Welcome to the February issue of The Exponential Executive.

In this Issue

	It Only Seems Like Yesterday
	Watch the Future Unfold Before Your Eyes
	A Quadrillion Here, A Quadrillion There

In Other News

In spite of the economic downturn, I remain fortunate to continue to speak to clients across the country in a variety of industries. If you're interested in learning what I've been saying, I invite you to click on the associated link: automobile industry; construction industry; health care industry; publishing industry and the telecommunication industry.

In other news, if you are a Twitterer, you can now follow me and my thoughts in real-time at www.twitter.com/jumpthecurve.

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It Only Seems Like Yesterday

Today (February 5, 2009) is the fifth anniversary of Facebook. This past January 19th was the 8th anniversary of Wikipedia and it was only last fall that Google celebrated its 10th anniversary. To put these milestones in perspective, let me share a few numbers with you. If Facebook were a country it would today be the fifth largest country in the world with a population of 150 million. At the end of 2008, Wikipedia -- using only free labor -- had 75,000 "editors" who had, together, written 10 million entries in 264 different languages. And Google, from its humble origins in a Stanford University dorm room in 1998, now employs 20,000 people; has a market capitalization of $110 billion; performs over 25 billion searches a day; and has transformed everything from the advertising and newspaper industries to health care. In order to become an Exponential Executive and "jump the curve" 5, 8 and 10 years into the future, it will help to keep these impressive numbers in mind because the future has a surprising way of arriving sooner than expected.

Watch the Future Unfold Before Your Eyes

I recently came across this (now) hilarious 1981 TV news report describing a future in which someday people would "read their newspapers on a computer." Of course, today, many of us thinking nothing of getting our news online. In fact, for a growing number, it is the only way they get their news. Well, as I said last month, "the future is already here, it just isn't evenly distributed ." With this quote in mind, I invite you to watch four videos from 2009 which, much like the 1981 report, will provide a compelling look into the future. To understand robots promising future, check out this clip; and for an idea of how RFID tags and embedded computer chips will soon simplify your life watch this one or this one on sticky notes. To grasp how you may soon be powering your home with a personal $500 rooftop wind turbine view this video ; and if you want to know how you might soon be engaged in "voiceless communication" and making phone calls by thought alone watch this impressive video. To be sure, these visions of the future may seem far-fetched now but, remember, so too did "computer newspapers" in 1981.

A Quadrillion Here, A Quadrillion There

Last month, I released a short two-minute "Future Flash ” video on the growing power of supercomputers. In it, I said that IBM was expected to release a supercomputer capable of 10 quadrillion calculations per second in 2010. Well, earlier this week I learned the company will now double that capacity to 20 petaflops -- or 20 quadrillion calculations calculations per second—by 2012. In other words, I was off by a rather humbling sixteen zeros -- or 10,000,000,000,000,000. For those of you counting at home, it would take you roughly 16 billion years to perform 20 quadrillion calculations using a handheld calculator—and that’s assuming you could work around-the-clock 365/24/7. If you want an idea of how these powerful beasts are already transforming the business world, I recommend this article.