Small Business and the Killer App
Webster defines an application as "putting to practical use." In commercial terms, it's a capability developed to take advantage of and leverage a broader development, commodity, or system. Tea bags are an application developed to take advantage of the demand for that commodity. A pay phone is an application of telephony.The Killer App
In the exciting age of computers, the killer application, or killer app, for short, became the Holy Grail of new economy entrepreneurs. According to the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, a killer app is: "An application that is exceptionally useful or exciting."
The author of this invaluable resource is my friend, Alan Freedman, the world's preeminent computer lexicographer. And while Alan's definition of killer app is obviously and technically accurate, it is also conspicuous in its understatement.
The Name Says It All
Depending on whether you are creating one or are in its crosshairs, a killer app is at once exciting and threatening; filled with opportunity for some and fraught with danger for others; it can be the birth of a paradigm shift and, as the name seems to imply, the death of an old order.
Killer apps create new markets and destroy old ones; launch new corporate ships and sink old corporate vessels; create hysteria while concurrently wreaking havoc; build wealth while simultaneously destroying fortunes.
The History Of Killer Apps
Long before becoming part of computer industry jargon, entrepreneurs were creating killer apps in many different fields of endeavor: Xerox created a killer app from Carlson's "dry writing" invention. One could say that Bell's telephone was a killer app of Morse's telegraph. Edison's light bulb was a killer app of public electrification. Ford's Model T was a killer app of the internal combustion engine.
Modern-day examples are the personal computer as a killer app of the microchip; Microsoft Windows was a killer app of public computerization; and the web browser is a killer app of the Internet, just to name a few.
Looking back at historical killer apps, each one may have turned the world on its ear, but most of them took decades to attain marketplace adoption and distribution opportunity. As we move closer to the present on the killer app time continuum, we see the distribution and adoption phase being compressed first into years, not decades, and now months, not years.
The Modern Quest For The Killer App
The 1990s, especially the last half of that decade, was filled with entrepreneurs seeking the next killer app. The problem with seeking a killer app is that it's a low percentage play. While AOL, Amazon, Ebay, and Yahoo, are examples of successful (not to say profitable) killer apps, billions of dollars were invested, spent, and lost in the quest for hundreds, if not thousands, of those that didn't make the cut.
Back To The Future
Now that the dust is more or less settled on the dot com implosion, you don't hear much about killer apps. But many wonder if there is one looming out there that will be the silver bullet that gets our economy revved up again.
In his Fall 2001 Trends Journal, my friend, Gerald Celente, author of Trends 2000, says the next killer apps will be nanotechnology (structures and devices the size of molecules) and new energy devices. Hmm!! Sounds pretty esoteric in terms of opportunity for mainstream entrepreneurs.
Not to minimize the vision and courage of Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com's founder, but any one of us could have conceived and created the first online bookstore. But the air where one pursues nanotechnology and a near-perpetual engine is a little more rarified than most of us are equipped for, don't you think?
The Next Killer App
So, are there any killer app opportunities left for the average entrepreneurial? Well, if you want to try to sell groceries online, I think the answer is no. However, if you will rethink the definition of killer app, the answer is yes.
Let's revisit Alan's definition of killer app: an application that is exceptionally useful or exciting. Do you see anything in these words to indicate scale? Where does it say that a killer app has to be any particular size? And there's nothing in there about a killer app having to change the world.
Now that the irrationally exuberant bloom is off the dot com rose, and sanity has returned to the marketplace, there are millions of smaller killer app buds springing forth. Small business entrepreneurs are leveraging technology and the Internet to create lots of exceptionally useful and exciting applications.
And while these new killer apps may not boast of attracting millions of "eyeballs," one of the dubious hallmarks during the emergence of the new economy, they typically do have that boring old economy thing going for them: profitability.
Here are some small business killer apps to use as thought starters as you launch your own:
• Small businesses are taking advantage of the incremental services available online from Application Service Provider (ASP) to increase their capability quickly and without huge capital investments in infrastructure.
• Tiny shops in tiny towns are leveraging their inventory worldwide through markets they've created on Ebay.com.
• Customized online surveys, developed and managed with minimal investment, are being used as value-added features to create customer benefits and competitive advantages for what could otherwise be commodity products.
• Small businesses are using their websites not for attracting millions of eyeballs, but to do a better job of pleasing the eyeballs that belong to customers who actually can and will do business with them. "Pleasing" means 24/7 information about products, in-stock availability, order tracking, account information, etc.
The new economy is real. But it's more about new tools than new rules. Those new tools are ready and waiting for small business owners to employ. And the good news is you can rent what you need when you need them, you don't have to "go public" to be able to afford them.
In the old days, sustained growth over a number of years meant you would one day stop being a small business. Today, with the assistance of technology and resources like ASPs and other online resources, the killer apps you create allow you to grow year after year without ever becoming big, unless you want to.
Write this on a rock... Think of it: Big business volume with the simplicity and nimbleness of a small business. Now that's my idea of a Holy Grail. You can achieve that quest with your very own small business killer apps.
