Book Foreword
I’m really excited.
I had asked my good friend, Danny Briere, to write the foreword to The Power of Mobility. He agreed and I just received a copy of what he’s written. His comments are insightful and flattering and I’m proud that they’ll be part of my book.
Here’s just a snippet of what he’s said:
…
Moore’s Law was one of these early suggested hypotheses that gained strength with time and therefore proofpoints. Moore’s Law explained the era of plummeting costs and bursting processing capabilities in the early days of computing. It provided an ability to cull from the rapidly changing technology landscape some stability of purpose, and allow for solid planning, expectations, and in some cases, hope.
Metcalfe’s Law followed. Metcalfe’s Law provided a solid extension of Moore’s Law into the Age of the Internet. Building on the decades of experience with other networks, from railroads to telephones, Metcalfe’s Law provided a basis to value and exploit the Internet and all the businesses and concepts derived from it. Metcalfe’s Law paved the way for all sorts of corollaries, from those that claimed “First To Market” advantages in riding the Metcalfe curve, to those that pursued M&A to obtain multiples on the market valuations from the resulting high subscriber numbers. “The Network Effect” was born, and the industry had its next big layer of stability to anchor its development.
Then came wireless to mix everything up again. “The Law of Mobility” is what it’s been called for the past few years, posited more as a hypothesis at first, gaining steam recently as more and more industry data support the core facets of the Law, and providing yet more ability to craft sense from the chaos that accompanies the wireless onslaught. We’ve gone from custom military-grade communications, to $3,000 “bricks” offered to the few, to clamshell innovations like Motorola’s StarTec, through to TREOs, Blackberries and the iPhone. We’ve gone through hundreds of “A” and “B” carriers, through flaming Iridium satellites, through cellular carrier consolidation and logo changes on trucks (bye bye, McCaw, Bell Atlantic Mobile, Cingular…) through GSM versus CDMA versus Wi-Fi versus lots of other technology battles. We’re witnessing a total and fundamental paradigm shift from staid, anchored landline phones and computers, to totally untethered, anywhere-in-the-world instant communications. There’s no torch passing here, but rather a whole new flame in a new generation that is growing up on “always on” connectivity, constant network presence, and immediate satisfaction. We’re seeing total abandonment of prior decades-refined habits, in favor of whole new approaches to not only technology and work, … but life itself.
Computing. Internet. Wireless. These disruptive changes have forever changed our landscape like the railroads, airlines, and telephone before them. Wireless enables Mobility, Mobility changes all around us. Those who are true strategists in their firms have no choice but to quickly make sense of all this dramatic change and plot the best path through. For many, from the landline-focused telephone companies to the historically lagging Postal Service, this is the Perfect Storm of their time – a time where fundamental industry tenets, technological capabilities and user habits all change overnight.
Russ McGuire’s Power of Mobility hits this new age face on. He explains, with almost matter-of-fact simplicity, what’s going on, where it’s going, and what you need to do to 1) not be blindsided and 2) capture the situation to your benefit. The Power of Mobility prepares you, in a step-by-step fashion, to interpret the opportunity presented by mobility into your firm’s environment. He provides a literal roadmap for strategic planning and execution. Where he can’t give you the answer, he leads by example.
…
You can read the rest of his foreword when the book comes out this fall. Or keep up with some of his columns here and here.
Thanks Danny!