in the old days (actually just a few years ago) every business operated within a industry; e.g. pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, music, information technology, etc. starting up a new company, just pick your industry and you automatically know who your competitors are.
not today; today industry walls have been obliterated. there are no more industries, just market spaces where you must operate within a field of very mixed and differentiated competition. take the music industry for example; an industry that used to be dominated by record companies and music producers. now the music industry is complex and varied with competitors of many different types and focuses. the following exhibit provides a graphic example.
Music Industry Market Space
the picture is the same in almost any industry that you examine. this change is material and impacts you whether you are a start-up entrepreneur or an established business owner. adaptation to this change is critical to the young entrepreneur, who might have recognized this picture early on, and also (and possible more critically) to the existing business owner who is trying to grow while becoming the brand in demand.
take the information technology (I/T) support industry for example. yesterday you would contract with a company to provide their I/T infrastructure and you would use your resident geeks like me to install and fine tune the infrastructure. other than minor repairs and tweaks, the contract support then became a profit machine.
not today; when clients contract for I/T business support they want and need a "business partner" or an "on-demand chief information officer". the technical support by geeks is necessary, but insufficient. today the I/T support contractor must be a renaissance team of vast intermixed skills and capabilities. someone who can bring the power of technology not as an isolated infrastructure, but as a value added core capability of the business to power business strategy, core competency and market differentiation. the opportunity and the role of the I/T business support contractor today is demanding and complex. refer to the following graphic.
Expanded Market Space Role of the I/T Support Contractor
want to grow your company and become the brand in demand within the I/T support contractor market space (or virtually any other company/market space), better rethink your business, hiring/staffing, training, and approach to customer service.
believe it or not, this same trend also applies to our colleges and universities. many colleges and universities today are still teaching in vertical silos; economics 101, 201; physics 101, 201; etc. yet students today learn by topic or interest area across silos, which is exactly what a Google search provides. colleges and universities must change or continue to lose opportunities and students to on-line, for-profit, or trade institutions.
want to be a global player, the same trend has already appeared. there is no where to hide.
View of Global Market Space
industries are dead, long live market spaces.
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