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Now alot of you must be wondering what I meant about adopt innovation or live in mediocrity. Sometimes I can be a little over the top but let me explain. It's no secret that technology has advanced so much that physical things such as money, books, music, movies, etc. no longer need to be in a physical form to be used. Most people have changed with the times and have adopted new technologies to survive and adapt in this advancing technological world. There are some that have not however, and the readings that we read this week call them laggards. Laggards are the very last to adopt to innovations and are either traditional or isolates in their social system. The picture above illustrates this perfectly. The woman in the picture is using a typewriter that is decades old. Laggards are often suborn who don't believe in changing from the old ways. Millennials, (who are people who reached young adulthood in the early 2000s ) most likely have never used a typewriter. I used one when I was growing up and in high school I took a typing class using a typewriter. However by the time I got into college it had been adopted to computers. My computer concepts class that I took as a freshman taught me how to use Microsoft office and a number of other applications. Just three years prior we were still on typewriters in high school. (Just so you know this was in the early 2000s in case you all are thinking I'm old) The picture states in perfectly, don't be afraid of change.
Diffusion of Innovations
This week in class we discussed and read about the diffusion of innovations. My favorite article we read is Les Robinson's summary of diffusion innovations. He explains that an innovation is an idea, behavior, or object that is perceived as new by its audience. For instance, in the last couple of years, I have noticed a number of car companies getting WiFi built into the car. The most prominent I've seen is Chevrolet. Most of their 2015 models have WiFi built into their vehicles. I would definitely call that an innovation because everyone has not adopted to these type of cars. I can definitely see early adopters that are WiFi heavy users already getting these vehicles. As most cell phone companies no longer offer unlimited data, this has to be welcome news for people who travel and use up their data quickly. (I can attest to that) Another quick example of how technology has evolved is the fact that I started typing my blog on my computer, got up to get a quick bite to eat and continue typing this blog on my smartphone through the blogger app.Earlier I mentioned Laggards and how they were the last to adopt to innovation. Well, they are just one of five segments of diffusion. From highest to adopt to lowest to adopt they are: Innovators, Early adopters, Early majority, Late majority, and finally Laggards. I can attest to being a early adopter. On November 19th, 2006, on a cold night, I was one of the few waiting in line at GameStop to get (at the time) brand new Wii console. It launched at midnight and I was one of the first to pick it up. It didn't take long for it to catch on and they were selling out everywhere for the first couple of years of its release. It ended up becoming the highest-selling console of that generation. (It competed against the Xbox360 and the PlayStation 3) So what are you? An early adopter or a Laggard?
Asset-Light Generation
Lets talk a bit about the asset-light generation. In our discussion point for this week for class we had to determine how we can use the diffusion of innovations to capture the attention of the asset-light generation. I determined that you needed to use social media, make things simple and to the point, that the innovation should have full customization to fit each individual. Now I did some additional research and cam across a blog from a guy named Donald Ham, a corporate strategy and emerging technology analyst. He calls the asset-light generation as stateless, which means that everything you own is available on every device in every location. He's definitely correct as once upon a time I carried a heavy laptop whenever I went out of town. Nowadays I carry my smartphone and tablet. I also used to use internet explorer but last year I switched completely to Google chrome. Everything I had from my phone contacts to YouTube account were already with Google so the switch was simple, plus my bookmarks, website history, settings etc. carry over to every device I use that has Google chrome and is logged into my account. I really don't know how I could have did anything without it now. Donald did give a warning though. With everything at the tip of your fingers and always accessible comes at a cost. If you lose your device or it gets stolen look out! Make sure you have a way to erase the data on the device should it get lost or stolen. You also have to deal with app and OS updates and some devices being overly complex.
Closing comments
I would just like to say thank you to my classmates, professor, and anyone else that has come to read my first blog for 6610 Leadership and Media Strategies. For the next 9 weeks I will be posting a new blog about various topics related to the class. Take care and until next time.
Check out Donald Ham's blog at http://www.infrics.com/2013/04/mary-meeker-calls-us-asset-light.html
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