A new economic landscape is beginning to emerge. Lower barriers to market entry, commercialization and changing workforce dynamics are putting increasing performance pressure on large companies. Individuals are taking advantage of lowered barriers to become creators in their own right. In this new landscape, both large players and small will coexist and reinforce each other. A relatively few concentrated players will provide infrastructure, platforms, and services that support many fragmented, niche players. Fragmentation will affect some parts of the economy more than others, but it will be enduring rather than transitory.
In their new report for Deloitte University Press, The hero’s journey through the landscape of the future, John Hagel III, John Seely Brown (JSB), Tamara Samoylova, and Duleesha Kulasooriya look at the implications this changing landscape can have on companies and individuals. For large companies, the actions they take today can help to position themselves for the role they choose to play in the future. For individuals and small entities, the new landscape offers opportunities that can help transform the pressures of today into profitable new ventures.
Discover how the future of the business landscape can affect you and your organization by clicking here.
Cover Image by Dongyun Lee
* * *
John Hagel III (co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge) has nearly 30 years of experience as a management consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur, and has helped companies improve performance by applying IT to reshape business strategies. In addition to holding significant positions at leading consulting firms and companies throughout his career, Hagel is the author of bestselling business books such as Net Gain, Net Worth, Out of the Box, The Only Sustainable Edge, and The Power of Pull.
John Seely Brown (JSB), independent co-chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge, is a prolific writer, speaker, and educator. In addition to his work with the Center for the Edge, JSB is Adviser to the Provost and a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California. This position followed a lengthy tenure at Xerox Corporation, where JSB was chief scientist and director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. JSB has published more than 100 papers in scientific journals and authored or co-authored seven books, including The Social Life of Information, The Only Sustainable Edge, The Power of Pull, and A New Culture of Learning.
Tamara Samoylova (head of research, Deloitte Center for the Edge) leads the Center’s research agenda and manages rotating teams of Edge Fellows. Prior to joining the Center, Samoylova served as a senior manager in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Growth and Innovation practice, helping mature companies find new areas of growth by better understanding unmet customer needs, industry dynamics, and competitive moves.
Duleesha Kulasooriya (head of strategy, Deloitte Center for the Edge) leads the development of the Center’s ecosystem and contributes to core research exploring the edges of business and technology. Over the past few years he has explored how the world is changing in very dramatic ways as a result of ever-evolving digital infrastructure and liberalizing public policy, as well as the implications for individuals and institutions. Kulasooriya led the team that developed and authored the inaugural Shift Index report and has written and spoken extensively on the use of new technologies to drive business performance, pathways for moving from static to dynamic ecosystems, rethinking the roles of firms and individuals in institutional innovation, and the relevance of “edges” such as the maker movement, the sharing economy, and burning man.