Decoding Tomorrow:
Futurism and Foresights Today

Foresights and ideas that expand minds and inspire a change of heart.

Futurist's Perspective: The Shrinking Life Expectancy of Big Companies

17 Mar 2016

One thing that have become increasingly clear during the last ten years is that disruptive technologies and changing consumer behaviors have impacted the life span of big companies. The life expetancy of today's multinational businesses are only 40 to 50 years, and since 1999 almost 50% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared according to an article published by World Economic Forum. 

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In my job as a futurist at Thinque I meet many business leaders around the world that say; "I feel like the pace of change is accelerating". I actually believe they are right, so here are a couple of examples that proves that change is going faster than ever before:

  • 20 years - that's how long it used to take for Fortune 500 companies to reach a billion-dollar valuation, but today it takes 4 years for digital startups to get there (Source: World Economic Forum)
  • In 2007, an advanced drone cost $100,000; last year a model with similar specifications could be bought for $500 (Source: World Economic Forum)
  • The cost of 3D printing has been reduced by a factor of 400 in the past seven years (Source: TechCrunch)
  • To sequence the human genome is 10,000 times less expensive than it was in 2009 (Source: TechCrunch)
  • Ten years ago an early prototype of an autonomous car was completed. Today are every major car manufacturer are developing an autonomous model and Google's driver-less car has logged over 1 million miles (Source: The Singularity Blog)

The examples mentioned above have been enabled and are driven by digital trends such as Big data, Internet Of Things, Machine-to-machine communications, AI (artificial intelligence), Cloud and Mobile. What many of you may ask yourself now is; how should I prepare my business for an this future? First of all it's key to explore and map out the trends that will impact your industry and related industries. Secondly it's essential to incorporate these trendspots, research and ideas into your strategic vision. Thirdly and maybe most importantly you need to create a culture of change and innovation. I'll let this famous quote from business management guru Peter Drucker finish this blog post; culture eats strategy for breakfast

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