Theoretical Physicists disagree on a lot, but one thing they do agree on is that matter is constant, it does not disappear, it can undergo changes of form, and become something different, but is not destroyed.
Value is like matter, it does not disappear, it just undergoes change, and moves somewhere else.
Customers used to look for value in places where they no longer get the best return, so they look elsewhere to find it.
Technology may destroy some jobs, as it has in retail, and factories, but the jobs are not destroyed, they change form and move elsewhere.
For the last 20 years I have heard the ‘technology destroys jobs’ story, usually told by those with a direct interest in the industries being disrupted, in parallel to the number of jobs being created, usually touted by politicians with an agenda.
This is not to denigrate the pain of those whose jobs are replaced by an automated process, but it does demonstrate the movement from one form to another.
Apple may have been a destroyer of jobs in some sectors, but they created many more in different locations, and in newly imagined retail as they re-created lost retail jobs in their Apple stores, now the most successful retailer in the world on a GM/Square foot metric.
If you take this perspective when thinking about the pressures on your business, and how it must respond to those pressures to survive, you just might be one of the fortunate ones who sees a picture of what the future might look like, and move there in front of the wave.
My favourite marketing strategist, Albert Einstein, once again, got it right!!
