These days, every company either is or must become a digital organization if it wants to survive and grow in the age of platforms and networks. Getting there, however, is no cakewalk. The journey requires leaving behind old mental models of industry and value.

A decade ago, the five most valuable companies on the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index were Exxon, GE, Microsoft, Gazprom, and Citigroup. Today, the ranking has radically changed. The top five most valuable companies on the index now are all in tech: Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook.

What is so amazing is not just the fact that these five companies have risen to such heights in market cap, but also the following:
1. They are all U.S. companies.
2. They rose relatively quickly to reach top market valuations.
3. They supplanted asset-based organizations, which experienced astonishing declines.

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