Back to the future

In 1985 ‘Back to the Future’ was released catapulting Michael J Fox (Marty McFly) with Doc and his supercharged DeLorean to cult status in this comic science fiction adventure 

If you were like me, you imagined what it would be like to go back in time with what you now know, and what would you take advantage of in your personal life and business.

So let me pose a question. If you could roll out your DeLorean and fire up the ‘flux capacitor’ and go back to 1995 ….the early days of the commercial internet, what would you do to make your business different? What would you invest in – technology, education, people skills?

Now before you put too much thought into this question, here is something to consider. Two of the 20 most valuable companies in the world today weren’t around in 1995. Google was created in 1998, and Facebook in 2004…….and there are many more that are in the Fortune 1000.

So now back to the question and what would you do with that sort of knowledge. As a manufacturer, distributor or retailer - what would that mean for your business today? 

Here are a few that I thought of by leveraging technology and specifically eCommerce - the ability to expand into new geographies and markets, the ability to keep your operating costs down as you grew, the ability to redirect capital to expansion and new ventures, get an ‘unfair share’ of your customers’ business through additional channels to market.

Now turning off Doc’s ‘flux capacitator’ and coming back to our current reality in 2015 I am going to make a bold statement. 

The opportunities that exist today have never been greater ……… eCommerce is still in relatively early days for many businesses but the time to get moving is now. 

Here at Commerce Vision we see companies and markets that are ripe for disruption. We see opportunities for companies to expand their coverage without the huge cost of investment in bricks and mortar and time, the opportunity of stripping out operating expenses through reducing cost2serve, the opportunity of operating your business 7/24/365 ….the list goes on.

So here is the challenge. In 2018, just 3 years from now, not 30 years like in ‘Back to the Future’, what will you be saying about the opportunities you had in 2015?