“Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. And sometimes, the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket.” – Malcom Gladwell
This September noted provocateur and Evangelist of Everything Outlier Malcom Gladwell gave an excellent TEDx talk on the unheard story of David and Goliath in which he concluded with the quote above.
In it, Gladwell defies convention instead of reinforcing the classic underdog tale of the young shepherd armed only with a sling. Gladwell asks what the David and Goliath story was truly about and concludes that David was no underdog. Rather, David was the perfect warrior with the perfect tool to defeat towering opposition and force an army into full retreat.
In part one of this two part series on Creating a Viable Mobile Strategy for Small Business, we’ll discuss why this is the time to take what seems obvious to you mobile. In the second post, we’ll focus on how to get you there.
It’s a Great Time to Be a “David”
When David descended into the Valley of Elah 3,000 years ago, he knew what he was doing. It was that everyone else was obsessed with conventional thinking to see the utterly predictable coming. There are many Goliaths still striking terror into the current business landscape, but never has there been a better time to be a shepherd with a sling.
Right now, products like Aereo, Apple TV, ChromeCast and Roku have begun the systematic dismantling of the cable television business. Don’t believe it will happen? Just ask the music industry how their hubris allowed web and mobile devices to shrink their business model 64% in less than 15 years. Even the tallest of giants can come crashing down.
Kings of the Digital Age
Over the last decade, we’ve seen one company go from a trusty search engine into one of the nation’s 50 most profitable businesses. We’ve seen another go from an idea hatched out of a Cambridge dorm room to over five billion dollars annually. We’ve just watched a third go public as the de facto SMS of the internet with a market cap of over $25 billion in the last month, all of which have been validated by Wall Street.
In the spirit of Malcom Gladwell, Google, Facebook and Twitter were never underdogs. They were clearheaded ideas in the face of adversity and marketplaces that already had supposed victors. Those companies and those ideas were perfectly suited for their time and place and with leaders and a clear vision on how to succeed.
The modern sling of business is reaching customers through the web and mobile technology. True, not all of us are destined to become kings of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, but small businesses are more capable of taking on anyone now more than ever, if they have the courage to do what they are already doing to pinpoint success.
You have an idea and the industry expertise. Shockoe can provide the tools to accelerate your idea in the digital world.
Do you have the courage to do what you know will help launch your own digital kingdom?
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