Tech

Startups are all the rage in the tech business press. Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley write endless columns about the Next Big Thing.  Entrepreneurs are celebrated, written about, and there’s both an HBO and an Amazon series about them.  VCs (Venture Capitalists) look for the next Unicorn. What’s that? It’s a startup they invest in early, raise a few million up to $10 or $20, maybe even $30 million, that will then grow to Billion Dollar value.  Yes, that was Billion with a B.  Maybe to get there, in VC money-speak, it will take a few more rounds, an A, BC, even a D round, raising many millions, tens of millions, to get there.  Usually this requires stellar success, revenues and growth. 

But not always.

Who was the most influential person in the last half-century?  Who made so big an impact, a difference that his or her accomplishments gave direction for years to come?  In this, the Digital Strategy column, the answer is obvious: Steve Jobs.  He put a powerful computer in the pocket, pocketbook or on the belt of nearly everyone on the planet.  His music player got absorbed into those pocket computers.  The iPhone was the gateway to those powerful computers.  Computers that enable music and photography functionality and voice communication would have been unimaginable 50 years ago.

His surname was Jobs.  How prophetic.  The industries he triggered and the acceptance and adoption of connectivity and automated machinery helped propel a Digital Revolution. Jobs (Steve) created all sorts of new jobs (employment) and job categories that occurred, as a result of his efforts.