How Technology Creates Wealth

Dynamic markets create opportunitywere based on the laws of scarcity, where you have
Markets create energy because they are dynamic.a limited amount of resources and value is based on
They are constantly evolving in response to changeshow scarce they are - gold, oil, land, etc. The more
in the economic, political and technologicalyou use up the resources the less energy you have.
environments. Understanding what causes a marketA technology-based economy is based on the laws
to evolve helps you predict where opportunities willof abundance. According to Moore's law, there will
emerge; how fast they will develop, and when andalways be cheaper resources tomorrow. This
whether mass adoption will occur. If you can captureever-increasing pool of resources enables customers
this energy, you can use it to drive the sales process.to implement new business strategies. If it isn't
Dynamic systems create energy. If left unchecked,possible today, it will be possible tomorrow. Improved
any systemic change tends to grow. A snowballtechnology is constantly fueling the market, creating
rolling downhill gets bigger. Growth createsenergy.
momentum. As the snowball grows bigger, it goesFurthermore, thanks to this simple formula
faster. Momentum creates energy. The faster thetechnological obsolescence is only a few months
snowball rolls; the bigger it gets; the harder it hits theaway. Customers can never afford to sit still for fear
tree. Energy drives change. (Source The Fifththat a competitor will be able to leapfrog ahead of
Discipline)them if they adopt the next generation of
You can use the energy sources created by antechnology faster. This anxiety is another powerful
evolving market to motivate prospects to buy yoursource of energy that you can use to drive your
solution. Persuading people to try out a newsales.
technology is an uphill battle. You have to invest a lotMetcalf's Law also has a powerful effect on
of your precious energy - sales resources, capital,developing markets. Robert Metcalf, the founder of
technical expertise, etc. - into convincing prospects3Com, said "New technologies are valuable only if
they can benefit from using your technology tomany people use them... the utility of a network
support their business. However, if you understandequates the square of the number of users. " This
what is driving market change- an increasingly mobilemeans that the more people use a technology, the
workforce, higher need for personal security, fastermore useful it becomes. If there was only one fax
access to global markets - then you use the energymachine in the world, it wouldn't be useful. With two
created by the market to motivate prospects tofax machines you can send mail back and forth
buy. Thus, you need to invest less of your ownfaster and cheaper than if you send it through the
resources and you can sell more productively andpost office. With 2,000,000 fax machines, you never
efficiently.have to wait in line at the post office again.
Technology markets create abundance.According to Metcalf a technology's usefulness equals
There are two laws that explain whythe number of users squared. If two people use a
technology-enabled markets generate extraordinaryfax it is four times easier than using the postal
amounts of energy.system. If 20 people use the fax machine, it is 400
1. Moore's Law predicts that technology is going totimes easier. This creates a geometric increase in the
improve in the future and cost less.technology's utility, which is just another way of
2 Metcalf's Law states that technologies becomesaying why customers would want to buy it. So if 2
more useful as more people use them.people want to buy a fax machine today; 4 people
The combination of these two laws creates anwill want to buy it tomorrow; 16 people will want to
economy of abundance that is unique to technologybuy it the day after tomorrow; 256 people will want
markets. As Moore's Law predicts an endless supplyto buy it next week, and 2,147,483,648 will want to
of ever-increasing resources and Metcalf's Lawbuy it by the end of the month. That is a lot of
promises that innovations will be quickly adopted, thepotential customers lining up to buy your product,
nature of the economy changes.which is what market energy is all about.
Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel, said, "Every 18Abundance creates demand for your technology.
months processing power doubles while the costSince technology markets create abundance they are
holds constant." The implications of Moore's Law arenot subject to the constraints of scarcity. They have
that every 18 months technology is going to costunlimited growth potential and consequently unlimited
half as much and be twice as powerful. Moore's Lawpotential to create wealth.
has held true for over 30 years. Previous economies