I remember thinking that timesharing and resource sharing would eventually hit every industry back in the mid to late 1980s when I was responsible for new product development at Hallmark. It was a trend that I thought would explode due to the more efficient sharing of resources. Back then, timesharing mostly applied to vacation rentals. Since then, RCI, Wyndham Worldwide's vacation timeshare exchange network has been one of my clients. But consider the categories and brands in which timesharing and resource sharing now operate:
- Home rental - Airbnb, VRBO and numerous other brands. I use ADKbyOwner.com to rent my Adirondack home when I am not using it.
- Home exchange (aka house swapping) - Love Swap Rental
- Couch surfing - Couchsurfing
- Motor vehicle sharing - Zipcar, GetAround, Enterprise CarShare and others
- Ridesharing - Über, Lyft, Sidecar
- Car subscriptions (allowing one to drive a selection of cars for a monthly fee) - Clutch, Carma Car, Flexdrive and others
- Boat chartering - Sun Charters, Charter World and others
- Boat sharing - Carefree Boat Club, Boat Share Direct and many others
- Boat exchange - BVC International
- Jet sharing (air charter, fractional jet and jetpooling) - CEOFleet, JetSuite, PrivateFly, NetJets, Flexjet and others
- Bike sharing - Zagster/Pace, Velib', Citi Bikes, Bixi and others
- Computer sharing - at public libraries and cyber cafes
- Art rental programs - numerous local brands throughout the US
- Sharing communities - Ouishare, Shared Squared, The People Who Share, Unstash, Let's Collaborate, P2P Foundation
And, in a way, hotels and libraries have always existed based on the resource sharing concept, as have country clubs and yacht clubs.
So what are the other advantages of resource sharing (outside of resource efficiency and lower costs per usage)? Lack of maintenance and insurance worries. Fewer possessions to which one might feel tied. A much lighter environmental footprint. Lowered entry barriers for people with more modest financial means. The possibility of greater variety. And even a sense of community and sharing.
So, if you want to create a breakthrough business and brand, consider what else can be timeshared and then build a business and brand around it.
I was recently asked two related questions: Why are new no-name brands able to topple big decades old brands in today's environment? How can a small start-up brand effectively challenge older established brands?
There are so many different ways to answer this, many related to technology, but some also related to legacy brands resting on their laurels. The advent of digital photography (invented by Kodak) killed Kodak's previously highly profitable business model that was driven by film purchase and developing. This disruption was amplified by the advent of smart phones with built-in cameras.
Uber's online platform not only revolutionized and democratized the way people can get rides but it also made it much simpler to find, hail and pay for a ride. Plus, it provided for a record of one's paid automotive excursions. This is an innovative model that is scalable and has network effects. Also working in Uber's favor is the general low level of quality of taxi service compared to the service offered by Uber drivers driven by a constant customer feedback loop.
Though backed by a lot of money from Pay Pal's founder Elon Musk, Tesla also has made significant inroads vis-a-vis legacy automobile brands. It has done this by sheer strong will and innovation. From its vigorously pursuing the concept of a luxury all electric vehicle to its sales and marketing innovations, Tesla has taken the risks to do things differently.
The Internet also makes it easy for smaller companies to seem bigger than they are and compete effectively with larger, more well-known companies. And the customer targeting offered by Facebook and other social media platforms makes it more cost effective to go after highly targeted customers.
CarMax, though supported with major funding, came into existence because legacy used car dealerships did not treat customers well. CarMax saw the opportunity to make automotive purchasing easier and more transparent. Again, it relied on an innovative business model and a transformative technology, a database that can be accessed from anywhere through the Internet.
Airbnb is another example of a brand that has used the Internet as its platform to achieve scalability. But it also is driven off of the concept of shared resources. This same sharing of resources has worked for Zipcar and Zagster.
So, in summary, these examples point to the following sources of legacy brand disruption and displacement:
- An innovative business model
- A superior model of customer service delivery
- New superior technologies
- The Internet
- Software-driven solutions
- Scalability
- Network effects
- Resource sharing
- Product differentiation
- Highly targeted marketing
The rate of change in our society continues to accelerate. This causes many people quite a bit of anxiety. Emerging technologies have replaced millions of jobs but, so far, they have created more jobs than they have eliminated.
