Yesterday, the NASDAQ crossed the 6,000 mark,
its first breakthrough "round number" since 2000 when the widely followed technology index reached 5,000 for the first time.
For sure, fueling the index's steep recent rise (up 17% since November 7th) has been the solid uptick in business confidence and enthusiasm since the election.
But this is only a small part of the story.
The rest of the story is told in the list of the world’s five most valuable companies, as in:
#1. Apple, approaching an all time high value yesterday of $758 billion and the most valuable company in the history of the world (wow).
#2. Google, valued at $607 billion.
#3, Microsoft, at $596 billion.
#4. Amazon, at $434 billion.
#5. Facebook, at $425 billion.
Looking at these famous names and these astronomical numbers, our first thought often can be great for them, but what does it have to do with me and my business?
Or with the other 99.99% of businesses without the vast financial resources, global brands, and treasure troves of intellectual property like these tech behemoths?
How about everything?
For today and evermore.
Because, in this NASDAQ 6,000 world of ours, we are all either technology businesses...
...or we are nothing at all.
Because if we can’t face and overcome the intense and business fatal threat of technological obsolescence...
...of machines and code allowing these tech. giants and their ilk, or businesses of a similar size to our own, but nimbler and more innovative...
...to do the work we do for our clients better, faster, and cheaper that we can with our legacy systems and processes...
...then irreversible business decline is our certain fate.
Now, of course it is not all clouds and rain.
NASDAQ 6,000 also shows us that the counter is true too - that as we do technology right there are billions and trillions of dollars out there and ours for the taking.
Unfortunately, here is where too many of us get stuck.
In spite of dawn-to-dusk work ethics...
In spite of lifetimes of impressive academic and professional achievement...
In spite of deep training and vast real world problem solving experience in our chosen fields, industries and markets...
We don’t think we can do it.
That tech. is "over our head".
Or even worse that our only choice is to hire outsiders to do it for us.
The dreaded "IT guys."
Or, the tattooed, nose-ringed millennial that "knows social media."
Or the overseas firms that will build for us "this stuff" on the cheap.
Sure, these business types all have their value - in my business we work at least one of each of the above.
But if we want to - as the Big Boys do - capture the value for ourselves - as the Big Boys do - we can’t outsource it.
We have to be the technologists.
All of us - in every business.
Yes I know, it is a long and hard road to build a technologically impressive company.
But the first step is to understand the “Innovate or Die” nature of the challenge.
That should get us out of our bed early to get after it.
And all of the money to be made in a NASDAQ 6,000 world should keep us there.
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