Power to the People: Revolutionizing Businesses with Transformative Ideas

Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien) that aired during Superbowl XIII, which introduced the Macintosh to the world. The ad shows a young woman, a “revolutionary,” breaking free of the homogeneous life that George Orwell portrayed in his novel 1984. She takes it upon herself to step outside the lines and to break through the boundaries of order by taking a mallet to a giant screen that is projecting Big Brother’s talking head as drooling drones are staring at him blankly and nodding. The commercial aired only once. The imagery and words clearly stated that Macintosh would show us “why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” With that one commercial, Steve Jobs told us Apple would not conform and was set on changing the world. Revolution. I was 16 at the time, and that TV spot moved me. As a young man growing up in a sleepy suburb of New York City, I was in search of my own revolution. I was struck by how powerful freedom—or a lack thereof—could be. Why? Because freedom is innate to our species. People don’t want to be drooling drones. We want to be free. This instinctive need for freedom has been a catalyst and an inspiration for revolutions around the world for centuries, and we’re seeing this play out in many economies today. At a more mundane level, revolutions are also taking place in industry after industry around the world: travel, financial services, employment, newspapers,