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Startups vs. Corporations, IT disrupts
the way we conduct business.
Information technology has become a
part of our daily lives. Whether for
social and personal purposes or business
we rely on technology to do our bidding.
The fact that we can communicate with
each other almost at any time and from
any place has brought irreversible
changes to the way we conduct business and it influences every company from
the small family business to giant corporations. This paradigm shift is creating
many changes in today’s business world, it is making some jobs obsolete and on
the other hand it is creating lots of new career opportunities. Information
technology has become a disruptor of the “order” of things and changed the old
ways where giant enterprises due to their sheer size, financial resources and grip
on the market could direct, change and set trends, now even a small startup can
influence the market and shake things up.
The business strategy and tactics are changing because they simply must if your
business wants to stay on top of the game and actually be able to reach the
strategically set goals. These alterations are more common than ever before and
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they are the only way to leverage the opportunities that technology continues to
create and to keep up with the shifts on the market. The common and easy
access to information technology solutions and especially access to
infrastructure by leveraging cloud technology opens new ways for modern era
entrepreneurs and startups to access the most recent IT perks with little to no
capital expenditure and allows them to be agile like never before. Leveraging
IaaS, PaaS and SaaS businesses can allocate their budgets with much more
flexibility and focus on core tasks while purchasing IT as commodity needed for
their operations.
The Startup
Today’s startups are lean and mean competitors and are able to leverage
technology to their advantage and challenge even the biggest enterprises. The
way we build and manage startups today has changed drastically from how we
did that 30 years ago. Based on the mistakes of the past where startups were
treated like smaller versions of bigger companies but lacking their resources
they often struggled to execute their business model. Luckily enough as a human
race we are able to analyze data and learn from our past mistakes (although this
is not always the case looking at the history of our species).
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In the case of building and running startups we have learned from our failures
and reinvented the way new businesses need to be build and operated before
they can become successful companies. Experience has thought us that the
scientific approach to startup management in the MBA style was wrong and that
instead of executing a business model a startup needs to search for one and make
sure it has the right value proposition that fits their targeted market. Although At
some point when a startup becomes a successful company the founders should
look for (if they aren’t themselves) qualified executives that can help them run
the company. Starting businesses require direct involvement of founders
(decision makers) to keep agility and to make pivots based on real customers
feedback. When done right this permits a startup to develop a minimum viable
product that fits the right market. This approach allows new businesses to keep
nimbleness and requires a lot less startup capital which used to be wasted on
sales, marketing, executives and often waterfall development which evolved
around a product that was nothing more or less than an idea of the founders
without actual customer confirmation.
On top of technology becoming a commodity the access to fundraising for
startups has also been revolutionized by information technology. Next to being
financed by family and friends, angel investors, venture capitals or bank loans
and many other ways there is a fairly new approach to get funded by collective
effort via crowdfunding. This method has been enabled by information
technology itself and has drawn countless numbers of startups to funding sites
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like kickstarter.com , indiegogo.com , rockethub.com or fundrazr.com. Not
going any deeper into the business models of startups now we can see the
potential of new businesses to quickly adjust to customer needs and market
changes.
The Corporation
Multinational corporations lack this agility and freedom to pivot. They are giants
that move slowly and each of their moves requires a lot of energy and takes
time. This limits their options to adapt in today’s ever-changing world and
markets. Because of these technology based paradigm shifts no one is safe and
even the giants can fall to new challengers, but the giants aren’t sleeping and
even though they are slow to move or change their direction they have the
luxury to employ other means to correct their set course. Multinational
enterprises break into horizontal markets and leverage their capitals to invest in
buying up equally startups and established companies to gain agility and instead
of making the slow and expensive changes in the direction of the entire
corporation they simply use the new additions to either supplement their main
products or work as separate business units and operate on different markets to
correct the course of their entire venture. These companies by making the
acquisitions are also securing their position on the markets where they are in
fierce competition with each other. Let’s take as an example a few of the
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familiar multinationals: Amazon, Google and Microsoft and see how they have
been keeping their business growing with acquisitions.
Amazon.com, Inc. founded in 1994 which started as an online book store,
expanded to other goods and to technology, has grown to be the biggest in the
world public cloud services provider. Amazon has been acquiring not only its
competitors but it has expanded its business in many directions. Amazon has
taken over companies like: IMDb, Zappos, GoodReads and Liquavista. See a list
of Amazons acquisitions on Wikipedia.org.
Google Inc. started as a search engine and grew to one of the biggest companies
in the world specializing in internet-related services and IT. Google is getting
into everything from cloud solutions and datacenters to mobile technologies and
other horizontal markets via acquisitions of startups. Google is divided into 7
groups: search, chrome and apps, mobile, youtube, ads, geocommerce and
social, and has been acquiring on average 1 company a week in the past few
years. Up to date Google has taken over more than 130 companies which
included: Picasa, Android, YouTube and Motorola Mobility. See a list of
Google’s acquisitions on Wikipedia.org.
Microsoft Corporation has made its way to the top of corporate world shipping
OEM software with personal computers, but they have changed their strategy in
the many years of their existence and expanded greatly into other markets.
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Microsoft has been acquiring businesses like Hotmail (now Outlook), Skype,
Yammer and Nokia Corporation. See a list of Microsoft’s acquisitions
onWikipedia.org.
Microsoft is far beyond its OEM software days and has become one of the most
valuable companies in the world while expanding their business into building
datacenters, gaming devices, office software and mobile phones, and offering
public and private cloud services with Windows Azure.
Next
This trends will surely continue and looking at predictions from Gartner,
Inc.which has identified top 10 strategic technology trends, the listed above and
similar corporations will keep on looking into acquisitions of companies that
have their core business around or are major contributors to these technological
trends:

