The average age of an S & P 500 CEO is 55. The average age of an “Internet” entrepreneur is mid-20s. They are in different worlds. The three most valuable brands (2015) are Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Add to this Amazon, EBay, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, AirBnB, Uber, PayPal, etc., and you begin to understand the Digital Siege hitting corporate America. Executives are struggling to respond with legacy mainframes, layers of management, and burdensome administration.

Companies that predate the computer (1960s) created layers of management to handle information and decisions. Companies created after the Internet (1990s) built their business models on information and communications available on the Internet.  While they compete for the same customers’ business, they are approaching it from two quite different perspectives.

Having lived in both worlds, as well as 7 countries, I am intrigued with what I see as the challenges being faced by large corporations to adapt to the new world brought on by the Internet and the millennials that have grown up with it.