'Survival of the fittest', the implacable Darwinian notion of heredity in an evolving, ever-changing landscape, applies as much to the business world as the natural. Without warning, people today are forced to compete in a world of rapid and relentless change: new industries are being born; established companies are being boldly challenged by newcomers; start-ups are questioning conventional business thinking; businesspeople face both uncertain challenges and unparalleled opportunities.
As with the colossal impact of an asteroid into our planet, throwing the future into confusion and altering the technological climate forever, even a casual observer can see with the naked eye the hurtling approach of the Internet. However, no knows whom it will hit or which skyscraping dinosaurs will topple. Simultaneously, the swirling black hole of globalisation threatens to swallow any commercial debris in its path in a flurry of mergers and acquisitions. These are all attempts to build fortresses fit to withstand the sound and fury of the economic elements in a world where no frame of reference exists except the speed of light. Electronic news travels faster than wildfire, threatening the tiger economies first with extinction, later only narrowly avoided by the rest of the world on the global San Andreas Stock Exchange.
These twin opposing forces of innovation and consolidation will shape the business arena of the future, presenting new pitfalls and new champions. It will be the companies who are best adapted to the unknown environment of the future who will thrive and positively benefit from the opportunities presented by such an upheaval. Some of the successful species of today will adapt, while others still will grow as completely new breeds of business. It is from the scattered seeds of the past that the future blossoms: this daily journal of one thousand years of human achievement provides the ephemeral landscape upon which the artisans of the 21st era will build.