At Schnizzfest this year, I spoke about the downfall of the once prosperous ice industry — a significant enterprise that failed to adapt in time and consequently vanished.
A similar fate has befallen giants like Nortel, Blockbuster and others that failed to read the tea leaves. This week, an article in the Wall Street Journal caught my attention. It discussed Intel, the once-dominant force in chip manufacturing. Due to their complacency, they allowed Nvidia to carve out a niche in graphics chips. Fast forward to the present, and Nvidia is the leading force in artificial intelligence (AI) processing.
Intel has invested billions in manufacturing facilities to function as a contract manufacturer for others but has yet to see the expected demand. Meanwhile, Nvidia has significantly surpassed Intel’s market cap.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Our market is changing. The needs of our customers are changing. Our roles within the industry are changing. We must stay aware of these shifts and avoid default responses like, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it.”
As an industry, we must embrace incremental adjustments to roles, tools, processes and pricing as we look for more significant changes on the horizon.
