This is a powerful slide. It shows that we must think differently about both business and technology if we wish to be successful in either.
Delta is a tech company with planes.
If you want to scale, and ultimately be dominant at anything in 2015 and beyond, you basically need to focus on your technology platform. If it doesn’t allow you to scale without issues, you’re not going to win.
It’s about access. Distribution. Ease of use. Cost to the user.
If you can make something easy that was hard, cheap that was expensive, readily available that was hard to get, and enjoyable when it used to suck—you probably have a business.
And technology is the centerpiece to all of this. You can’t reach people without tech.
Everyone knew tech was part of the business mix, but nobody realized it would be the centerpiece.
Remember this slide when you think about hard problems that still need to be solved, and the long-term prospects for any given business.