Those who until now have become rich by offering a personalized service of intermediation between the offeror and the buyer are now scratching their heads, looking for ways to reinvent themselves. New products or technological platforms have come to replace them and their challenge to adapt is, at this moment, brutal. I’m talking about real estate / travel / car rental agents, among other intermediary companies. Will they die?
Those who reinvent themselves will have to maintain the service, but modify the channel, offering consumers a direct solution, where they can access the product from anywhere and at any time.
Suffice it to say that this started years ago, and today there are leading tech companies in all these verticals, starting with Amazon, Zillow and Carvana. But it is worth mentioning that today it is already penetrating every corner of every sector by leaps and bounds.
And those who do not ride the wave will, for the most part, crash. However, there will be room for a few of the old schoolers, whose added value will be an intangible that few can afford.
Does this mean “I need to learn how to code”? Not necessarily. “Do I look for another job?” Not necessarily.
We need companies to reinvent themselves. We need intrapreneurs; that is, entrepreneurs within companies. And we need the concepts of Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Canvas to stop being synonymous only with startups and to be implemented in large or already established structures, even in state entities.
We have to learn to work in a different way. We need to listen to consumers again and understand what they want or need.
We need to rethink what was already proven and begin to validate new paths. It is essential to develop a cheap and fast MVP (minimum viable product) to launch and then continuously improve, focusing on real and big pains. It is important to reformulate again. The faster we do, the less time it will take to correct.
The teams that carry out these projects must be interdisciplinary. The ideal partner for the product developer is the one who can sell the product, whether to customers, partners, investors or employees.
Countless entrepreneurs approach me assuming that they have found the solution to a problem, when in the end it is only their assumption about a problem. Entrepreneurs, as well as intrapreneurs, need to validate and iterate with real customers.
The paradigm has changed and the elephants need to focus on becoming partridges.
Entrepreneurship is not just starting a new business, it is a way of life.
