Doubt in Washington immediately becomes certainty in Tokyo
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:47 am
Then you have developed a strategy that you are going to execute, you are going to set up your new systems for it, and after a year or so you present it to your customers. Only to find that in the meantime, things have changed, that the world in which the customers live is now different from the world of the time when the strategy was conceived. The heartbeat of the world has changed, it has become faster.
The pace at which changes are pumped through the veins of society is completely different than before. When Fed chair Janet Yellen makes an unexpected statement about the interest rate forecast, share prices on Wall Street drop within a few seconds, the stock markets in Asia plummet and a little later the AEX is also under pressure. The speed of reaction in the financial world is unprecedented: the speed of a computer network is dictated by the speed of light and since the network is now as refined as the network of nerves in a fingertip, a doubt in Washington immediately becomes certainty in Tokyo.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
The truth that forces you to respond
Let's just accept that the pace of information sharing and reaction azerbaijan mobile phone number list speed has indeed fundamentally changed. The usual examples of market disruptors such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Booking.com, Airbnb and Uber appear in every presentation as a cliché. You can get annoyed by that, you can also see it as a truth. A truth that obliges you to respond. What the parties mentioned have in common: they entered the market, they adapted, they changed, they tried, they did things wrong, they did things right, but they did. And they did and do it without standard fodder such as product-market combinations, feasibility studies, field experiments, unique selling points or SWOTs. They did it with users. Users have become the consultants.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
'Fail fast' is the adage in Silicon Valley
Developing in the new world is a continuous process of trying, testing, asking, sharing, adjusting, asking again, throwing away what doesn't work, failing, asking again and succeeding. And do this as often as you think is necessary. You move with the changing heartbeat. 'Fail fast' is the adage in Silicon Valley . You only work with those who can move to the rhythm of the new sound. The column of long marchers can quietly carry out their tasks, as long as the commandos at the front are not obstructed. Painting the Eiffel Tower is a job that does not need to be tested between every two heartbeats.
Ask your user during development, it sounds so simple. And not only when it is finished. That is – grant me the freedom of comparison – exactly what went wrong with the old political parties. Every few years they come out of their hole to find that reality changed faster than their program. It is not without reason that small local parties have been winning three municipal elections in a row. They ask, respond, connect. They are closer to the voter, have more iterations. The voter is the buyer. Nobody is waiting for a rose with an answer anymore. We want a listening ear and a question.
This column was also published in Het Financieele Dagblad. Photo intro courtesy of Fotolia.
The pace at which changes are pumped through the veins of society is completely different than before. When Fed chair Janet Yellen makes an unexpected statement about the interest rate forecast, share prices on Wall Street drop within a few seconds, the stock markets in Asia plummet and a little later the AEX is also under pressure. The speed of reaction in the financial world is unprecedented: the speed of a computer network is dictated by the speed of light and since the network is now as refined as the network of nerves in a fingertip, a doubt in Washington immediately becomes certainty in Tokyo.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
The truth that forces you to respond
Let's just accept that the pace of information sharing and reaction azerbaijan mobile phone number list speed has indeed fundamentally changed. The usual examples of market disruptors such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Booking.com, Airbnb and Uber appear in every presentation as a cliché. You can get annoyed by that, you can also see it as a truth. A truth that obliges you to respond. What the parties mentioned have in common: they entered the market, they adapted, they changed, they tried, they did things wrong, they did things right, but they did. And they did and do it without standard fodder such as product-market combinations, feasibility studies, field experiments, unique selling points or SWOTs. They did it with users. Users have become the consultants.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia.
'Fail fast' is the adage in Silicon Valley
Developing in the new world is a continuous process of trying, testing, asking, sharing, adjusting, asking again, throwing away what doesn't work, failing, asking again and succeeding. And do this as often as you think is necessary. You move with the changing heartbeat. 'Fail fast' is the adage in Silicon Valley . You only work with those who can move to the rhythm of the new sound. The column of long marchers can quietly carry out their tasks, as long as the commandos at the front are not obstructed. Painting the Eiffel Tower is a job that does not need to be tested between every two heartbeats.
Ask your user during development, it sounds so simple. And not only when it is finished. That is – grant me the freedom of comparison – exactly what went wrong with the old political parties. Every few years they come out of their hole to find that reality changed faster than their program. It is not without reason that small local parties have been winning three municipal elections in a row. They ask, respond, connect. They are closer to the voter, have more iterations. The voter is the buyer. Nobody is waiting for a rose with an answer anymore. We want a listening ear and a question.
This column was also published in Het Financieele Dagblad. Photo intro courtesy of Fotolia.