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Let’s review some of the current things going on in the world.

1. Banks dying off because of poor lending practices that are barely trackable. They have a hard time even knowing which assets are toxic!


2. Old companies such as the auto industry needing bailouts to survive.


3. TV content providers are struggling for eyeballs with new media and being over-protective of content.


4. Many customers want their media and TV content on demand and the old way of watching TV is expiring.


5. Music labels grasping at straws to protect from ‘illegal’ music sharing.


6. Writers struggling for the same eyeballs taken away by tv, internet and video games.


7. Internet and new media marketing starting to overtake where print advertising used to be.


8. Copyright laws of old becoming insufficient to deal with current media rights.


9. Industrial & manufacturing work is not really any longer a middle class job.


10. The rise and empowerment of the individual over the group.


11. Instant communication is the only respected kind of communication. Everyone is available and on the grid all the time.

All of these things lead me to believe the industrial age is not only ending but any industrial age mindset or sight way of thinking is proving to be poison. The type of thinking that says "Well we always did it this way so it should work." doesn’t actually seem to work any more and anyone who attempts such methods does so at their own peril many times. The audience and customer base changed a lot just within a decade. It seems only the companies that will cater to their customers or audience in new and interesting ways get to keep them and gain more.

Customers expect an expedient bi-directional conversation with companies now. There are review sites, text messages, blogs and twitter streams where people rapidly discuss a company and it’s products or services. This leads to instant feedback and a quick slap in the face to a business when they fail. If businesses aren’t participating in this conversation that is going on they are bound to fail or not reach full potential.

The information age has been very disruptive to the monolithic companies who are used to practicing business in the way they have for decades and have been slow to change. In a short 20 years this country and many parts of the world has went from a slow and industrial based society to an extremely fast paced society where speed and accuracy of data is king. Efficiency has become more relevant than ever and transparency the key to that efficiency. Light is being shed on companies and businesses that never had light shed on them before. All the dark and crawly things are coming to the surface which the slow and deep mask of the industrial age used to hide.

This has happened as any major shift in technology and the way of thinking has occured and will continue to happen. We can brace for change or move with the changing tide. Learn how to be part of the information stream and how to poise yourself and your business within that information stream. If you ride the waves properly you will succeed and if you ignore them you will get swept away or drown by them. Resistance is futile.