"Someone on the radio said things are changing so fast right now, that in five years we will hardly recognize our landscape. Quicker, faster, better will be the name of the game. As the old saying goes, "May we live in interesting times". Yes, I believe we will be."
The other day when my wife and I were coming back from the western burbs, some young man in a pickup truck almost caused an accident by trying to get one car length ahead of everyone else to exit from the highway. Now, he could have easily have made the ramp without performing this "Evil Knievel" type of stunt. But the man was in a hurry. He wanted off that highway NOW! Why? He is part of our growing On Demand culture.
Some blame Jeff Bezos for addicting us to a faster pace of satisfaction through buying something at Amazon. Sorry - Mr. Bezos did not invent On Demand. He only recognized it for what it is - and then used it to make scads of money. And besides making scads of money, Bezos also changed our culture.
I don't know Jeff Bezos. I don't know if he is nice or a jerk, a conservative or a progressive. But I like him. Why? When I was a lad in school, we learned about the American Captains of Industry. Men who really changed America. Men like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. But that was history. For most of my adult life, Captains of Industry have been in short supply. That is until now.
So what is up with this entire On Demand phenomenon? Why was it created? It was created because of us. Our life styles. Time is seldom our friend, and we try to fit 26 hours of stuff into a 24 hour day. And since we cannot slow time down, On Demand allows us to shorten time for each event we do, thereby allowing us to fit more into our schedule.
Now that Amazon has turned the retail world upside down, is Bezos going to buy an island someplace and just count his gold? Nope. He is not satisfied with cutting days off delivery time for packages. Now he is trying to get delivery time down to hours - very, very few hours.
If you don't truly understand On Demand as yet, it would be good to read up on it. On Demand is going to change everything we do. Shopping at Amazon is just the tip of the iceberg. Everything is going to change, and quickly. Transportation, entertainment, work, food, the list goes on and on.
Visionaries like Bezos, Musk, Gates and team Google will shape our world right under our feet. With the singularity predicted to come within the next twenty years, our new Captains of Industry are going to use the skills they have gained from the On Demand transformation to also guide that change. More on the singularity in a future article.
How is On Demand shaping us in 2017? Here is a very minute example. I was talking to a friend the other day about fast foods. Who has the best food. I told him I really like Culver's as it was very fresh (everything is made fresh upon order). He told me he did not care for Culver's. Yes, the food was okay, but sometimes he had to wait for 3 or 4 minutes to get his order. Welcome to our On Demand culture.
Someone recently predicted things are changing so fast right now, in five years we will hardly recognize our landscape. Quicker, faster, better will be the name of the game. As the old saying goes, "May we live in interesting times". Yes, I believe we will be.
20 years ago, I was in charge of procurement, warehousing and distribution for Allina hospitals and clinics. To reduce holding costs of expensive items we switched to an "on demand" system. We called it "just in time".
ReplyDeleteIt was terrifying.
Hospitals don't know who is going to walk in the door needing what. Physicians offices call in to schedule surgery and they want the next available slot.
So getting hips, knees, heart valves etc from the mfg. to the OR in time for surgery became a real challenge.
Many trips to the airport at 6 am to pick up devices. Lot's of frantic phone calls to mfg., with their reps carrying in items "just in time".
Eventually we adjusted and it became the norm.
I'm sure Amazon tries the same thing. Items sitting on shelves add to the expense of operating a large business.
They also don't know what is going to be ordered, but there are now predictive algorithms that are pretty accurate.
AND they are able to tell the customer they don't have what they want or it will be available in 10 days. We didn't have that option. Not getting that toaster is not life or death.
I also admire Bezos for his business acumen and the Amazon model. But I decry the loss of the small family business that can't compete on price and the public who no longer value personal service.
Have a great day,
David Gjerdingen
ps.
Hopefully, Al Franken will quit before next years election, so Dayton can appoint one of MN finest snowflakes to replace him.