We've seen how technology is changing possibilities for consumers, employees, and partners. In fact, we need to assume that there will continue to be rapid change. In 10 years, business will look different than it does today. What's happening right now is similar to the transition we went through with the development of the personal computer and again with the Internet. The only certainty is that it is impossible to know exactly the shape of business in the future. Some well-known organizations will be gone and others—either tiny or yet to be established—will be in their place.

If we look back 25 years, few companies have been able to maintain a ranking in the Fortune 500. In 1990, the 10 largest U.S. corporations were, in order, General Motors, Ford Motor, Exxon Mobil, IBM, General Electric, Mobil, Altria Group, Chrysler, DuPont, and Texaco. Three car companies and three oil companies took six of the top 10 spots.

In 2013, the top 10 were Walmart Stores, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, General Motors, General Electric, Vallero Energy, and Ford Motor. Two car companies, four oil companies, and Apple were bigger than GM, GE, and Ford. Of course, it's unfair to compare Walmart's rise to GM's bankruptcy and government bailout. Nevertheless, the handwriting on the wall should be clear. If companies don't respond rapidly and effectively to the constantly changing environment, they will be in serious trouble.

No one can predict the future. It is often simple to look back and point out management's mistakes, shortsightedness, or poor judgment. It is much more difficult to anticipate the right move, to skate where the puck will be rather than where you think it's going. Nevertheless, I believe that certain principles are always true. We seldom go wrong if we make our services, our processes, or our products more relevant and valuable to our customers, partners, and employees. A right-time experience is about trying to deliver that right information or service at the exact point of desire or need. It's about relevant, timely communications. It's not creepy because it's delivering value. It's not generic because it's based on analysis of a wide range of data. These experiences shouldn't be static. They must adapt as your users' needs and desires evolve. And, to be clear, users can be your customers, prospects, partners, and employees. Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a right-time experience.

Right-time experiences are contextual and adaptive, and eventually the best RTEs will be predictive. If you've done your job correctly, your users will define your experiences as something that “automagically” happens. These are the experiences that create “stickiness.” Right-time experiences are synonymous with value and are the essence of creating a leading brand experience.

However, right-time experiences won't come without work. Our technology teams must add a new set of tools, such as enterprise mobile management, mobile app development platforms, big data, and analytics solutions. We need to embrace cloud computing and leverage new data sources, such as social streams and Internet of Things data. These tools will provide a foundation of flexibility that will help business leaders to at least partially adapt to “what comes next.”

The world is filled with opportunity, but we have to grasp it. We do not live in a passive business world. Both consumers and companies are active participants in making this new world. At one time, business executives could model their enterprises on the command-and-control model. No more. Employees are now taking control of the technologies they use in the office and are demanding that the business respond with more flexible ways to work and better systems.

Products and services are now customer driven and cocreated with your employees, customers, and partners. In the past, teams received minimal, if any, input from customers. In the new generation of products, customers have a voice in building and refining a product. In some cases, like that of the Kickstarter campaigns, potential customers are funding and testing your prototypes. Employees, customers, and partners take part in creating and refining right-time experiences.

At one time, a manufacturer could put a product on the shelf and be fairly certain it would sell. No more. Thanks to the Internet, consumers can now easily compare features, benefits, and prices wherever they are. Not to mention that mobile, big data, and cloud computing now make it possible for a wide range of new competitors to enter the market.

The positive aspect of the technology is that we use it to become much more relevant to our customers. If we do so, they will stick with us longer and more enthusiastically. The better the relationship, the less important price tends to become—although of course the right price-to-value ratio is always important. Fortunately, many of these technologies have the opportunity to lower the cost of creating a personalized and contextual experience.

The easier it is to do business with us—everything else being equal—the more likely consumers will choose us from all the other possibilities. The more an enterprise can meet employees' needs beyond a weekly paycheck, the easier it is to retain them and help them grow and contribute as the organization grows.

In time, you will have a better handle on what might change. In doing so, you may be on an even playing field with disruptors because you already know what your clients are interested in. You're already talking to them and engaging them routinely. You're in their pocket all the time. They'll be brutally honest about what's working and what isn't. This is powerful. This is transformational.

We've never had this insight. We've never been able to ask and respond. We've never had such great tools for information gathering. We know what our employees are using and if they spend time engaging with our business systems or avoiding them at all costs. We can do business faster than ever before. It's a huge win for large companies that were previously in the dark. It's also a huge win for smaller businesses that can look larger because they have access to lower-cost, subscription-based software and hardware services. It's all-around amazing for everyone—if, and only if, we act now.

It's true that this isn't easy. As I remarked at the beginning of this book, many business transitions require a company to cannibalize an existing business to invest in an alternative that initially offers lower sales or profits or both. Wall Street expects public companies to grow, and smaller companies can be even more cautious when it comes to wholesale shifts in a business model. Any shift that deliberately leads to shrinking revenue or profits over the short term is a hard sell to the board of directors and stockholders, no matter what benefits the future promises. Yet the unanswerable argument remains: If we don't cannibalize ourselves, someone else will. If we don't invest in the technology and the systems, competitors who do will take our sales, our customers, and, eventually, our future. No business can approach the new market dynamics with old business practices.

I truly believe based on my experience that an organization can change, that employees can learn to use the new tools, and that with strategic vision a company can become stronger, more flexible, and more profitable. This is what's required to build right-time experiences. Success is within reach of any company willing to embrace this challenge.