Introduction: You Get Control When You Recognize the Patterns

Abstract

This book is for everyone who wants to understand our information age . This book is written for CEOs, entrepreneurs considering online start-ups, and undergraduates still trying to pick a career. This book is for regulators, lobbyists, and lawmakers. This book is for anyone who wants to understand how information changes consumer behavior , corporate strategy, competition, and law. This book describes the digital transformation of everything . It describes the new patterns of power in this transformed world. We start by learning about the changes produced by information. These are the individual pieces that, when taken together, create the digital transformation of everything. We’re going to see how information changes the behavior of individuals, the strategy of firms, and the structure of organizations. We’re going to learn to see new patterns as they start to emerge, before their impact on behavior, strategy, or structure is readily visible. This will enable us to understand the changes that have occurred, early, before others see them. It will also enable us to predict the changes that are going to occur, even before it is possible to see them. It will give us competitive advantage . This chapter introduces the book’s first pattern, Newly Vulnerable Markets .