When you hear the word evolution you typically relate it to dinosaurs and cavemen.  We live in an era that is experiencing rapid evolution through science and technology.  I recognize this mostly when I am flying.  It always amazes me that I am sitting in an aluminum tube traveling at 600 miles per hour at thirty thousand feet, all while browsing the internet on a live data feed.  I’ve always had an appreciation for inventions and innovation. Its difficult to imagine a time where there were no televisions or telephones, let alone cell phones.  I can’t think of the last time that I did not have my cell phone within arms reach of me.

What is interesting to me is how rapidly technology is progressing.   For example, the telephone was first patented in 1876.  It took nearly 100 years until Motorola invented the mobile phone in 1973.  For the next 26 years there was little innovation made to the mobile phone.  It was not until 1999 that the first Smart Phone was released, which had minimal features.  It was then only seven years until the iPhone was released.   Within a few years of that it was considered standard to be able to have real time video chats on your mobile device from anywhere in the world. Examples like this can be repeated from industry to industry – from automotive technology to farming.

Its incredible to think about people that are 90 years old who have had the privilege to live through this era of drastic evolution.  We’re evolving exponentially.  Technology is being developed faster and continuously being tweaked and improved upon.  Part of what drives this is consumer demand.  The fact that consumers can now project their opinions directly to the world through the internet causes companies to react faster than they have ever had to in the past.

I often think of what it would be like to run a business without the internet and a cell phone.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for people like Andrew Carnegie and Alexander Graham Bell.  I can’t imagine trying to grow a company where you were forced to make decisions without real time feedback on market conditions.  Can you imagine trying to find out information on your competitor and their products?   What do consumers think of the product?  Where are they buying it and how much are they paying?  In order to accomplish anything you would have to physically be in the field.  I cant imagine the daunting task of trying to collect all this data, let alone compiling it and analyzing it.

Its amazing how the world is connected through technology.  It makes it seem a lot smaller than it really is.  Can you imagine a time where there was no ability to google ‘travel destinations in Asia’?  You probably wouldn’t want to go, anyways, because you would have to take a boat that would take a month to get there.  To think that I’ve literally flown to China and back twice in a month is mind boggling.  I for one appreciate that our technology has evolved so aggressively – while it would be a quiet and simpler time without it, it would be way too difficult to get people to read my blog.

-Mike