Compared to the past, what’s unique about the disruption happening today is the rapid pace of change. During past revolutions, firms had many years, even decades, to adapt. Today, that is no longer the case. One indicator of just how fast the landscape is changing is the longevity of companies on the S&P 500, an index of leading US companies.

Roughly a hundred years ago, the average lifespan of a company listed on the S&P 500 was 67 years. Today, that average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has decreased to just 15 years. This demonstrates that it is becoming harder for companies to stay in the lead, or even in business, for very long.  

Experts believe that we’ll see this trend continue. Richard Foster, a Yale University professor and former McKinsey partner, predicts that in the next decade, only 25% of the companies currently listed on the S&P 500 will remain there, meaning the other 75% will be replaced by new companies. These new companies will be those that take advantage of innovative technological capabilities to rapidly gain ground in their chosen markets. Similarly, the existing companies that remain on the index will be those that rapidly innovate and evolve their businesses.

The bottom line is, today’s organizations must adapt quickly to change, using new technologies that fuel competitive advantage, or risk getting left behind. That’s why it’s imperative to make the most of big data, the cloud and intelligence capabilities, all of which help companies accelerate their speed of business through smarter decision-making and faster execution.

At Oakwood, we help organizations like yours leverage Microsoft technologies to drive intelligence throughout your business.

One example might be to incorporate cognitive understanding and make applications “smarter,” through services that enable developers across different platforms to add intelligence into their applications.

This might include:

• Facial & Vision Understanding – Seeing and identifying objects, people, and actions
• Speech & Language Understanding – Hearing and recognizing language
• Knowledge – Learning and developing greater understanding over time
• Emotion & Video Detection – Perceiving emotions and reactions

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To learn more about what Oakwood can do for your organization, please send us a message below and we’ll connect your with our Data & Analytics experts.