We are at a tipping point in business, technology, and society, and I don't think we've seen anything quite like this since the 1960s.
I can't explain everything in one column, but what has struck me so far is how imposing this revolution was. If you think these days are chaotic, all I can say is that you should have been around his 1968. The only disappointment today was the music. Sorry, I knew the Beatles, Motown, folk rock.
What caught my attention, at least in the technology field, is that we don't throw everything away and start over with a clean slate.
Thus began the era of minicomputers in the late 60s. Mini meant smaller and more unwieldy than a mainframe, but the cultural upheaval brought about by companies like Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, and Wang disrupted everyone's apple cart.
Suddenly, we can move computing power even closer to where it's needed. That was the first time we added statistical control to manufacturing. As a result, we were able to improve things and satisfy more customers in the process.
Perhaps we are not throwing everything away now. Because there's really nothing to throw away. Today's revolution is towards artificial intelligence like never before, and we're actually starting from scratch anyway.
Reinventing legacy technology companies
What's most interesting to me is that the small companies of the minicomputer era are reinventing themselves, as they have done almost every decade since their inception.
My list includes HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, as well as several other companies such as Salesforce. Salesforce seems to reinvent itself on a whim, and has done so for 25 years.
So why does this matter? After all, Schumpeter and Kondratieff articulated the boom-bust cycle long ago, and Schumpeter famously described it as creative destruction.
This is important because true inflection points are rare. I mentioned his 1968, but I think most people reading this are either too young to remember that year or weren't even born yet. This is one reason why big changes can seem so chaotic and anxiety-provoking. They are so far apart in time that few people have memories to compare them to the present.
From science to engineering: changing the agenda
I have an interesting perspective because I'm nearing the end of my career so I can see the whole cycle and it gives me a perspective that most people don't have. Perhaps the most salient part of that perspective is the comforting realization that there are very few truly difficult problems.
Hard problems involve science and often involve the development of new science. Most of the problems we have are engineering problems. Science shows the way, and engineering levels the roads and makes them passable for all. Unlike other times, there is so much science available today that we can devote most of our attention to engineering.
Cloud computing was a science until bookstore Amazon discovered how to host millions of shoppers at the same time. This paved the way for Salesforce and a handful of innovative companies to invent cloud computing.
It doesn't take away from it to say that the founders of SaaS solved an engineering problem rather than a science problem. Most early entrants didn't realize that while the technology was revolutionary, the changes to business were about much more. Early entrants also had to solve economic/financial/business model issues along the way.
CRM that leads innovation
We should stay with the idea of solving engineering problems here, because a lot of the stagnation I see in the world comes from not addressing engineering problems. CRM seems to be an exception. We enjoy solving problems and it shows. There's no better place to work than a CRM.
Solving engineering problems related to CRM has improved lives in many ways. Of course, it created jobs, and those jobs created literally trillions of dollars worth of economic activity. The aftermath was immeasurable.
Here we go back to the beginning. The field is wide open and new fortunes will come as we tackle the latest engineering challenges. Along the way, there will be successes, and unfortunately, there will also be setbacks. But as long as we keep trying to solve the engineering problems at hand, we'll be fine.
Real failure only occurs by saying something is too difficult or not worth doing. No successful entrepreneur since the Industrial Revolution has said that.
