People create and re-shape industries, not the other way around. The ones who succeed in their business efforts and have the financial knowledge to understand wealth-building, may become billionaires. As to whether or not they stay billionaires, that’s another story.
In every industry, there are established business models, and somewhere along the way, whether that was 100 years ago, or now, innovative PEOPLE have hacked it, disrupted the status quo, thus creating massive wealth and totally re-shaping their industry.
Take a look at Uber. What industry would Uber belong to? Some say car-hailing or transportation or a technology company, it’s actually NEITHER.
- For the consumer, Uber is a specific technological tool to connect people with cars in a fast-paced way to reduce cab fares and maximize efficiency (lower wait times, tracking of the driver’s arrival, sharing rides/logistics, etc.)
- For the driver, Uber is a company expanding the taxi market to ordinary drivers, serving as a new pseudo-employer (most drivers are contractors). So from the angle of the driver, Uber is more of a sales company doing all the work to advertise, program, and direct riders needing rides to the driver
If you combine those two factors and look under all the superficial hullabaloo that blinds investors about the “amazing qualities” and “revolutionary nature” of Uber, you can start seeing the truth. Uber is simply a niche SERVICE company, a middleman doing the simple task of connecting riders and drivers.
UBER is simply a matchmaking service for transportation needs!
It’s low-margin, high-volume, susceptible to risk and high competition because it’s a SERVICE company, NOT A TECHNOLOGY firm. Their business relies on providing the service of connecting riders with drivers! Nothing more exciting than that.
How do I know I’m right? Uber is and has been losing market share massively to competitors all over the world, because their business model is TOO easy to replicate! Other companies with similar resources (technical skills to program the software and salespeople to engage drivers) can and have easily established themselves GLOBALLY. Almost overnight, copycats succeeded in beating Uber to the punch in their respective geographies!
The reason why Uber has failed to become a monopoly is because there is nothing truly patentable! They’re not bringing any NEW technology to the table; Nor are they providing some holistic, deeper mission, or product with new revenue streams! Uber is simply applying basic technological principles to a static industry that was looongg overdue for an overhaul.
On the flip side, the taxicab industry has been totally rocked by Uber and Uber’s competitors.
They are suffering loss profits and drastically reduced value of their “medallions” that drivers need to operate the taxicabs. These businesses fell behind because they ignored all the technological innovation around them! The only thing technical is the TV and credit card machine that’s in the backseat of the taxicab. Hardly anything interesting or captivating to the consumer.
They should have protected their market share and extended their competitive edge of owning so much of the taxicab market. However, they got too comfortable. Now they’re copying Uber too by creating the app that allows you to schedule rides. But they’re already way behind.
You snooze, you’ll definitely lose.
Technology is just a means to an end, every major firm in today’s world is powered by technology. That by itself is not enough to create profitability due to competition and the easy access to technology and creators of technology. So the simple answer of: “oh technology companies are the way to go” is TOO surface-level. It’s actually a basic requirement of companies these days to incorporate technology in order to reach large economies of scale.
Then again, traditional business models also will do just fine, and new billionaires can grow from those businesses as well. A profitable food franchise, a successful sports team, financial firms, pharmaceutical company, real estate holdings etc, all are still possible to create billionaires. As I mention in this article, you can make money in any industry! It’s about HOW you go about it that determines HOW MUCH you’ll end up making.
As you can see from the above example, it’s not about the industry, it’s about the companies and leaders who stay one step ahead of the game. In the coming years, the world, therefore each country, will experience massive changes due to technology; Anyone who doesn’t recognize the revolutionary nature of the global workforce, the compounding growth of technological capabilities, will be in for a rough ride (PUN INTENDED)!
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