In 2017, I was predicting a few things [https://innovation-copilots.ghost.io/my-innovation-radar-for-2017/] that I believe are now pretty obvious for everyone in 2020. Let’s contrast what I was forecasting, from some of the perspectives on technology that Benedict EVANS just published a few days ago in Tech in
Weak Signals
I already discussed already a few times how bad it is that ads are still the default monetization mode [https://www.icopilots.com/why-ad-monetization-is-wrong-really] digital media. In term of business model, they still use the same playbook as soap operas in the sixties. Not only this stifles innovation in this
Since 2011, Nigeria has decided to fuel entrepreneurship by distributing public funding. Nothing surprising, but their strategy: lowering the barrier of entry as much as possible by distributing funding to anyone with a small business and a « readable » business plan. With all due caution to the transferability of such a
If you’ve read any business book in your life, it’s painfully obvious that the industry has been trying to offset the problem of relying on predictive business plans to innovate, (a) forever and (b) without much success. Everything that has been written about business has been connected to
Clayton Christensen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Christensen] passed away two days ago. I will have never met him. And as influential as he was for many of us on innovation strategy, I thought it would be interesting to remember that he was not only focused on that.
It’s starting to be clearer for everyone that the GAFA are not “startups” anymore, but incumbents in defensive mode. While I was exploring this as an early signal in mid-2018, the platforms’ dark patterns [https://innovation-copilots.ghost.io/my-innovation-radar-2018-part-2-platforms-dark-patterns/] are now shamelessly visible. Just recently, Google has been tweaking
The narrative of David vs. Goliath has been constantly used to describe how startups and industries interact with each other. Startups are frail but smart and nimble, and industrials are powerful but slow-moving, yada yada... You know the story. In 2013, I read the latest Malcolm Gladwell book on this
Don’t fret, I’m not going to make a post a day on startups that are « solving real problems ». But I thought it would be fair to point at Deepnews, an interesting European startup (it’s even French-based — oh my). Deepnews is solving a dramatically obvious problem: news that
Catalog [https://www.catalogdna.com/] is a DNA storage [https://www.wired.com/story/the-rise-of-dna-data-storage/] startup trying to solve the problem of the exploding cost, complexity, carbon footprint and lack of longevity of data storage. To do so, they’re exploring how protein-based ATCG code could someday replace silicon-based 0s
Technology
But even if we pretend that technology is inherently neutral (which is not), we need to face that tech has facilitated so many terrible outcomes these last ten years. From climate change to the end of privacy as we knew it, saying that “tech is neutral” is a weird form
The term “self-cannibalization” appears when a company launches a new product line, competing with one of its own. It is mostly a classic strategic move, implying that said company is phasing out some products to update their offer. In some cases, like in the fashion industry and their seasonal cycles,
Strategy
Today, Bose announced they’d be closing all of their stores in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia [https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/15/21067715/bose-shutting-down-retail-stores-layoffs-north-america-europe-japan-australia] . In their original 1993 thinking, the idea for such a chain of international retail stores seemed clear enough: > “Originally, our retail stores