary changes grinding their way onwards in the background.

In this case, he was fixated by Yahoo! and the consumer web while the biggest revolution was the less glossy, but far more significant transfer of business-to-business processes onto the web.

That fickle cycle continues. Each shiny new thing has its season of fervor, then interest clicks elsewhere. Meanwhile, the more momentous change occurs with far less drama. Don’t misunderstand me—the consumer Web is not chopped liver. But the economic value and enhanced capability produced through migrating every conceivable type of business activity to internet protocols dwarfs that of 1995’s shiny new thing. And most of us didn’t have a clue.

What are we missing right now, I wonder?

business, web, yahoo

Antony Mayfield

Public notebook

2 responses to “Can you spot the revolution happening next to you? How about now?”

Mark Hanson

March 11, 2008 at 9:14 am

It’s interesting. The biggest lesson for organisations and brands is ignore the shiny thing and concentrate on the structural changes in behaviour.

Not quite clear though on the B2B revolution and how its outpaced the changes in individuals behaviour?
Tamsin Bishton

March 16, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Govt by internet is rumbling towards us with barely anyone paying it much attention it seems. It’s already started with things like online tax returns. But when DirectGov finally delivers on all that it’s supposed to (and it will, eventually, there’s too much money being pumped into it now for it not to) most of our interactions with the powers that be will happen online. One of the things I’ve noticed about online banking, is that now that more or less everything that happens with the administration of my bank account is driven personally by me, and controlled by me a) things actually happen as and when I want them to and b) when they don’t, it’s because I’ve mucked it up, no one else. Imagine if that was how it was with ones intereactions with the state. I think individuals will feel much more in control of things when DirectGov delivers and the relationship with those “in charge” will definitely change for the better.