Shehzad Merchant

This behavior of punctuated equilibrium manifests itself in the technology industry all the time where technology makes massive strides and the end of the rapid change, entirely new industries, new leaders and new equilibria are established.

As technology leaders, it is important to understand which industries and which technologies are experiencing this punctuated equilibrium as it creates the best opportunity to disrupt strong incumbency and create opportunities for entirely new players to establish leadership.

It also creates opportunities for the transformation of entire industries leaving behind legacy players to irrelevance. We are seeing this type of change or transformation today in several industries. Recognizing these changes as periods of punctuated equilibrium rather than just as technology trends is important in recognizing that there will be industry transformation.

For example, the digitization of music ultimately changed the music industry with new leaders like Spotify. The same is happening in the video and movie industry where we are seeing streaming video companies become production houses. Cybersecurity is another area that is in the midst of just such a punctuated equilibrium.

Yesterday’s leaders that were well-known brands in the world of anti-virus and firewalls are slowly losing relevance and a whole new set of companies are establishing leadership, as cyber threat models are changing.

There are always industries at any given time that are ripe for punctuated equilibrium. Our job as technology leaders is to identify those industries and seek the help of the right technologies to drive transformation.”