At the end of May, Microsoft unveiled its search engine, Bing. Then last week Google announced that it would launch an operating system for laptops in the second half of 2010 with the first version to be targeted at netbooks. Microsoft have since retaliated with their recent announcement – the launch of a free, web-based version of MS Office 2010 which will include lighter versions of Word, Powerpoint and Excel. While this could result in a massive loss of revenue, some analysts think that in the short term it is more important to ensure that people are using MS products. The launch will take place in 2010.
Whilst this news should not be a complete surprise, MS has seemed to be dragging its feet in heading towards this general direction. Last year it was reported that MS Office would make its online debut in 2009. Google launched its Google Docs in 2006. Being able to work on the same document with others at the same time when you might also be in different locations is a wonderful thing….and when such a service is free, it just makes it taste all the better. Why has MS failed to move a little more quickly with providing such a service?
I’ve recently come to love following the MS vs Google story…it’s a little bit like watching a soap opera with cliff hangers (that might be too strong a word for it); who’s going to do what and when? It’s got me wondering about leaders and followers, innovators and imitators. Your relationship to change can hugely influence which of these you are….do you contribute to creating change and how do you respond to it?
We have three standard responses to the changes we observe around us: resist, ignore or embrace. Resisting change is often a waste of time and energy that could be put to much better use. We may choose to ignore change – either out of arrogance (‘this’ll blow over’ or ‘this is no real threat to me’) or fear (which makes you put your head in the sand and hope everything will go away). Or you can choose to embrace it i.e. acknowledge and accept it and then take some action. This is a more winning strategy, methinks – and one I shall endeavour to employ in life generally.
TTFN.
StartupCafe 
like it ! Es muy bien
I like your observations on change, the part I always find difficult is distinguishing change (which I agree should be embraced) from fad (which is often best avoided).
Take twitter. In 10 years will we remember it as a fad, a bizarre misadventure between facebook’s status feature and (insert “next big thing” here), or will it be the dominant form of communication? If it takes off, all the businesses investing in the platform will claim to have successfully embraced change, if it doesn’t then they will have pointlessly followed a short-lived fad.
Similarly with mobile platforms, I adopted the change to smartphones many years ago (embracing change and being an early adopter). I bought apps for my phone, and even in 2002 I cut and pasted freely between apps, some of which ran in the background… Within the last year or so the launch of the iPhone(s) has sudddenly brought smartphone technology to huge public and media attention. It would be very easy to see this as a change, but smartphones as a whole are still a small segment in the developed world, and iPhone is not the biggest player in that segment in terms of installed base. Change? Or fad?
Elsewhere, another “change” is taking place with far less media attention. The urban and rural poor in Africa, India and South America are adopting low-tech mobile handsets. New businesses are enabled by this, and many are experiencing financial services (e.g. mpesa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa) for the first time. Fishermen find out where to land their catch to get the best rices. Farmers get advice on their crops and medical assistance is being transformed. This doesn’t sound like a fad to me, rather a transformationa change creating a myriad of new opportunities?
I’m all for embracing change. My problem is figuring out where to find real, interesting, change and how to embrace it!
In the office space my experience (this is pure opinion based on the companies I work with) suggests that SalesForce.com has done far more to eliminate desktop apps (spreadsheets and databases) than Google Docs, and webex has done far more to enable collaborative working. Which change are we talking about again?
Ian
Ian – I completely agree.
The difficulty is working out what is a fad, and what isn’t, and bet on real game-changers. I guess the skill of the entrepreneur is to spot the opportunities … and jump on them when no one else is, or when everyone is still figuring them out!
Ian, you raise an interesting point about where to find change… I don’t know that there is a clear formula. My initial, superficial thought is: look at what people want and then give it to them; look at what people are already doing and find a way to allow them to do that thing faster or easier or with more quality etc. Won’t that give an indication of where to look for change?
E.g. Social networking sites didn’t create a need for people to be connected and keep in touch. These merely provided a means by which people could connect. The need / desire to be connected was always there. Those that realised this went on to create convenient tools with which to meet this demand– changing the way in which people communicate with each other and the quantity and quality of relationships that we are now able to manage and maintain.
Look at what people want and give it to them – huh! I know I make that sound like such a simple thing when clearly it is not. Anyway, just my opinion and I’m sure it will change many times as I continue to explore the subject and collect experiences.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. It’s always great to get feedback and learn about other opinions and experiences.
[…] briefly touched on attitudes and responses towards change in an earlier post which is the reason for this quick post. I stumbled across a book at a charity shop recently. It’s […]