Progress vs Distribution
Two ways to create enterprise value — and what changes when distribution of good ideas becomes free.
The title may have you confused a bit, but bear with me — it’ll begin to make sense a few lines in.
There are broadly two ways to create enterprise value:
- Execute a brand new idea and solve complex problems in ways never done before.
- Copy an already-established innovative idea from one market and introduce it in another.
While both are exceptionally hard to accomplish at scale (execution is what matters ultimately), the second has a higher probability of success simply because you have an established playbook to run.
Think of ride-hailing apps that basically took inspiration from Uber in various markets, or food delivery apps, or cloud storage, or large language models in the current era. The list goes on and on.
Introducing proven ideas into newer markets makes sense — but for how long?
What happens when the lines between markets disappear and everything morphs into one giant market — when distribution of good ideas is virtually guaranteed and taken for granted? (We are closer to this than you think.)
That is when you get a jump in progress. All markets — not just developed ones — will be incentivized to build the infrastructure that supports path one, which would help us realize faster progress across industries and skill sets.
What do you think?