
I provide Location Advice for owners and occupants of industrial buildings in Southern California. My quest began in 1984 with a phone and a roll-a-dex! As I ponder the changes that have occurred in business for the past 25+ years, it dawned on me that nothing has changed! The content is the same! Here are some quick examples: CRE brokers still sell and lease properties. The basics...square footage, location, price per square foot are still important in the deal making process. CPAs still compute the marginal tax rates and prepare financial statements and tax returns. Financial advisors continue to discuss price earnings ratios, return on investment and risk. Advertising agencies are all about placing content in the correct venue for maximum exposure. So the content that forms the basis of our business advice has not changed in...possibly forever! We all know that the way business is done has changed. So if the content remains constant, what has changed? I believe that the delivery of the content has changed and therefore has transformed the way in which we do business. Let's get an historical perspective on the changes in delivery, shall we?
Pre 1970- Door to door, Phone, ticker-tape, hard copy print, US Mail, stock tables, telegrams, TV, radio, mimeographs
1970s- Overnight delivery, main frame computing, data bases
1980s- Fax machines, personal computers, cellular communication, cable networks, digital phone systems, word processing, electronic mail
1990s- The Internet!!, fax blasting, speed dialing, mobile cellular communication, satellite radio, mobile computing, on-line auctions, on-line trading, e-commerce, free music downloads, texting
2000s- Wireless computing, social networks, video sharing, Geo coding, music downloads (paid), smart phones, blogs, on-line news, Netflix, Hulu, DVRs, tele conferencing, Skype
2010s- Tablets, faster connectivity, MS tags, QR codes, ???
So with all of these advances in the delivery of our content, the content remains virtually (sorry for the pun) unchanged!