Mobile Device Diversity and Management

Mobile Apps and Applications

The Internet of Everything

Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker

Cloud/Client Architecture

The Era of Personal Cloud

Software Defined Anything
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
Web-Scale IT

Smart Machines

3-D Printing
Chances are that if your business fits this description and you are a key player or
on the verge of ground breaking discovery in one of these areas you either have
been approached or shortly will be approached by a corporation looking to
expand. Businesses and our private lives alike have been invaded and taken over
by technology. There is no denying that this fact and our need for
communication, access to information and mobility create new opportunities and
evolving information technology drives change in how we satisfy these needs.
Companies which are able to leverage this knowledge will be a part of the future
others will fall and be forgotten. This brings us to a conclusion that the way we
conduct business but also live our lives has been drastically changed by
information technology. Ask yourself: is your business keeping up with the
changes and leveraging knowledge and technology to truly secure its future?
Written By: Martin Wielomski
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Martin Wielomski writes and advises about sales, business
development, technology and human connection potential and
how they can be leveraged in business strategies. He believes in
lifelong learning and that continued education is a key in aiding
practice and real life experience and one’s passion in reaching true
personal potential. During his many years working in the
Information Technology Services and Hosting business he was able
to develop his leadership, communication and entrepreneurial skills
and use them to businesses advantage. Martin strives to
improvement by innovation and leadership through engagement and communication. He is
interested and passionate about Startups and their agility and freedom to pivot while searching for
executable business model. During his career he proved to be a passionate and realistic manager,
business development, sales, customer and business partner relations specialist.
His personal qualities are: Passion, Curiosity, Compassion, Daring, Generosity, Accountability, Grit.
He specializes in: Sales Leadership, Strategy Development & Execution, International Business
Development, C-Level Relations, Staff Development & Motivation, Defining Strategy and Tactics and
Lead in their Implementation, Strengthening Vendor/Partner Relationships, Staff Management.
His business interests lie in: Cloud Computing, IaaS and SaaS, Datacenters, Telecommunications,
Leadership and Management, Sales and Business Development, IT Outsourcing and Hosting.
Website: www.martinwielomski.com
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