Welcome to the On Demand Society, from The Blog of Glenn Pasch.
I was listening to Brian Solis’s new podcast, Context Matters, and he mentioned the term “On Demand Society” when discussing Uber and its effect on not just business, but the economy in general. His point was that this ever-growing desire from consumers— to have things at their fingertips— is changing business as we know it. What struck me is how this desire for on-demand services will affect every business in the future. Businesses cannot sit on the sidelines to see if the On Demand Economy will succeed or fail before jumping in. I think it is here to stay and will evolve even more. Businesses need to use 2015 to adjust their strategy in some way to adapt to this growing phenomenon.
It is easy to understand the On Demand Economy when we think of media consumption and the growth of Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo and every other channel that now has its content on demand. I see the future of this economy in my children, 8 and 9 years old, who are so comfortable accessing their shows or working their online apps across multiple devices. It seems that in the future, they will have no frame of reference to what we are speaking about when we say that one has to wait for something. Slow downloads are painful for them right now. Speed matters.
The Next Step for On Demand Society
I also think we are seeing glimpses of another part of the On Demand Economy, which I will call the “Customization Economy.” With services like AirBNB, Open Table, car configurators, customized training programs, and so on, there’s concierge service for all! Everyone can now feel special because they are designing their own experience.