This series of posts will detail why innovation continues to be the most important aspect of business growth, especially in today’s flat business world.
The advent of the internet and the freedom with which information travels today has leveled the business playing field, therefore it must be understood that creativity and innovation have become increasingly valuable for future business growth.
Innovation is the evolution of business. Why? Because the applied process of bringing an idea to it’s fruition is not only good for business, it’s almost a built-in requirement of human life itself.
Oversaturation
Since the delivery of content in the post-information age is now at a virtual saturation point where do we go from here? This saturation point can easily be recognized when society has nearly fully adopted something to a degree where it’s virtually unnoticed - think: electricity.
Many would argue that we have all of the information that we need - too much in fact. The difference-maker for so many businesses used to be the speed at which the information could be transferred. Media outlets around the world who had the best tools available to them created a billion dollar industry just on being able to deliver the goods with lightning speed and accuracy.
The Shift
In Part 1 of this blog series, we spoke about the shift towards an economy of attention. There are two aspects to this shift which allow for it to take place.
The first aspect is the filter. Filters are a very handy category of tools because they simplify our mental processes. The companies that provide this type of service and the industries that allow for reliable information filtering will win here. A good example of this is a search engine’s ability to deliver local, geolocation-based, realtime search results. Bet on Google, again.
The second aspect to this is more about how the information is delivered versus what it is composed of. This is the game-changer folks. You’ve heard the saying ‘the medium is the message’, which couldn’t be more applicable to today’s age.
Rule changes
Look at a few current offerings in Apple’s iPad and FourSquare you will find an innovative delivery mechanism designed specifically for how people both consume and share information with multiple levels of potential revenue built in.
Will you access books or printed materials the same way five years from now? Will you write notes or dictate them? Think back to the advent of the printing press or the calculator and you can see our input/output methods have evolved along similar paths.
Will the visual, hands-on aspect of tablet computing change the game? Probably. Will shared Yelping and FourSquare game interaction replace the phone book. They already have for a segment of the population. How long before full adoption?
