How come a 6-year old company offering on-demand car service (if you haven’t heard of them, they go by the name of Uber) can be worth $40 billion? And why is Priceline worth as much as Ford Motor Company (about $60b), all within the space of a bit over a decade, yet manages to generate just about 12% of its value in revenue?

The single most important reason why these phenomenal valuations are possible is hope – driven by the disruption within value chains and entire commercial eco systems. At the heart of these early symptoms of what is yet to come lies the changing nature of customers. As consumers we are in the driving seat more than ever before. And we are accelerating, too. The accelerator we push is called technology. In combination with the ability to process data ever more quickly, this is a powerful way to fast track the connection between a brand, a product or a service and an end-user. What is left out is the middle, so to speak. For consumers this leads to more choice of whatever you can think of, at a better availability and a lower price – always and irrespective of location. Read the full article here