The Second Industrial Revolution

right I'm here at South by Southwest with Gary vuk Gary uh great panel just now one of the things that came up was just the sheer velocity uh that the technology seems to want us to move at right and we're seeing a lot with maker spaces of uh groups of individuals kind of coming together and doing amazing projects and the question I have for you is like what role do you see for larger companies kind of participating in this in the future and what what's going to separate out the winners from the losers in the big companies in in this kind of accelerating game of catchup that's a big question right it's a you know it's a it's a lead in question right I mean the truth is this all the cliche terms that we all like to be cynical about authenticity transparency speed they actually matter like the reason they became cliches is the reason stereotypes become stereotypes there's micr truths in them right right and so I think the brands that are and the businesses that are going to win are the ones that understand context let me explain for you to win you have to understand the context of the room you're playing in right like I can't walk into a room of people that really understand social media and give 101 of like here you need to put your app on your phone and then you've got a tweet and here's how you because they're going to check out and they're not going to care right and so for me what's really the problem is that Brands and businesses are not context the universe right now they don't realize how fast it is quick change is happening they don't realize that the customers [ __ ] radar is better than ever before they don't realize that they have to make great content on a daily basis everywhere all the social networks blogs everywhere every Banner at every email you have to be great you have to bring value you know why because we have a supply and demand issue everybody's talking which means there's a lot more people that people have to listen to which by default means you're not going to listen to anybody which makes it much harder to actually get consumed so I believe that the businesses and the brands of the world right now are disrespecting how tough it is out there they think they can just get by they can't and that's why they're going to lose right and you know I just to pile on there right but one of the things that kind of struck me recently is they were always too slow but in the past they had the advantage of access to Capital but then you talk to guys in these make us spaces now and people are telling us we talked to a guy today and he said look you can build a company now for less than it used to cost to do a focus group so that the speed Advantage is gone and now the capital Advantage is gone because you can do amazing things with rapid prototyping uh with sensors right that doesn't require more than a few thousand bucks just to get started yes I mean I'm completely confused at people's lack of understanding that the scale advantages the scale distribution and the money continues to the internet has squeezed the end user to the product that's it everybody in the middle is vulnerable right right period and the cost of doing things do you know what this cost this interview 10 years ago with a big [ __ ] camera I don't know if you have to bleep that on your website have to you know like with a big camera and a goddamn satellite dish to beat it was expensive the world is moving so quickly that cost is not there anymore right I mean I'm just completely baffled by people's lack of understanding of what's really going on and what is going on is the Second Industrial Revolution we are living through the biggest culture shift of our time since then and people are not adapting to that reality right well some of them are but a lot of them are doing it in loose collaborative networks ad hoc Project based organizations right it's perhaps the institutions are struggling to incumbents are in trouble right like right the what listen when you don't have money you go and get money you know when you have lots of money you go and try to save the world because you're driven by different things they don't even see it they don't see it do any of them see it is there any like you know what's so funny the ironic part is I actually think all of them see it I really do but they're crippled by making numbers each quarter for Wall Street or if I can hold on to the numbers of sales for the next 2 years my bonus as CEO of this big company is going to be 10 times bigger so why would I take Mone money from the p& l and invest it which personally affects me differently now we're getting into the real conversation which is that human beings make decisions that are in their best interests not necessarily the logo of the company they work for right that so you know I actually think many of them actually I say they don't see it because I'm judging them by their actions I actually think they do see it but I can only judge by one's actions right on man yeah thanks a lot yeah thanks for great talking thanks real pleasure yeah