A Creative Communications Agency

Many people try to focus on the current time as a new, ever changing business environment where innovation and technology are advancing so quickly that companies are constantly struggling to catch up. The truth is that throughout history, business has always been changing. This is not a new phenomenon.

Yes, the internet and all the digital technology that is being developed and accepted by consumers is highly advanced but so was the development of currency, electricity, the telegraph, the automobile… Imagine when a business first installed electricity in it’s store, they are now able to be open later, factories and textiles were replacing human or steam power machines with electrical motors. The comparison to a company adapting to use the internet isn’t even close to how companies had to adapt to use electricity.

Even greater was the adaptation to currency. The old form of business was based on trading; three chickens for 12 wool blankets. One hammer for a pair of shoes; what was the day like when someone walked in with 3 silver pieces for a pair of shoes? Who would take a few pieces of silver for material goods? Who could you pass the silver off on to get the good you required? The ancient world wasn’t a world economy. You may have a pile of coins from the Roman Empire but it couldn’t buy you one ounce of spices from India. That was a volatile and difficult environment to adapt to and consumers had to be willing to make the change.

Why is there fear that now is such a difficult time to adapt? It’s for the same reasons that each generation thinks the other generations are strange. Have you ever heard an elderly person talk about the first time they saw an automobile? It seems impossible to comprehend in the mind of the Y generation but it is true. Has anyone in the Y generation tried to explain the internet to that same elderly person? The trouble many people get in is trying to catch up to the now while the future is moving farther and farther away.

But will there be a leveling off point for all of this technological advancement? No. Not as long as there are still people who have an imagination and need to create. Necessity is the mother of all invention and there is never an end to the needs of the world. Human, animal, plant or mineral; there is always something needed to get, preserve, maintain, enhance, collect, find, analyze, simplify, complicate, alter, dissect, combine, eliminate, develop, produce, fix, tear down… etcetera, etcetera.  

So keep developing you thinkers, innovators and tinkers. We don’t even know what we are missing but I’m sure you’ll come up with it and we’ll all realize we absolutely must have it.

Little known fact: On April 24, 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Murdock became the first people to travel across the U.S. by car. The drive from Los Angeles to New York City took them 32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes. How long does it take to travel across the U.S. in 2008? Three days by car, a few hours on a plan. How long will it take in 2108? And how will humans be able to travel then?