Listening to a Harvard Business Review this morning (while walking the dog on the beach) I was reminded the internet as we know it now is really only a few years old. In the late 1990’s use of the internet was controlled by the ISPs and the talk was all about capturing customers with content. The battle was between Compuserve, AOL, Yahoo etc. and people paid for use.
Something happened during the dot com boom/bust. ISPs lost control over content and businesses started using the internet to bring their shop front to the user in the e-commerce explosion. But this was only the start.
By 2004 we started to see something else. Innovative business propositions based on user managed content emerged. Users harnessed the internet to share information between themselves, as opposed to accessing information from content providers or e-commerce vendors. New technologies such as Ruby in Rails dramatically cut the development costs of new applications which actually did “stuff” as opposed to just publish. Designers and developers got together to create easy to use, great to look at, software and used the internet as a marketing/sales/delivery vehicle. What we’re now recognizing as Web 2.0 emerged and now businesses could get to Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail”. Google led the charge with free Search and Mail. Social networking really took advantage of it and My Space proved Metcalf’s law of networks.
At the same time, and entirely unconnected, another phenomena emerged. Baby Boomers reached their 50’s – past their sell buy date for most big companies – but 50 is the new 30. Still energetic and ambitious, vastly experienced “Boomers” aren’t finding opportunities in the world of the corporate ladder anymore. There are too many young people pushing for the best jobs. The “Boomers” are voting with their feet, starting their own businesses and de-skilling the corporates in the process. We’re seeing the disaggregation of big corporates, and the emergence of knowledge based economies amongst small businesses, all made possible by the new internet.
Quote from Startup Nation
“According to a 2004 survey commissioned by AARP, more than 75% of individuals born between 1946 and 1964 (The Baby Boomers) indicated a strong intention to continue working into their sixties, and sometimes beyond.
This means that 75% of 76 million Americans, or more than 57 million individuals, want to keep working for a decade or more into the future.
But many 50+ Boomers in particular are being pushed into early retirement, being downsized or being told by their corporate employers that there really isn’t room for them after age 60.
So if there aren’t enough corporate jobs to go around for the older Boomers, what’s their alternative option for continued income-producing work?
More and more Boomers are choosing some form of entrepreneurial activity as their preferred alternative to the corporate world.
In fact, the number of self-employed people over age 50 has increased 29% since 2000 and for the past five years, individuals age 50-62 have been the fastest growing group of new business owners in the U.S.
After a 30-year-plus corporate career, many Boomers are considering an entrepreneurial venture for the first time in their adult lives. The sheer number of prospective Boomer entrepreneurs demands an aggressive effort to provide entrepreneurial assistance to them.”
So why am I writing about it here? This is exactly the sweet spot for Front Office Box. Executives leaving corporate employment are used to having information systems to help them with their work. When they start their business, Front Office Box offers them enterprise style control over their information. and they can use it free of charge. Better than that, it allows them to work anywhere they choose – at home, in the coffee shop, on the train. Even better than that it enables them to collaborate with peers, bringing together skills, experience and resources and creating compelling propositions for the people who use to be their employers. Web 2.0 and the disaggregation of big companies could come together to create the Perfect Storm for Front Office Box.
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