Marc Andreessen! As I read the first two chapters of Wharton on Managing Emerging Technology, it opened my mind to a new way of thinking when it came to innovation and new technology. The chapters discussed how existing companies have either dragged their feet and missed out or casually invested in new technologies. The chapters discussed how small start ups were able to jump into a market and take risk that established companies would never imagine doing. While the reading was fresh on my mind, I came across a program on Bloomberg TV, actually my grandmother did, I just happen to be along for the ride. The program was called Game Changers and this particular episode was about Marc Andreessen. If you are not aware of who Marc Andreessen is, he and some of his college buddies created the Mosaic Web Browser. He laid the foundation for the browsers that we use today. He had a vision, which he turned into reality. His vision was to give everyone access to material that only a few had access to. As with Palm, he took an existing technology and made it better. Then he gave it away for free. He took a risk and it paid off. He was persistent, when one door closed, he went to Silicon Valley and reinvented the browser. He became a disruptive innovator and as Wharton's put it, he ran circles around his larger incumbent competitors. Marc's technology frightened MicroSoft and forced them to adjust their strategy in order to compete with him. I will not rehash the story, I'll let you watch it for yourself. But I will leave you with a final thought, what is the difference between us now and us where we want to be? Fear of taking chances. Fear of being fully invested in something that we believe can change the world. Let's go be game changers. Below is the link to the program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/67758394/
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