1.
Exponential Technologies and The
Changing Nature of Competition
Competitive Advantage in an Exponential Age
paul@paulbarter.com www.paulbarter.com @paulbarter.com

2.
My area of focus is how technology will enable business
and societal change 3 years in the future.

3.
First A Little Context

4.
Types of Innovation
Sustaining innovation
Disruptive innovation

5.
Sustaining Innovation
• Maintains a trajectory of performance improvement that has
been established in a market (they give customers more and
better attributes that they already value)
• You do this pretty well already (although it’s always possible to
improve!)
• Primarily enabled by financial and operational data
• Incumbents almost always win!

6.
Finance
Marketing
Operations
Accounting
Legal
Human Resources
IT
Strategy

7.
The electric light did not
come from the continuous
improvement of candles!

8.
Disruptive Innovation
• Introduces a very different package of attributes than the ones
that mainstream customers value
• Cheaper/Simpler/More convenient – opens new markets
• Usually startups
• Primarily enabled by technology, critical thinking and customer
insight (data)
• Disruptors often win

9.
Technology

10.
The next
fortune.
General Purpose Technologies

11.
Disrupted by
Technology!

12.
On an average day in the early
part of the twenty-first century,
human beings generate 2.5
million trillion bytes of data

13.
Where does all this data come from?

14.
Innovation and The Changing Nature of
Competition

15.
• In a 2011 a report by Gartner stated…..
• CEOs will spend more than 2,500 hours working this year, but will devote
fewer than 2 of those hours to matters directly pertaining to IT.
• CEOs know exactly what they want
• CEOs DO NOT want emerging technologies

16.
On The Other Hand
The CEO’s of Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft LIVE AND BREATH
emerging technologies & 5 years later …..

17.
Existing Direct Competition Adjacent
Competition
Start-ups
IT as a GPT Changes Competition From

18.
To
Actual Threat Level
Start-ups Existing Direct Competition Adjacent
Competition

19.
Finance Example
Actual Threat Level
Start-ups Existing Direct Competition Adjacent
Competition

20.
Next Steps

21.
Technology

22.
In Information
Technology AI Is The
Next Exponential Tech!

23.
Innovation
Opportunities!

24.
General Purpose Technologies
? ?

25.
But Not The Only
One

26.
Closing Thought
In 2007 Blockbuster was working on shortening the checkout line at
their stores.
Netlix launched their streaming service and began to migrate away
from shipping DVD’s
Who do you want to emulate?

27.
Exponential Technologies and The
Changing Nature of Competition
Competitive Advantage in an Exponential Age
paul@paulbarter.com www.paulbarter.com @paulbarter.com