2010 was a great year: mobile finally happened, everyone got an iPad and the publishing business model was going to be revolutionised by the new platforms. On the web, sophisticated behavioural targeting finally gave some signs of actually being able to deliver business results for advertisers and social media exploded into an exciting new landscape full of promise.
2011, all business at last!
2011 will be nothing like that. This is the year when eBusiness finally grows into a mature discipline, sheds its young and challenger image and turns into a solid engine of business.
Those of us that have been doing it from the beginning will surely miss the excitement and the sense of adventure we have enjoyed when pioneering what until now has been seen as a very new way to do business. Those of you who start now will have missed a great experience – the unique opportunity to shape the future of business doesn’t come along very often.
There will surely be some that will trey to perpetuate the youth, the excitement, the newness of the web. Like old hippies, they’ll try and cling to a great past and will be left behind by the times.
The revolution has succeeded, life goes back to normal
For the rest of us, it’s time to shed the turtleneck, Photoshop and hand-coded HTML, embrace analytics, business planning cycles and a ruthless obsession with the bottom line and get on with it. We have indeed completely changed the way business is done. But business is business, the revolution has been successful and we have businesses to run and profits to generate for our shareholders.
Roberto Hortal says
Rory Yates just posted his own thoughts: 2011 – a new beginning? at http://roystonvassey.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-new-beginning.html
Great to see other eBusiness leaders take a similar view – the time has indeed come for eBusiness to mature.