The 21st Century Shift in Markets
Over the last twenty years, globalization and technological changes have greatly accelerated the rate at which products and services typically move from one market environment to another. Organizations that used to operate in the same environment for decades now must face significant change - and very difficult choices - after only a few years, and sometimes after only a few months.
Furthermore, it used to be that, with some intelligent planning and the investment of a great deal of resources, many American companies could secure for themselves long-standing places as rulers in kingdom markets. This outcome is now much less likely. For one thing, there are far fewer kingdom markets. Global competition and improved processes have created strong tendencies for products and services to move toward battlegrounds and jungles, and to move away from kingdoms. These same developments have also tended to shrink the lengths of time that rulers have been able to enjoy market dominance.
Ultimately, every product or service ends up in either a jungle or a battleground market. However, in much of the 20th century, many products were able to spend years - even decades - in kingdom markets before the competition finally caught up. (Think of Coca Cola, Kodak cameras, Xerox photocopiers, and IBM computers in the 1960s and 1970s.)
These days are of course long gone. In the 21st century, an organization must be able to thrive in a jungle or battleground - or else it must be very good at 1) sensing when a product is moving into one of those two market environments, and 2) selling the appropriate product, business unit, or brand at the right time.
Pioneers face a similar change. It used to be that a product or service could spend several years in a frontier market, where the company behind it could enjoy significant margins for some time, until the product or service inevitably drifted into the jungle. Now, with ever-shortening life cycles and the constant rollout of new products, versions, and upgrades, it is not uncommon for a new offering to spend only a few months - or even no more than a few weeks - in the frontier before being pulled into the jungle.
In short, while the 20th century largely belonged to ruler organizations, it looks like the 21st century will belong primarily to hunters and warriors.
