Non-tech companies begin acting like tech companies

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to design digital workplaces or “offices in the cloud.” These environments enable companies to allow flexible and remote working for their teams. I also teach the digital literacy, fluency, communication and collaboration skills needed to work in these modern technology-rich workplaces.

There were some predictions some time back that most businesses are going to become technology companies because of digitizing all their processes. As a result they will begin behaving like technology companies. Especially when it comes to how they make digital a core competency.

This is is now happening!

If you look at the traditional tech companies like Facebook, Google etc. there is an interesting trend. On average Facebook buys on average 9 startups per year vs 18 startups for Apple vs 23 startups for Samsung. (Stats from Julien Blin)

In the Mary Meeker 2016 Internet Report the slide above clearly shows how “non-tech companies are buying tech companies instead of building their way into digital, and [how] many are hedging their own doom by investing in their successors (General Motors funding Lyft, Whole Foods funding Instacart).” (Source: The best Meeker 2016 Internet trends slides and what they mean)

In some cases this may be one of the easiest was to leapfrog the digitization process. Interesting times!