Consider what digital photography (invented by a Kodak scientist) did to Eastman Kodak company. Consider what Uber is doing to traditional dispatcher-led taxi cab companies. Consider how airbnb.com is impacting the growth rate of hotel chains. What did laptop computers do to desktop computers? How are pad computers and smartphones impacting laptop computer sales? Consider how Hallmark and American Greetings are impacted by digital technology. Consider what CreateSpace and other self-publishing platforms have done to traditional book publishers. What will artificially intelligent medical diagnosis systems do to medical internists? With self-driving automobiles, how will the auto insurance business change? What will Tesla and its battery-driven vehicle revolution do to the oil industry (and the auto industry and gas stations)? Where will drones ultimately take us? What will increasing aerial surveillance do to our ability to capture criminals and prevent wars? Consider that AI experts are exploring how to give computers the capacity to innovate. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Consider how Einsteinian physics superseded Newtonian physics and consider how quantum physics recast Einsetinian physics and consider the potential impact of superstring theory and multiverse theory.
Research universities and company R&D labs are working on these disruptive technologies - energy storage, fuel cells, genomics, advanced materials, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy, advanced robotics, 3D printing, mobile Internet, automation of knowledge work, cloud technology, integrated digital design and photonics.
We were recently approached by a company that is on the verge of commercializing human organ regeneration. And consider the LED revolution. Incandescent and florescent lightbulbs may soon become historical artifacts. And several companies are working on developing direct computer-brain interfaces.
In a rapidly changing world, no business is safe from technology-driven obsolescence. So, what is a brand manager to do? For that matter, what is any business manager to do? Here is what will matter for future survival, and more importantly, to thrive well into the future - higher education, advanced degrees, lifelong learning, a solid understanding of math and science, diverse interests, diverse reading, personal flexibility, ideation skills, courage in the face of uncertainty, the ability to change course at a moment's notice, understanding the intersection of many different scientific disciplines and technologies, an opportunistic attitude, entrepreneurship, the ability to take risks, a penchant for action, an optimistic attitude and the ability to discern patterns and recognize meta-themes.
Disruption: inducing radical and sudden change; a radical change in an industry, business strategy, etc., especially involving the introduction or a new product or service that creates a new market.
The Internet was perhaps the most disruptive development. Timesharing was a disruptive concept in many industries. Low-cost airlines (Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, etc.) disrupted legacy carriers (United Airlines, American Airlines, etc.). ATMs made it much easier for consumers to bank 24/7. Amazon.com disrupted Borders and other brick and mortar bookstores. Some would claim that Amazon.com is beginning to disrupt Wal-Mart. eBay and Craigslist have disrupted traditional classified ads. Netflix disrupted Blockbuster. Digital photography (invented at Kodak) disrupted Kodak's film-based photography. SmartPhone cameras have changed the way people take pictures. Electronic greeting cards are disrupting traditional greeting cards. CarMax was intended to disrupt traditional used car dealers. Uber is disrupting traditional taxi service. Airbnb is disrupting the hospitality market. SmartPhones have made traditional phones obsolete. They are also making major inroads in the the markets for other computing devices.
Match.com, eHarmony.com and other dating websites have changed the way we find romantic partners. Online universities are intended to disrupt traditional colleges and universities. All-electric cars (such as Tesla) will eventually disrupt gasoline powered cars. And more powerful batteries/energy storage will elevate electricity as an energy source. Artificially intelligent medical diagnosis software is projected to radically change the role of the internal medicine doctor. Big data is radically changing the way marketing is executed. Facebook is changing the degree to which customer targeting can occur.
Nanotechnology makes devices and components significantly cheaper, faster and more functional. 3D printing will be disruptive to many industries. Photonics is radically changing the traditional semiconductor world. Cloud services are changing the way we back up computers. Crowd sourcing is changing the way people raise money for projects. The Square and similar devices have made it much easier and less expensive for anyone to accept credit cards as a form of payment. Alta Devices is making it easier to embed thin, flexible solar panels into any device or material.
Is your brand defined in a way that it can transcend and incorporate disruptive technologies? Or is it so linked to an approach or technology that could be obsolete that it will die with the old approach or technology? Further, are people in your organization willing to make their current approaches or technologies obsolete with the latest disruptive technology or are they fighting the disruptive technology all the way to maximize profits until the business and brand crashes and burns. This is something worth thinking about.
