Fast Forward... and Rewind at the same time!

We all see how the ongoing crisis is accelerating the adoption of digital solutions in commerce, work, or education.

What we don’t necessarily see is the bigger long term picture, which appears as a ‘rewind’ in a number of ways...

1- With the rise of frictionless collaboration and B2B platforms, small companies create more than their fair share of net new jobs (64% of net new jobs vs 50% of total jobs for the US private sector)… Well, 200 years ago, 90%+ of jobs were in small businesses!

2- With the highly probable rise of remote working, we can anticipate that many people will be moving back from big cities to more affordable neighborhoods they like... Well, in 1820, less than 10% of Americans lived in cities, 50% in 1920, and 80% today (26% in the top 10 metro areas).

3- With the rise of digital consumer engagement through platforms & D2C, brand communication is further shifting from top-down mass advertising to conversations... Well, 100 years ago, we had zero mass media and only community-centric conversations!

4- My fourth example may be more controversial, so sit tight!

With the imperative to monitor safety and run the economy at the same time, we’ll have to share more personal data and adjust the definition of privacy... Well, 200 years ago, privacy did not exist in the first place. I would bet that the definition of privacy will evolve, hopefully with proper safeguards.

So, Fast Forward and Rewind at the same time? My personal big dream is that we manage to reinvent education with technology. The purpose is to achieve high quality & affordable personalization at scale. Before we invented the classroom in the 19th Century, we had personalized education, only just for the happy few... We should be able to do this at zero/low marginal cost.

Last item on the list: remember China was the world’s leading civilization 200 years ago...

Be safe