You think you're pretty big, eh? Well, things are about to change.
Darwin, in his book "On the Origin of Species" describes the concept of evolution which involves the success of organisms that adapt most effectively to their environment through a process of heredity, random mixing and mutation and natural selection. Fundamental to this concept is the stability of the environment. It is only through that stability that the barrage of experiments done through random errors and mixing in reproduction can happen upon advantages that lead to dominance. Evolution describes a process of information theory where the information is contained within the DNA of the organisms that are defined by it.
As seen by the dinosaurs, over time, a species can collect the attribute of size and strength to achieve dominance. But as also seen through the dinosaurs, extinctions occur when the stability of the environment is disrupted. In their case it has been postulated that a giant asteroid (or comet's) collision with earth changed the ecosystem in critical ways necessary for the survival of dinosaurs. For example, their advantage of size might have become a disadvantage if the disruption resulted in a scarcity of food or water. (Note that newer theories are being discussed that postulate a giant volcanic eruption in India, possibly even brought about by the collision.)
All of this life on our planet occupies what we refer to as the Biosphere which is roughly 12.4 miles of the earth's surface. A similar concept to the biosphere, which he called the NuSphere, was created by Tielhard Chardin, a 20th century French Jesuit philosopher and priest. But the Nusphere isn't made of atoms, instead, it's the universe of ideas, whether in people's brains, or written in books or on the Internet. And, other philosophers, like Jonnie Hughes, author of "On the Origin of Tepees" suggest that the concept of evolution can be applied to "ideas" constructed from language or drawings, in exactly the same way that it applies to genetics albeit quite a bit faster (and without the need for sex, sorry).
And, business models are simply one species of ideas. So my theory is that the destabilizing effect of technology is doing to businesses today what the asteroid did to the dinosaurs eons ago. Kodak's demise as a result of the invention of the digital camera and obsolescence of film is just such an example.
In fact, I believe, as described by Moore's Law, that the speed of innovation that is driven by technology is changing exponentially and as such, the “day of the large company” may soon be over and the dinosaurs like Kodak and others are dying right before our eyes.
Now this isn't all bad news. When the dinosaurs bit the dust, it gave an opportunity to our fore-bearers who, prior to that were hiding under rocks to prevent their being stepped on, to become the new dominant species. In our case, the process of evolution led to the development of our brains instead of our muscles and size, and as well, the development of social structures and reliance upon others to provide strength in numbers.
If history repeats itself then the new corporate model is likely to be based upon small and mobile companies which band together to achieve dominance. It is the best time to be an entrepreneur that has ever existed. And also, the most important time for dinosaurs to consider their defense strategy which must be based upon aggressive innovation.
Go and make your fortune.