We humans are always in search of The Next Big Thing. I remember a cartoon in Playboy Magazine (I only read it for the cartoons) with two cavemen talking to each other. One was holding a primitive bow and arrow and boastfully said to his friend, “I think I’ve developed the ultimate weapon.” Back in the late 1940s, we were sure we had created not only The Next Big Thing, but The Ultimate Weapon, in the atomic bomb. Then The Next Big Thing in weapons was the hydrogen bomb. Ronald Reagan’s near-fanciful array of weapons in space, Star Wars, was intended to be the ultimate Big Thing. Today? In a nod to lethal retro, the most effective weapon used against our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is something called an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), made with, according to a recent interview with an on-the-ground American warrior there, $10 worth of materials. And then there’s The Next Big Thing in technology. Last week I heard from one of my younger technosavvy friends that email is now obsolete…just when I’ve mastered it. Today’s Next Big Things are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other quasi-cleverly-named applications. But the coming of the computer and Internet technology were not always seen as The Next Big Thing. In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” As recently as 1977, Ken Olson, the president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., prophesied, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Other technical inventions were greeted with no more respect. Broadcast pioneer David Sarnoff urged an investment in radio back in the 1920s. One of his associates responded with a memo: “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” Equally prescient (not) was the Western Union executive who authored this 1876 internal memo: “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” But The Next Big Thing isn’t only mechanical or technical; it can be people. Remember when, just a few years ago, The Next Big Thing in Los Angeles was (drum roll, please) Antonio Villaraigosa. Latino mayor of the second-biggest city in the nation. Cover boy on Time and Newsweek magazines. Shoo-in as Arnold’s replacement. No longer. Familiarity may not necessarily breed contempt, but it does breed familiarity. The Next Big Thing today in City Hall (actually, across the street in the new yet-to-be-named police headquarters) is our new Chief, Charlie Beck. In our nation’s business development, the first Next Big Thing was probably Henry Ford and the assembly line. Since then, creativity, technology, and capitalistic drive led to The American Corporation, a sometimes-dehumanizing but highly profitable and exceedingly efficient approach to manufacturing, distribution, and marketing. They made it and we came…and bought. In Our Valley, we’ve had some Next Big Things. Lockheed’s Skunk Works, now the site of Bob Hope Airport, produced some great Next Big Things in the history of aviation, particularly World War II aircraft. Some of the greatest advances in space travel engines came from Rocketdyne, just up the road a piece in Canoga Park. But the Biggest Big Thing to come out of the Valley was the motion picture industry, thanks to a German Jewish immigrant, Carl Laemmle, who took 230 acres and built the world’s largest film studio in 1915, where it still resides today, overlooking the Cahuenga Pass. So what’s The Next Big Thing in Our Valley’s business growth? It’s the same Big Thing we’ve been focusing on for decades: entrepreneurialism. As America looks with disgust at overblown corporate compensation packages, winces at Wall Street’s ability to generate millions through arcane financial instruments, and recoils from large industry groups gaming the system in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., the entrepreneur continues to do his (and her) thing. The Valley is awash with people opening restaurants, banks, and retail stores; making technological advances; devising medical equipment; starting firms focusing on all things “green.” Many of these will fall by the wayside, but many will survive and thrive. They will grow, provide jobs, support the community, and fuel our future growth. Our Valley has a major university and numerous colleges sending forth into the workplace minds that will innovate, create, and build. What’s The Next Big Thing? We are. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. Lord Kelvin President, Royal Society, 1895 Martin Cooper is President of Cooper Communications, Inc. He is President of the Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission, Founding President of The Executives, Vice Chairman of the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley, and a member of the Boards of the Valley Economic Alliance and the LAPD’s West Valley Jeopardy Program. He is a Past Chairman of VICA and currently Chairman of its Board of Governors. He can be reached at [email protected].
