Why innovation beats inertia and what every executive can learn from the early internet.
Step with me into the way-back machine, back to the late 1990s, when the internet was still a novelty and the world was on the cusp of a paradigm shift. I remember reading an article about how a company named Amazon had surpassed the market cap of General Motors and the entire U.S. airline industry.
It seemed unfathomable. How could a company that sold books online be valued higher than century-old industrial giants? How could its virtual presence command such high valuations? In the pre-internet world, value was determined by barriers to entry and tangible assets (e.g. property, plants, and equipment). Suddenly, the markers of success were being redefined. The value algorithm was being rewritten in real time.
When Value Moved Online
Little did I realize that we were in the midst of a seismic shift. The internet wasn’t just another technology trend; it was the catalyst. It created a level playing field and a platform that allowed companies to reach global markets without massive capital expenditures, previously unimaginable. The rules of competition changed almost overnight. Success was no longer defined by who owned the most assets; it was defined by who could innovate fastest and scale widest.
The meteoric rise of MySpace in the early 2000s illustrated this new dynamic. In just a few short years, the social networking platform amassed over 100 million users, a feat that left many industry experts scratching their heads. MySpace’s valuation seemed to defy traditional metrics, as the sheer size of its user base made it nearly impossible to determine its true value.
But its dominance was fleeting.
Enter Facebook, a social platform that revolutionized how people connect and interact online. In short order, Facebook eclipsed MySpace, rendering it virtually obsolete; a powerful reminder of how quickly technology can rewrite the rules.
The internet proved to be a leverageable platform that could catapult new companies to unprecedented levels of success. The ability to scale rapidly showcased both the immense potential and the thrive-or-die nature of technological transformation. MySpace was first to market and built an industry that still shapes how we live today. But Facebook took the opportunity, and the lessons learned, to focus relentlessly on user value, profitability, and scalability.
Innovation Over Inertia
The rapid rise and fall of MySpace and Facebook’s swift dominance also challenged traditional notions of the product life cycle. The idea that an established product could enjoy long-term success was no longer guaranteed. The internet had ushered in an age of rapid innovation, where new entrants could scale fast and overtake incumbents in a matter of months. This forced business owners to rethink their approach, as multi-year capital commitments suddenly looked risky in a market where interest, value, and share could shift overnight.
This shift demanded agility and adaptability. The MySpace-to-Facebook handoff became a case study in how quickly technology reshapes business realities. Success became fleeting; change, the only constant. The same principle applies today. Companies that ignore AI, like those that dismissed the internet, face a harsh reality check. The advantage will belong to the organizations that learn early, focus on user value, and lead with courage.
To see this pattern again, step into the mid-2000s and the story of BlackBerry. For many of us who were early adopters of mobile devices, BlackBerry was the standard for business communication. Its user base grew from 8 million in 2007 to 80 million by 2012; a tenfold increase in just six years. Yet during that same period, its stock price collapsed from $97 to under $11, an 87% drop.
The disruptor was Apple. The iPhone launched in 2007 with modest sales of just 2 million units in its first year, but it quickly and fully redefined how society thought of cellphones. By its second year, the iPhone was transforming Apple’s stock price (up fivefold by 2015) and signaling the end for BlackBerry. Despite selling fewer units at first, Apple captured the imagination of consumers and investors alike. The market rewarded innovation and vision over size and legacy.
The iPhone’s rise and BlackBerry’s fall reinforced the same truth the internet taught a decade earlier: innovation, not incumbency, drives long-term value. The late 1990s and early 2000s marked a turning point from barriers to entry and asset ownership toward platforms that enabled rapid, scalable growth. Innovation became the ultimate differentiator, eclipsing balance sheets and reshaping entire industries.
Here We Go Again
So, time to buckle up, because here we go again.
What sets today's business landscape apart from the past? The answer lies in the fundamental shifts transforming how organizations operate. Still riding the wave of an economy built on digital platforms, companies have spent the last two decades digitizing operations and moving data to the cloud to improve efficiency and unlock institutional knowledge.
The result is staggering. Globally, we now generate more data in a single day than we did in all of 2003. Over 120 zettabytes of data were created in 2023, up from roughly 2 zettabytes in 2010, and projections suggest that number will more than double again by 2027. What used to be a trickle of structured data has become an ocean of unstructured information: customer interactions, connected devices, transaction logs, and sensor streams, all waiting to be interpreted.
This proliferation of data has created unprecedented potential for growth and innovation. The convergence of advanced technologies such as machine learning, large language models, and exponential processing power now enables organizations to extract patterns, forecast outcomes, and automate decisions at scales once unimaginable.
As we enter the era of artificial intelligence, the ability to translate this expanding data universe into meaningful, predictive insights has become a defining competitive edge. AI is not just another step in digital transformation; it’s the next platform shift. And like every shift before it, it rewards those who learn fast, experiment early, and build adaptability into their culture.
In my upcoming posts, I’ll define the four key components of AI and share a practical framework to evaluate your organization’s AI maturity. The goal is to move from awareness to action, from being a bystander in this new era to actively leveraging AI to propel your business forward.
So. BlackBerry is out of the mobile phone business, Apple’s stock has risen more than 40-fold since launching the iPhone, MySpace now attracts only 2.5 million monthly visitors, less than 1% of Facebook’s 3 billion, and Amazon’s market cap is now 7x greater than GM and the entire U.S. airline industry combined.
Where will your company be five years from now?
Next in the series: Navigating AI: A Model for Adoption