The History of Business

The Journey of Industrial Revolution and How we seem to be going back to where it all began

The History of Business

1) Industrial Revolution began in the nineteenth century

2) At first the purpose was to serve the people by providing them with goods & services that mattered to the People

3) Then in the twentieth century businesses became shareholder loyal rather than customer loyal

4) Rather than provide better goods and services, they began to look at lowering cost and increase productivity

5) This made the corporations Giant Money Spinners (GMS) for their employees, promoters and shareholders

6) But this was at the expense of Customers, the most important stakeholder

7) Then towards the end of twentieth century two events transformed the Industrial / Business landscape

8) The First was the coming of age of the Internet that seamlessly connected people separated by Geography

9) The Second Phenomena was the rise of Social Media that allowed two way communication between corporation and people (customers)

10) These two phenomena transferred the Power of Scaling Up in the hands of Small Entrepreneurs

11) Entrepreneurs with limited Capital could Scale Up their Enterprises just like Large Corporations once did

12) And then a third phenomena took place

13) A Forced Social Experiment that thrust upon the World

14) The Pandemic induced Lockdown

15) Till this Event, Mankind never believed in true delegation but this Event forced Bosses to truly delegate because they had no other option

16) Till this point we still believed that one had to assemble at a common place to conduct business

17) The lockdown put to rest all such man made conceptions by proving remote working to be a successful option

18) This the third phenomena was the immense success of Remote Working (RW)

19) Thus the three factors that are shaping the 21st Century Business Environment are

A) Internet

B) Social Media

C) Remote Working (Zoom Meetings etc.)

20) The Reducing Cost of Scale Up has once again shifted the Focus on to the Customer

21) Creating Vision, Mission & Purpose have once again become the key driving factors of doing business

22) Deep Rooted Outsourcing Models, Technology & Falling cost of Communication is bringing down the overhead costs of doing business

23) The real cost is now to Communicate and Implement the VMPC (Vision Mission Purpose and Culture) which is commonly called Brand Building

24) So we have come a full circle from the 19th century of caring for people, to caring for shareholder and back to caring for people

25) Shareholders have also realized that good work will result in long term value and good profits too (profit as a means rather than profits as a end in itself)

26) And that it is prudent to allow the hen to lay one golden egg at a time rather than kill the hen and get a big naught

I rest my case